No Question to answer this time – I will get to them, but I want to make a point with a story of my own. I joined a health club, L. A. Fitness, to be exact. But I didn’t jump into it; I began doing the research over a year ago. Some will say that I was putting it off – which may have some validity, I’m not going to try to kid anyone, but the reality is, the world of fitness is EXTREMELY confusing. There SO MANY places you can go. If you are a woman, there are even more choices and all having something different to offer. And we all have different needs that need to be fulfilled from whatever product or service we are shopping for.
I had a certain set of criteria that I needed to have in order to join, but the reality is that I didn’t KNOW what those criteria were when I began looking. I started with a place called the Pavillion, which is about a 15 minute drive from my house. It’s huge and has more amenities than most of the gyms I looked at. They offered a family plan, but that had a catch to it – no one under 14 could use the facilities, except for the basketball court, but only under the supervision of an adult member. The price was then rendered as not worthwhile. While it gave a good discount for the whole family, it would only be my wife and I who would be allowed to use it, unless we went with the kids to supervise. My issue was that I wanted somewhere the kids could go with the nanny and have a little fun, or to go play while I worked out. The cost of an individual membership was significantly more, but I had to take into account the amenities they offered, which were many.
Then I went to somewhere called Extreme Fitness. The first thing they asked for, before answering any questions, was my credit card. Sorry? Why I haven’t agreed to anything yet, I just want to know. I had received a flyer in the mail; it said that they would only charge me $10 per month! Pretty good deal, even if their amenities were fewer than the Pavillion. Let me explain this a little more: When I was younger I loved playing squash and racquetball. My grandparents lived in a condo which had courts and my friends and I went all the time and played for hours. I continued at university, but afterward lost the ability – my grandparents sold their condo and moved to another, which didn’t have courts. Neither does Extreme Fitness. It’s not the deal breaker, but I would like it to have them. As it turned out, the $10 deal was for the first six months, and then the price went up to the “normal” price, $70 per month.
Good Life was another, they were reasonably priced, until you wanted to use more than one club, at which point you paid extra to have the use of multiple facilities. They did not offer a pool, courts or basketball, only weights and machines.
Then I went to Curves – they laughed at me. But I thought I would try! I saw an ad for a new gym they were offering monthly memberships for a very low price, less than $20 including HST. When I went it was a very small club, maybe 3500 square feet, no extras, only a very limited number of machines, and weights, and there were line ups behind almost every machine. There was no way you were going to be able to keep your heart rate elevated between machines, unless it was due to frustration.
Then I asked questions. Not of the clubs themselves, but of people that use them. I actually stood outside or in the waiting areas and stopped people, asked them if they felt the price was worth what they paid and would they continue to join. Most places, Good Life, Extreme, and PureFitness, people were roped in to a contract. So you went because if you didn’t you were just throwing money in the toilet. There was no “out clause” which allowed you to get out for any less than the remainder of the year’s fees. A very good friend is a member of GoodLife Fitness, and he has issues with their maintenance of the equipment and the cleanliness of the facilities. At first he was very pleased, but now that he’s in his third year, he is very unhappy with the time it takes to fix the equipment when it breaks, (an average of 10-15 weeks by his calculation), and the lack of maintenance of the men’s shower facilities.
LA Fitness, its monthly – there is an initiation fee, but it’s not a huge amount, ($150), but you can cancel the membership with a month’s notice, or simply suspend it. For me, the big feature was being able to use the membership anywhere in North America. My parents and in-laws have places in Florida, both are within a five minute drive from an LA location; I have family in Arizona and go there to visit quite frequently, there is an LA location ten minutes from their house. Las Vegas has several LA locations, and I go there when I can as well. There is one in Burlington, which I can use anytime, with all the same privileges, and there is the location I signed up at, in Richmond Hill. I can use it at any LA fitness location. It has the squash/racquetball courts, no extra charge, (The Pavillion charges an extra $10 per month for that privilege – whether you actually use them or not), and they maintain their equipment weekly. One machine was broken and fixed within a week. It’s still new so the jury is out on the upkeep of the change rooms and showers, but time will tell, and so far they are very clean. They were very up-front – they know they are not the cheapest place, and they know that had I come earlier, when they first opened, I would have had the same deal for $20 less, but that was my fault for not listening to them the first time. Now it’s too late and if anything, the rates will go up, if I wait any longer, (they did, another $20/month as of Dec. 1, 2012 – no exceptions), and I respect that they stand their ground. But overall, the value they provide for my needs is phenomenal.
So what does this have to do with hearing aids? Well, the truth is, as more and more little shops join the marketplace, you should ask yourself a few important questions. The first is: How important is experience when it comes to fitting and maintaining hearing aids? I have been doing it for 20 years, and owned Zabell for 18 of those. I made my mistakes early on, I was here for the big transition from analogue technology to digital, and have sat on several panels that helped form the way digital technology has gone. Francyne, who works at our Hamilton location has been in the business for even longer, over 40 years, and has seen changes I can’t even fathom. She began in Quebec, eventually worked as a sales rep for a manufacturer and then moved to Ontario, where she went back into the clinical side, first in Niagara on the Lake, then with Zabell in Hamilton. Her husband, Mitch, was a student of mine when I taught the HIS course at George Brown, as was Andrea Sloan. I was lucky enough to nab the two top graduates of the program. We know the answers to the problems because the problems aren’t new to us, we’ve been down those roads many times, and while every patient is unique, the issues with hearing are the same across the board. The solutions, however, are different for every patient.
This is why physicians tell their patients with hearing aid problems to see us. They know, from what other patients tell them, that we can fix almost any problem when it comes to hearing aids. We just know them better than anyone else. We know what they are capable of and what their limitations are. And we know how to ask the right questions to get the heart of the problem a person might be having. We make the time to do that properly, even if the hearing aid was bought elsewhere. We don’t solve problems by boring irreparable holes in hearing aids, or giving unrealistic expectations to people about the technology they are investing in. We also teach them how to learn to make the best use of the instruments. Are we at a 100% satisfaction rate? No, that would be impossible, but we’re close and any patient you ask would tell you that. And many people who were dissatisfied with the place they purchased their hearing aid will tell you the same thing. We take the time to listen to the problems people are having and apply our vast knowledge of the hearing aid to find a tangible solution. It’s our raison d’etre.