Chris' Blog: Health and wellness

Stuff

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:02:03 GMT

Well its been a few days since my last note. Been really busy getting ready for the Missouri Assistive Technology Conference and fight relly high blood sugars. Also last Friday the 11th, I celebrated 11 years of marriage with the greatest women in the world and look forward to many many more.

Thinking about my high blood sugars, I started thinking about the number of customers I talk to that have high blood sugar. I have alot of customer who suffer with diabetes as I do. I think about what I go through everyday and what I have already been through with my feet. I have already had to have toe nails removed and my feet and legs hurt when I am up on them alot. I have had a great working relationship with several other companies who sell and fit diabetic shoes. I refer them customer and they refer me customer. Its a good working relationship and it helps the customer get the proper shoes to prevent other issues later on. I am fairly young at age 40 to have the medical issues I have and to add issues with my feet and legs, it sucks. But its the hand I've been dealt and I get up and keep on going.

Build relationships with other vendors that sell the products you don't. Find a dealer that will love your customers thet way you do. The other dealer may never refer you another customer but so what, your doing what is in the best interest of the customer.

I am working on a special project thet is near and dear to my heart. I need your help though, do you have a customer that needs a new chair and doesn't have insurance or doesn't have enough insurance? Tell me their story I may be able to help through my project. Send me all the info you would collect to provide a new chair, tell me why this customer is so special to you, tell me their story and tell me your story. This industry needs positive stories and I want to tell your stories. I want to tell stories about good dealers who love what they do, who value their relationships with their customers and tell stories about your customer and how they have impacted your life. So please, send me your stories. Get your customer permission and send them to me. Their are hundreds and hundreds of life changing stories out their that need to be told, someone needs to hear them and we are gonna tell them. You've all read my stories now lets hear yours. I would love for the manufactures to chime in. I know folks from Pride and Invacare read this, speak up. Tell me aboutthat awesome dealer who loves his customers. Dealers, tell me about that awesome ATS or CSR.

Well I'm gonna close and see if the stories start coming in.

Chris

Product Evaluation

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:51:46 GMT

The other day I evaluated Motion Concepts powered seating products. Today I will evaluate Pride Mobility's powered seating products. Pride has come a long way from it's beginnings as a lift chair company. They have evolved from a lift chair company to a scooter company to a industry leader in power wheelchairs. A few years ago Pride decided to take the next step from basic powered mobility to rehab specific power wheelchairs and started Quantum Rehab. At first we all thought they were doing nothing more than putting a different label on the Quantum chairs. Then they started to develop their own line of powered seat functions. The porblems with this was they were using electrical componets from other manufactures. While they were working to develop a reliable product and take their company to new heights, there was alot of problems to over come. About 4 years ago we had sold a number of Quantum chairs with Pride powered seat functions and had to recall every single chair we sold due to electrical failures. They were using a electronic control bax manufactured by Switch-It. Something in the wiring was causing a peak voltage that would short out a part of the box and cause the powered seat functions to fail.

Since the being Pride has come along way. They have developed a new version of the first powered seats and they are working to increase their product quality. The product they currently have allows you to be able to adjust the seat depth without any difficulty. The new verion of Pride electronics elimates the ALM's and makes the wiring of the powered seat function easier. The seat display on the new electronics is good because it is easier for the customer to see what seat function is engaged. If you want to tilt, the seat lights up a bright yellow and so on.

I am continuing to have on going trouble with the Pride product. I am not sure if it is the ombination of the new electronics and the powered seat fuctions or if it continues to be something in the powered seat only. The biggest problem I have with Pride is the on going issue of if you have a problem you are the only dealer having that problem. I was recently told that Motion was having issues with their product on the Pride bases. I called and talked to Motion and they are getting reports of dealers having problems with the Pride bases and not with the Motion products. As I have said in other blogs, manufactures would do better to just tell what problems they are having rather than try to cover it all up. Dealers will work with manufactures to resolve issue if the manufacture would just tell the truth. Tell us we are having an issue with this or with that. The dealers may be able to shed light on the problem. I also continue to have some on going issues with Pride customer service.

I give Pride/Quantum products a grade of C. They have a long way to go to earn my business and the business of alot of other dealers back.

For information on all Pride products go to www.pridemobility.com .

Chris

Equipment

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:47:44 GMT

We I guess it's time to raise some hate and discontent because the views are going down. No just kidding, but I am going to start talking about different products and rating each product. First I will talk about powered seat functions. The best powered seat functions in the industry are Motion Concepts. Motion Concepts understands our industry and understands alot more. Motion understands what customers need in powered seat functions. Customers and dealers want a quality product and a quality price. Motion tilt's have the best warranty in the industry. Motion's warranty is very simple, if its made of metal and they made it, its warrantied for life. In a day and age when funding continues to get cut, that important to me as a dealer and to the customer. Motions electronice are like nothing else in the industry. Motion designs all their own electronics and oversees the manufacturing of the electronics which ensure a quality product. Most manufactures buy their electronic componets from and outside manufacture so they have less controls over quality. Motion also has the capacity to manufacture custom posiioning componets that are copied by many other manufactures. I recently seen an ad in the HME News where Pride Mobility was introducing special back canes as if they were some big new invention. I had to laugh when I read the ad because Motion has had those very same back canes for more than 5 years if I'm not mistaken. Here is what impresses me the most about Motion, they understand what we need, what the customer needs and manufactures that product and doesn't try to venture into manufacturing other products. Their outlook is the same as mine, do what you do and do it the best. People often ask why we don't do oxygen and other DME products and my response is the same as Motion's, I do what I do and will leave the other stuff up to those that do that. Motion doesn't make power bases because that would take then away from what they do best, but I can beat you this, if they did manufacture a power base it would be the best.

