Rick's Business of Audiology Blog

Ethics: A Quick Test

I was asked this AM if it was ethical for an Audiologist to accept a trip from a vendor. In my opinion it is only ethical if you don't buy from that vendor. Take the trip, and then buy from someone else and I would think you are Ok.

I don't profess to be an Audiologist ethics expert, and below I have posted links to the ethics pages for AAA, ADA, and ASHA. In addition there is anti-kickback language in most third party reimbursement contracts including Medicare and Medicaid that if you participate in these programs impact you.

This isn't an ethics violation on the part of the supplier. They can attempt almost any legal sales technique they think might work.  Many things are legal, that are not ethical.  That is why professional groups have codes of ethics; to limit actions that are legal, but not consistent with the profession.   

It is the Audiologist that wants to tell people they uphold a higher standard, not the vendor. The vendors sell hearing aids to non-Audiologists this way and in other parts of the world this way. Non-Audiologists and people in other countries have different ethical situations.

One supplier told me (on a flight from a conference) that they don't think it is ethical for Audiologists, but it isn't their problem. She indicated in her opinion that the way to get an Audiologist's attention and influence them is to buy them a vacation. Cheap and effective marketing as she saw it.

Just because "everyone" does it doesn't make it right. Would you accept your child's explaining the speeding ticket, while legally drunk, driving your car, as OK because everyone who left the party was doing it?

And then there is the professional reality test:

If you would be comfortable sitting in front of a patient as you are explaining to them what it will cost to purchase their hearing aid and disclosing how you were influenced.

It might sound something like this:

" You might want to know that the supplier I use to acquire these hearing aids paid for a couple of vacations for me to Mexico (Hawaii, Vegas, Bermuda, anywhere that sounds like a vacation spot) and while I was their guest I decided they would be the company I would use. I also expect if I sell enough of their hearing aids I will again be rewarded with another all expense paid vacation. "

Now that test doesn't relate to the written third party contracts or the professional ethics standards, but it might be the most reflective.

Ethics Links:

ASHA http://www.asha.org/docs/html/ET2003-00166.html 

AAA: http://dev.aaa.susqtech.com/publications/documents/ethics/default.htm 

ADA: http://www.audiologist.org/resources/documents/professionals/Code_of_Ethics.pdf 

 

 

 

 

 

AT&T Customer Service Blunder

This is the actual text I received from AT&T earlier today. If this doesn't demonstrate why we often don' like our phone companies than I don't know what will. It actually fascinates me that a company that derives significant revenue from people using the phone appears not to want people to actually call them easily; orperhaps not to have them as customers at all. Following this response my next question will be how to close my account.

While I was logged into my account on their secure server I asked the question:

How do I direct my 866 # to another destination number?

Their response:

Good afternoon, Richard. We recommend you contact the Small Business Customer Care Center.  The Small Business Customer Care Center is available 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Mountain Standard time at 1-877-325-0445. To reach an agent: Select prompt 1 for business. If an "Automated Assistant" answers, ignore the request for the reason for the call (twice). The "Automated Assistant" will attempt to transfer you and request your 13 digit account #. Ignore this request twice. The "Automated Assistant" will "try something else" requesting a 10 digit telephone #. Ignore this request twice. You will be directed to a Center of Excellence. You will voice reply as appropriate to the offering of "Repair", Late Payment, Sales, or Customer Service. Sometimes this is offered as "New Options" where you will press 1 for Repair, 2 for Late Payments, 3 for Sales, or 4 for Customer Service.   The agents at that location will be able to walk you through the process you desire.

Thank you for using AT&T BusinessDirections

Office Visits

Planning some office visits this year. I have been looking forward to being able to do this for some time and am thrilled the time has come; although I am glad not to be traveling through Chicago today.  If you are interested you can find more information on my web site: 

http://www.thrivingaudiology.com/events.htm

Rick

Annual Time

As the year winds down, did you spend your time as you wanted? 

It seems some of you have, and some of you have not. The key to giving yourself the opportunity to be successful is to decide now what you want to do. Do you want to take some time off with your family? If so how many days and when? Do you need to attend a conference or convention? Do you need CEU's this year? How many and where to you think you can get them. There are great online choices for many of you which didn't used to be an option.

