Today’s hearing aids are designed to be easy to use, but new wearers still need to learn a lot of new information as they embark on their hearing journey. Clients are faced with an estimated 111 unique items1 to use, handle, manage, maintain and care for their hearing aids. That adds up to a lot of information that can be easy to forget.
Forgetting isn’t out of the ordinary: it’s human nature. As far back as 1885, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus performed experiments that clearly demonstrated how rapidly memory retention declines after learning something new. His work produced the forgetting curve, a mathematical formula that shows the most substantial memory loss occurs within the first few hours or days.
Ebbinghaus’s work highlights how quickly information can be lost from memory without reinforcement. A study of hearing instrument owners backs up this finding, revealing that 25-65%2 of information provided couldn’t be recalled after 4 weeks.
An effective way to flatten Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve is to repeat and review information at spaced intervals. Coach takes this learning reinforcement up a notch. It automatically delivers personalized tips, advice and reminders to a client’s smartphone when they are primed and ready to put the knowledge to use. It also gives them the power to refresh their memory any time by clicking on “Coach” on the Support tab in the Remote Plus app to access past relevant messages.
For example, imagine a client just brought their first pair of rechargeable hearing aids home. On the first evening, Coach will send a notification to their smartphone with a link to watch a video that reminds them how to charge their hearing aids. The video will further be customized to their specific hearing aids and charger.
In this way, Coach enhances the counseling you initially provided around recharging, with no additional effort required on your part.
There is a lot for a new wearer to learn as they embark on their hearing journey. We want to make it as easy as possible for them to have a seamless hearing experience no matter where the day takes them.
Coach is a tool that helps new wearers in their daily transition to hearing aids. It also gives you peace of mind that the instructions you conveyed in person will be reinforced through personalized, timely reminders after they walk out the door. The benefits are far-reaching:
- Reduce the need for answering repetitive questions and follow-up calls, freeing you to prioritize what matters most during appointments.
- Provide timely, at-home support to facilitate the transition to amplification.
- Give clients peace of mind and satisfaction knowing they have assistance in managing the day-to-day use and maintenance of their hearing aids.
You don’t need to do anything to help you or your clients realize the benefits of Coach. It automatically provides the encouragement clients often need in those first few weeks of integrating their hearing aids into their lives.
You can also access the Insights data when their hearing aids are connected to Unitron TrueFit™ fitting software, or even when they’re away from your clinic through Success Check.
All of this means you can focus your time, energy, and expertise on providing a more personalized, differentiated hearing care experience – right from the initial fitting and long after purchase. Coach is one more way we’re working to help clients love the experience of wearing Unitron hearing aids from day one.
Coach is one of the eight tools in our suite of Experience Tech Tools that come together to make working with Unitron easy for all. Explore how they can help you give your clients stand-out experiences.
1Bennett et al. Investigating the Knowledge, Skills, and Tasks Required for Hearing Aid Management: Perspectives of Clinicians and Hearing Aid Owners. American Journal of Audiology 27:67-84 (2018).
2 Bennett et al. How do Hearing Aid Owners Acquire Hearing Aid Management Skills? Journal of American Academy of Audiology 30:516-532 (2019)