Motion has a training department that is the bomd. They training that Brad Peterson does is top notch. I have listened to Brad do the same trainings many different times and am never board when he is training about Motion porducts. Brad is very passionate about what he does and ensures that each person in his trainings understands Motion products. Everyone at Motion has the same passion. If you have a problem with a Motion product which isn't very often you can call Ann Quigley and know that she will get the problem resolved. many other manufactures attack the Motion products and dream up all dorts of problems that Motion is having but when you talk to other dealers, no on knows anything about those problems. I want a manufacture that will tell me the truth when they are experiencing a particular problem with their product. I hate it when you call they manufacture about a problem and they say, " You are the only dealer in the country having that problem." I hate that more than anything. I will tell a dealer to come get their equipment out of my store when they tell me that kind of lie. I give the Motion Systems an A rating. They get an A for the following reasons: quality product, excellent customer service, exceptional training program, warranty and knowledge of what customers and dealers require.

Please send me your feed back and pass my blog along to others. Lets band together and have a voice.

The Fight Goes On

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:43:32 GMT

Over the last couple of days I have talked to sales reps from both Invacare and Pride Mobility and the fight between the 2 companies goes on. Pride says that Invacare has blown the whole issue out of whack and Invacare says Pride is lying to everyone. Pride says they sell consumer power wheelchairs to the Scooter Store and will only sell High End Rehab chairs to the Scooter Store if they employ RESNA certified ATS's. Pride also says while they sell chairs to the Scooter Store they do not support them trying to get a national contract and want to protect the local provider the same as Invacare does but aren't willing to not sell consumer power wheelchairs to the Scooter Store. I even had one person from a manufacture say he wished the Scooter Store would just go out of business. My response to him was if every manufacture would take the stance Invacare has taken, it would force them to go over seas to purchase the equipment and hurt them financial and cause them problems they don't want. Would it put them out of business most like not but would hurt them bad financially.

Here is where it all stands, The impact right now is nothing but the long term impact can hurt the local dealer, the customer and cost the tax payers millions. I don't care about the Invacare/Pride fight, I don't care to hear anymore about it from either side. I do respect Invacare for their stance and feel their reps are far more knowledgeable about their products and provide me with support that no other company provides me with. When they call me to schedule an appointment to come in to see me they don't call to reschedule all the time, they get me the products I need to allow my customer to make the choices they need to make when purchasing their mobility device. They have a manual wheelchair that provides pelvic stability and positioning that is second to none. I will let everyone make the own choices but as for me Pride has alot of work to do to continue recieving my business.

Chris

MyMobilityMatters

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:26:13 GMT

As you all know I am working on a website that will provide vital information to users of assistive technology ie: power and manual wheelchairs. I want to make the site a site that provides information that end user need to make an educated discision on what wheelchair to buy and what not to buy, provides information on life in a chair or with a particular disability and other points of interest. I also want to have a site the educates the ATS and RTS and therapist as to how to properly fit a person in a chair, provide information on new products and techniques and vital information to the seating professional. Please provide your feed back and invite others to join my space and view my blog. It is vital that I get input from both the customer and the professional to know what we need to do with the site. I have viewed alot of site and all of them fall really short in certain areas. I am going to have an "Ask the Expert" section where customers and professionals can send an email and get information on a topic or problem, a newsletter with health and wellness information for those in a chair and with disabilities, an online store where they can purchase different items. What else would you like to see? I am going to try and updaet my blog on a daily basis but that requires alot of time and not sure if I can do that and keep up with everything else but will try.

Chris

Fight to Protect

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:45:09 GMT

Recently Invacare released a statement that said they would not sell Invacare products to The Scooter Store. Invacare's intent is to protect the local dealer. I say it goes farther than that. They are not only protecting the local dealer they are also protecting the end user. The Scooter Store recently started a rehab division called Alliance Seating & Mobility. Last year the Scooter Store accounted for approximately 50 percent of the consumer or basic power wheelchair market. The are able to buy large quanities of chairs at a much larger discount than the local dealer and rely on television ads to generate their referrals. Local dealers mostly rely on referra;s from physicians, therapist, rehab hospitals and some television ads. The local dealers have local offices and provide local service for the products the sell. They provide a more personal approach to selling equipment and work extremely hard to stay in business. More and more local dealers are going out of business due to funding cuts and other restrictions put in place by Medicare and other funding sources. It has become harder and harder for the small local dealer to stay in business.

US Rehab and some other manufactures are backing Invacare while other manufactures are supporting Alliance Seating & Mobility and The Scooter Store. In talking to other local dealers they are not to worried about the Scooter Store at this point as the impact on the short term will not effect them to much. Long term it could have a dramatic impact on the local dealer and on the end user. The local provider tries to work with physician, therapist, home health agency and other local agencies that may have vital in-put to ensure you recieve the proper equipment. The Scooter Store sends a representative to the customers home, performs a home evaluation and then faxes paperwork to the physician for signature. I am a firm believer in the team approcah to providing assistive technology and believe in the local dealer. I believe the local dealer has a positive impact on the local community and provides a service to the local community that a out of town provider cannot provide. I believe that building a relationship with the local dealer is as important as the relationship you have with your physician. When your equipment breaks down at 9:00 at night and you need it fixed, you stand a better chance getting it fixed by a memeber of your community than you do from a company from out of town.

I support Invacare, US Rehab and the other manufacture who are trying to protect the local dealer and the end user. I would encourage every local dealer to rally behind Invacare and these other dealers and make a stand for your business.