Please do a little research before you choose a provider. This is crucial to your long term success with your new hearing aids, as the access to fine-tuning and new hearing tests in the future will justify the rather large fee that you pay in the first instance.
We, of course offer all new patients the opportunity to try new hearing aids first. This is now a prerequisite requirement to any hearing aid purchase. Individual opinion and experience is SO important in determining the outcome for the new wearer.
ONLINE REVIEWS are now the main way to check a company’s credibility, attitude, attentiveness to problems, etc. In google, just enter the company that you have enquired about plus the word ‘reviews’ or ‘complaints’. As we all do, read a few of the five stars, a few of the 1 stars and a couple of the 3 stars. Of course, some will be bogus or exaggerated, but in life, there is usually no smoke without fire.
ADWORDS is a way for a company to get to the top of the listings (you’ll see a little AD box next to the listing). Whilst this is not necessarily a bad thing for a local company to do, large multiples and chains will use this advertising method a lot. We advise that local independents tend to provide the best outcomes (as per the last 3 ‘Which?’ magazine surveys).
COMPANIES HOUSE (link) is a wonderful resource for consumers to check the legitimacy of a company. Try entering their name in the link provided – you’ll be surprised what comes up. Some simple things to check – lots of officers changing / resigning; associated officers belonging to other dissolved companies; lots of name changes etc.
‘ABOUT’ PAGE As stated before, the ‘about’ page should be fairly unequivocal about who it is you are dealing with. Any woolliness suggests you should avoid.
REAL BRANCHES As with all ‘personal’ businesses, you really want to establish the existence of a real branch, near you. Many companies avoid mentioning locations OR a common practice is to use ‘serviced offices’ as a ‘branch’.
Can you add to this advice? Please drop us a line: info@nottinghamhearing.co.uk
Robert