I have started on my annual calendar for 2011.

Audigy vs. Sonus

Audigy Group appeared to be founded in part to kill off Sonus's retail presence and out Sonus Sonus. It appeared they succeeded as Sonus appeared to give up and their key people now work for another buying group.

Now Sonus appears to be creating something to out Audigy Audigy Group. Sonus is adding Kathy Foltner, Au.D. to their team and is creating a franchise option for practices that are owned by, or employ Audiologists.

More later.

www.audigygroup.com

www.sonus.com

Rick Poage

 

Las Vegas: Workshop for Business Owners

It is again time for a Pre-Christmas visit to Vegas.

Time to think strategically and operationally about the past year, and the next.

Information can be found here:

http://www.thrivingaudiology.com/events.htm

This is for Independent Audiology Practice Owners.

If you wonder if this would be appropriate for you please give me a call 1-907-229-3480.

Rick

Bundling: Featured Topic

For the next three weeks the featured topic will be bundling.

Everyone bundles, and almost everything we buy is bundled in one manner or another. So when to bundle, what to bundle, and why to bundle, become very important topics.

So why bundle, and just as importantly why unbundle.

As a business people we know marketing is more than the next mailer. It answers the questions what will be sold to whom, when, where, and how. Bundling is at the core of the what, when, where, and how questions. Often the ones not given much thought by Audiologists. So, let us think.

Why would you unbundle? And if you unbundled perfectly, what would be different?

Why would you bundle additional items? What items? And if you bundled perfectly what would be different?

The airplane seat next to you may look about the same as yours, however the person sitting there, if there is one, certainly paid a different pric and received somewhat different service. That is part of bundling. 

If you don't understand your bundling strategy, and implement it, you will be giving away services needlessly, and loosing sales because of services you are providing.  A good bundling strategy gives you a significant competetive advantage.   Bundling often is the difference between profitability and the good life, and wondering why the other guy seems to be doing better than you.

So hopefully you will join us for the next couple of weeks as we wallow in bundling.

Rick

rick@thrivingaudiology.com

1-907-229-3480

Speaking Topics

Creating a Professional Environment for Success

We all talk about being professionally successful. But what does professional success really mean? Get a degree? Get a job? Get a different job? Rick will demonstrate how to aim high and define professional success in a way that makes it understandable and worth achieving. Rick will introduce attendees to the Success Pyramid to provide visual way of understanding the 8 levels of professional success. The Success Pyramid illustrates the reality that getting a job is other people's goal for you; and fulfilling professional success requires you to set higher goals for yourself.

Time permitting Rick will present the real relationship between dreams and wishes, intentions, and goals. With the focus on how to evolve your dreams and wishes into intentions which are the basis for useful goals. Then to make goals more useful to you Rick covers the three characteristics that make goals more useful, and three characteristics that make goals hard to achieve.

"I want attendees to leave with life changing knowledge they will apply, and a smile on their face".

Rick

The Four Phases to Thriving

We all know people who are successful wherever they go. They are Thrivers. We also all know people who are very talented, have great technical skills, and are honest and hard working; yet struggle. They are survivors, or worse.

What makes Thrivers different than survivors? If we are going to mentor the survivors, what would have them do differently? Rick has identified 16 things that Thrivers "get". Sixteen things that Thrivers seem to do, that survivors don't. He has grouped them into 4 Phases, The Four Phases to Thriving; Purpose, Communication, Finances, and Support Team.

Everyone is good at some of these things. What they miss is a constraint to their professional success. This presentation covers all 16 concepts so attendees can understand where they are already doing well, and what they will need to do better to remove their constraints.

"I want attendees to be smiling with realization and understanding."

Rick

Online Marketing: Know your intended audience.

Looking at many of the blogs, Facebook posts, and tweets from Audiologists I am left wondering: Do you know who your audience is?

Is your audience other Audiologists? Patients? Referral Sources? Friends? Family? I believe if you know your audience then you will know what to post.

