by C.A. Wolski
Time Well Spent: Customer service is key to a Delaware mobility company's growth.
 For any retail establishment, customer service is important. But Adam Samuel, president of Avenue Medical, Dover, Del, has made customer service the keystone of his family’s successful HME company.
Because about 60% to 70% of Avenue Medical’s business is in mobility and bracing products, skimping on customer service is not an option, Samuel says. “Mobility is not teaching somebody how to drive,” he says. “You are teaching somebody how to move.” Customer service also involves working with payors to make sure patients get the devices they need. “We listen to what our customer needs as opposed to dictating to them what they are going to get based on their insurance,” Samuel says. Going the extra mile to ensure a mobility client gets the opportunity to try new technology can often dramatically improve that client’s quality of life. But it can also be financially frustrating unless a mobility company works closely with payors. Even with negotiating directly with the funding source, it can take as long as 4 to 6 weeks for a patient to get a wheelchair, Samuel says. And, in rare cases, it has taken his company much longer, depending on the needs of the patient, the sophistication of the chair, and the resistance of the payor. Avenue Medical has contracts with Medicare, Delaware State Medicaid agencies, and one Maryland and two local health maintenance organizations (HMOs); contracts that have been beneficial to Samuel and his customers because Samuel takes the extra time to make his claims work both for him and for the payors. “We talk directly with the case managers and find out what they need out of the equation as well,” Samuel says. “If I think [the claim] is something [the payor will question], I will call them and they will call me back and then we will talk...like human beings, not robots.” Avenue Medical has a retail showroom where patients can be evaluated and fitted for a device, a process that includes, says Samuel, asking a lot of questions. It also evaluates and fits clients in health facilities, and in about 90% of cases, the company makes an additional evaluation at the patient’s home. The extra time spent with customers has paid off—literally. In the past 2 years, Samuel has doubled the company’s sales to $1.5 million and he is in the process of building a new 2,000-square-foot facility. He admits that, at first, devoting the extra time to evaluating and instructing customers came at a cost. “In the beginning you waste a lot of time because you are trying to figure things out,” he says. “It is an approach that is time-consuming, but is very lucrative once the time is spent and once everything is done to ensure that we are going to get paid for the equipment.” C.A. Wolski is associate editor of Dealer/Provider.
| Mobility News | Webb Medical Systems Names Director of Corporate Sales
Webb Medical Systems, Shillington, Pa, has promoted Robert S. Green, rehab sales specialist, to the newly created position of Director of Corporate Sales. Green will now supervise sales in the company’s Reading Medical West, Shillington, and Family Rehab and Medical Equipment, Lititz, Pa. Both locations specialize in retail, custom wheelchairs and positioning devices, power mobility, and patient transfer systems. Webb has also hired Mathew Barnett as sales and marketing specialist for Montgomery County and the Greater Lehigh Valley area, and David Savage will serve as rehab specialist for Greater Lehigh Valley.  $250,000 Invacare Donation Opens Scenic Railroad to Disabled
Patrons needing wheelchairs can now enjoy the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad (CVSR) thanks to a $250,000 upgrade to one of the railroad’s passenger coaches sponsored by Invacare, Elyria, Ohio. The coach contains a wheelchair lift and 36 seats that can be folded up to make room for wheelchairs. Formerly known as the Fort Mitchell, the car once served as a baggage and passenger car in the 1940s for the Central of Georgia Railroad. CVSR purchased the car in 1994, and it now runs through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in northeastern Ohio.
“We hope that people from all over the state and country will take advantage of this wonderful railroad car so they can see all the natural beauty that this park has to offer,” says Mal Mixon, Invacare’s chairman and CEO. |
Mobility Insider | Today, Invacare Corp, Elyria, Ohio, is a $1-billon-plus company that spends approximately $20 million of its revenue on research and development each year. As the company grows to $2 billion in revenue, it plans to move that 2% of revenue spent on R&D to 3%, says Louis F. J. Slangen, senior vice president of sales and marketing. That is about $60 million just for research. Dealer/Provider caught up with Slangen to get the latest on Invacare’s marketing plans and how the company is reacting to legislative threats. The Arnold Palmer “Yes You Can” advertising campaign is reaching its 1-year anniversary. What are your future plans for this campaign?
In all the requirements we set for ourselves with regard to a spokesperson, Arnold Palmer is exceeding our expectations. The No. 1 requirement was to increase the awareness level of our product with the general public, and he clearly does that. He puts a face on our industry. The No. 2 requirement was that he would move people from thinking, “I will get one of those scooters, I need it,” to thinking, “I want to go to the park, I want to go to family reunions, and I want to be up and about doing things, and what I need to be able to do that [is] a scooter.” He is clearly moving people from the need category into the want category. The last area where he is really delivering for us is establishing Invacare as the category brand in the home health care business. Our objective with Arnold Palmer has always been not to have him just as a spokesperson for mobility products, but to have him as a spokesperson for home health care. So we are going to expand Arnold Palmer outside of the mobility products into other home health care products, such as respiratory products. The other part of our future plan is that in 2003, the [amount of money we will spend on advertising with] Arnold Palmer will be in the range of $10 million. Along with that, Invacare is an associate sponsor at the Bay Hill golf tournament. Also, next year, for the first time ever as far as we know, a home health care manufacturer will be advertising on a national television network, NBC. During the Bay Hill tournament, we will run [commercials] on Saturday and Sunday. Why is being involved in politics important to Invacare?
Invacare started lobbying long before any other manufacturer saw what was required for our industry to have a voice at the reimbursement table. We intend to continue to be the leader in making the case that home care is a more cost-effective method to take care of people, and that patient outcomes are better in the home care environment. We welcome everybody’s support in the efforts to fight [against government cuts to benefits]. At the same time, we are not bashful about taking credit for the fact that we were [fighting for home care] long before it was popular, and our customers know that. They are rewarding us by placing their business with the company that is fighting for their livelihood and their survival. If Medicare competitive bidding is passed, will pressure increase to develop products to fit what payors will pay, rather than what consumers need, and, if so, how would Invacare respond?
To come up with products that meet a consumer need better, do more, and that we hope are more cost-effective is the lifeline of our industry. Competitive bidding obviously could hamper this and could get us to the point where this industry would be making wheelchairs that do not meet the consumer need optimally....This will do a disservice to the consumer. What we think will happen in the end is that competitive bidding will not make it because there will be a consumer uprising against it. There are examples of countries where the government has taken over and limited what it will cover....We are fighting hard to ensure that this is not going to happen here, and we are continuing to develop products that enhance people’s lifestyles. | |
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