I Want to Hear Better, But I'm Not Ready to Wear a Hearing Aid.

This is the first in a series of posts by Songbird's CEO, Chris DiCostanzo, providing commentary around some of the ways the hearing industry can address consumers' top concerns.

The first ad campaign I created at Songbird when I joined the company back in 2003 was based almost entirely on the consumer quote in the title of this post. Why? Because most of our customers have had this thought somewhere along the line. This was surprising to me when I first joined the company but I deeply understand it today. Nobody wants to have hearing loss, yet the average person who does will wait 7 to 10 years to do anything about it. It’s been the mission of the entire industry to shorten this window seemingly forever. I am proud to say that Songbird may be one of the only companies out there actually making a dent in this statistic.

The reason we can help people move past “not being ready to wear a hearing aid” is because we understand what many people really mean when they think this. A lot of people with hearing loss only feel the need for hearing help in certain situations. While those situations are sometimes really important to them, like worship services or family gatherings, they just can’t see themselves spending thousands of dollars on a “hearing aid” they don’t really feel like they need or are mentally ready for. Call it denial if you want to be cynical, but most people with mild to moderate hearing loss either aren’t looking for help at all or really only have a few situations in which they are keenly aware of a problem. Is it so hard for us in the industry to believe they might only want to take a small step to help get them through these key situations or even be content with not doing anything at all?

Our goal at Songbird is to make people realize that it can actually be easy and hassle free to address their hearing loss. It doesn’t have to be really expensive, confusing, time consuming, or require a major commitment to start hearing better. We try to prove this every day in our business practices as well as in our interactions with customers. I want everyone in the company to recognize that just calling us the first time can be a difficult decision.  Everything we do must be designed to make it easy for our customers to get started.

I believe that our pricing, our products, and our Money Back Guarantees make it easier for people to take that first step than with any other options available today.  As a company, we are committed to continuing to work with our customers to make sure we are meeting their needs as best as we can. In the long run we know that will turn “I want to hear better but I’m not ready to wear a hearing aid,” into “I want to hear better, I think I’ll try a Songbird”. 

About Chris DiCostanzo
Chris DiCostanzo is President and CEO of Songbird Hearing.  Chris joined Songbird in 2002 as the Vice President of Marketing, to help the company transition from a professional to a consumer hearing products company. Prior to joining Songbird, Chris led several consumer and professional businesses for Johnson & Johnson's Personal Products Company.  You can follow Chris on Twitter for more of his thoughts on the hearing industry.