Facebook, my personal page, is water cooler conversation. Perhaps more importantly it is time independent water cooler conversation. It is a way for people to get to know me and my family the way we would if we actually had time to sit down in the break room and connect. It is a way to reach out to friends, and those I would like to get to know better. My intended audience is people I would like to get to know better, who also are willing to take an interest in me. facebook.com/rick.poage

Facebook, Thriving Audiology Page, is a bulletin board for my business It is for the Business of Audiology, and not for audiology. Posts are business and personal development items that are worth a few minutes from the Private Practice Audiologists. It is intended for my clients and other private practice Audiologists, or those who want to own their practice in the future. To find it on Facebook search for Thriving Audiology and then click on like, or go to my blog www.audiologyblog.com and click on the link.

Web site: www.thrivingaudiology.com is an online brochure for potential clients, and an event posting location for current clients. My intended Audience is Private Practice Audiologists and those who will be someday.

Blog: www.audiologyblog.com is a place for me to share coaching thoughts. Most every post is the result of a client communication that I believe will be of general interest to Independent Private Practice Audiologists. My intended Audience is Private Practice Audiologists and those who will be someday.

None of my sites are designed for a lot of traffic. In fact excessive traffic only results in extra e-mails and phone calls. Therefore when I receive calls from marketing people offering to increase my traffic all they are telling me is they don't know much about marketing, me, or my business.

Rick

Facebook Professional Oops!

My last post was about every interaction being a test. It includes every interaction.

A client and I were just reviewing a Facebook page of a potential employee. It looks like the applicant can really party. It appears they have a lot of drunken friends. It appears they give little thought or open respect to their profession, or their professional appearance.

What I want my kids to get out of team sports.

I was fortunate enough to have some exceptional coaches when I was a kid. I never gave much thought to why they were good, they just were. Now as a parent I find myself wanting my children to participate in team sports and am enjoying them having a chance at a younger age than what was offered to me. However when our kids are on a team the scheduling of space, transportation, and time is a significant challenge for us. So why do it?

What I want my kids to get out of team sports:

1 - I want them to enjoy the experience so they will want to continue to participate in the future. I have seen far too many kids leaving sports because the coach and / or parents forget kids play long term when it is fun. Every time I have asked a sports drop out kid why they quit the answer always revolves around it not being fun. Winning is fun, but only when we have fun playing to win.

2 - I want them to develop significant long term friendships with players, coaches, and other parents. Playing with your friends is fun, making new friends with a long term shared positive experience is fun. A team sport provides long term shared experience to support long term friendships that individual sports cannot. I hope my kids are playing in high school with some of the same people they are playing with now.

3- I want them to enjoy being physically active and to develop their playing skills beyond what would happen without the team. This is the team work part of the game that they cannot get without a real team. Team time is so valuable, and so short, that during team practices I like to see team activities and activities that require the unique spaces of the field or court. Shots on goal, shots at a basket, serving over a net, are activities that require the team practice space. The more repetitions they get with the less standing in line ball chasing time the better. Passing, spacing, plays, talking to and encouraging each other are only possible in the team practice space. Conditioning, warming up, and individual player skills I feel often can be relegated to other non-team times.

4- I want them to learn about working together and performing in real time while others are watching. The reality is everyone doesn't do everything as well as everyone else. I want them to learn to appreciate other people's ability and how to merge it with their own to achieve more than would be achieved if everyone was the same. I want them to learn to be able to concentrate on command. Team sports require sideline time, and time when others have the ball. I want them to be able to mentally relax when appropriate and yet summon focus and concentration when they are "on stage". I want them to enjoy an audience and to know the audience wants to see the whole team do well.

5- I want them to learn everyone cannot win all the time and what they do between games has a great impact on who wins the games. So many kid activities are focused on "no one losing" that kids don't learn the joy of real accomplishment. The only way to really enjoy winning is to know that there is the real chance of not winning. Team sports provide my kids a chance to experience the real joy of winning which is so often missing in their school activities.

Rick

An Employee is a Business with Only One Customer: the Employer

I was just asked; "Isn't it risky to have my own business?"

That isn't the easy question people think. I think for anyone smart enough to get an Au.D. it is less risky to have your own business than to work for a non-audiologist.

Why?

If you have your own business you will have many customers, if you work for a non-audiologist in reality you have only one customer. An employee is really a business with one customer, the employer. That is right; you are first serving your employer, and then your patients. So your employer is your customer, your patients are the customers of your employer. Without question one customer businesses are always more risky. If you have many customers and one decides to change you are OK. It is a small hit. If you only have one customer and they decide to change you have a big problem. Many people today are finding themselves "out of work" because their one customer had a change of heart, or focus, or whatever. Business owners are still expanding their businesses.

If you have your own business you control the ethical decisions. If you work for a non-audiologist and therefore have only one customer the pressure to compromise on ethics is immense. Therefore the risk of ethical violations is much less with your own business.

If you have your own business you can create personal and family wealth and a passive income stream. If you work for a non-audiologist you are using your professional capability to create personal and family wealth for someone else. Either the non-audiologist business owner or some stockholder you may not even know. Employees rarely become wealthy. Do you know any?

If you have your own business you are a recognized professional in the community. You control your business and professional appearance and presentation. If you work for a non-audiologist they control your professional appearance and presentation.

Therefore owning your own business is:

Less risky financially in the short term because you have more than one customer.

Less risky ethically because no one else is encouraging ethical violations.

Less risky financially in the long term because you can create passive income and family wealth.

Less risky professionally as you control your appearance and presentation.

Search Engine Optimization: SEO

Web site hits or page views aren't important to you. I will say it again, web hits, or page views, aren't important to you.  

Unless your web site is designed to make money selling advertisements; some web sites, newspapers for instance, have a business model where they must attract page views to make any money. Every time someone views their page, for any reason, from any place, advertisements are displayed and the advertisers then pay up. Hits are their lifeblood.

Your business web site is different. The number of people who visit is not at all important. If you are selling hearing aids in Omaha someone viewing your web site in Oregon or Korea is not beneficial; even if Google, Yahoo, and Bing all send them to you. However if one person decides to do business with you today because of your web site then it was helpful.

I once was in Orlando and called an office based upon a search engine display and ended up talking to someone on Minnesota. They wasted their money and time getting me to call. And then wasted more time answering questions I asked even though there was absolutely no chance I would buy anything from them.

My web site regularly gets hits from people outside of my market area. It increases my numbers, but doesn't add any real value.

What is important to you is does your web site help you move your customers, patients, along in their customer journey positively. It it does that it is useful, if not it isn't.

I know this will help everyone of you who applies it.

Rick

Martin Luther King Jr.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King Jr.

I am told this quote is from him. I am not confident I can know what he was thinking when he said it. However I do know what I think when I hear it.

My days are bombarded with idle talk, and often so void of real thought exchange. People talk about the weather, sports scores, or even made up news like what some irrelevant TV person said about a topic they know nothing about, or even what they were wearing to an event. I watched a few minutes of CNN last night. Somebody died somewhere, someone is co-parenting, there are homeless people somewhere, our health might be threatened by using phones, there was an earthquake, one of the two teams playing basketball won, and our president is going to make someone pay in full for the oil leak. This was mixed in with a bunch of commercials for things no one ever will need.

All idle chatter. Most all of it could be moved ahead a week, or back a week, and it would make no difference.

It is like we are so afraid of our lives that we are attempting to live vicariously through the lives of others.

I started thinking about what really matters. 10 years from now the stuff talked about on the news will not matter. So I ask you to think.

Is your life beginning to end because you are vicariously living through the experiences of others?

Or are you making a difference on things that matter.

Audigy Group LLC Bankrupcy

No. I don't expect Audigy Group LLC to declare bankruptcy.

It seems every now and then there is the rumor flying around that Audigy Group is about to declare bankruptcy. I have been asked a couple of times about it this week. My thought is still no. I don't claim to have any recent insider or "special" information about Audigy Group (www.audigygroup.com) as they stopped talking to me several years ago. So my opinion may be completely out of touch with reality.

I have never been able to track the Audigy Group bankruptcy rumor to any credible source. The last time I called Audigy Group my call was not returned.

In the event Audigy Group finds itself short if cash I would expect it to behave as other similar groups do and to acquire a cash infusion from its owner members. Many very wealthy people have put their names and reputations on the line with Audigy Group and I don't think they will allow it to go under for a lack of cash.