Bath safety products have perhaps not received as much attention as other DME, but that may change. Consumers, it seems, actually do care about aspects of their bathroom products beyond durability and safety features. For one thing, they do not want to be embarrassed to have these products in their house when guests come over. They also do not want to feel like they are in a hospital every time they take a shower.

Thankfully for dealers, equipment manufacturers are clued in to this shift toward improved aesthetics, and they also know that safety is the priority. Kevin Robison, a DME specialist with Knueppel Health Care Services in West Allis, Wis, has such a strong interest in this type of equipment that his coworkers have dubbed him “King Commode.” Even though (as with most dealers) bathroom products only make up about 10% of his company’s business, he has been carefully watching trends in bathroom-product purchases in recent months, and he knows as well as anyone what customers are looking for.

Hey, Good Looking
It has only been over the past year or so—and especially in the last 4 months—that Robison has noticed an increased awareness of aesthetics among bath product buyers. As he has watched this increase, he has had to “stand back” a little, because, he says, “We have basically dealt with the same-old, same-old for eons now.” Just a few months ago, he quietly added a new, more aesthetically pleasing product line that offers add-on components such as handles, shower holders, and small cups to hold sundries—and he has seen more interest in this line just in the last month. “So, yes, it is beginning to trickle down; we have seen an increase,” he says. “Whether it is going to blow the doors wide open, I couldn’t say. But there is definitely a market for it.”

He credits this interest with the increasing size of the market as Baby Boomers get older, but he also says people are really just tired of institutional designs. “The more we can do as an industry to take that cold, hard, institutional feel out of a product and make it a little bit more pleasing, a little bit more portable—the more acceptance it gains with the patient,” says Robison. “Face it, nobody wants his bathroom to look like a hospital.”

But will customers be willing to pay more for aesthetically pleasing products? Robison believes they will, but he also says he is finding that manufacturers have not been charging a great deal more for these products. “There is a certain clientele out there who will pay more, if they can pay more,” he says. “But right now the pricing is not a substantial increase over what I offer in other aspects. It’s not like I’m charging people $50 more for a bath chair. And sometimes, if it is a $15- or $25-dollar difference, a lot of people are willing to go that extra mile.”

Bathroom Innovation
Within this new, better-looking bath line he has been selling, Robison says he has “fallen in love with” one specific tub rail, but it is not the product’s appearance that has gotten his attention. “It is a completely tool-free installation,” he says. “It blew me away when I first saw it, because if you look at a lot of the tub bars out there, you need a wrench, you have to tighten the clamps, and it’s a production. And some people have trouble getting it right, especially the geriatric population, if they are the ones doing the installation. [This rail] is basically a ratcheting type of mechanism. You clamp it to the wall, there’s a lever, and you just pump the lever and it locks on.”

He says the rail also has a 350-pound weight capacity, while most others have a capacity of 250 pounds, “so I can accommodate a different segment of the population—not quite bariatric—but a little bit more, and it is priced competitively.”

Customers like it, he says, because people want to remove and reattach tub rails in their homes without a lot of effort. “Say you’ve got company coming over, and you don't want them to see you using [the rail]. You can just pop it off,” says Robison. “Not only that, but as opposed to most other bars you see out in the market where you have rough metal edges on the clamps, this is completely smooth; there is no rough part on it at all. If I have a patient who is on blood thinners, I certainly don’t want them at risk for cutting themselves on that rough metal part. It is very smooth, so it is user-friendly.”

Robison says that he has seen some manufacturers touting innovations in bath products, but that the equipment often looks just slightly different than everything else out there, and aesthetics can only go so far. Changes like new colors can turn some customers off, he says. “I was looking at some designer colored bath stools with a client one day, and they were just repulsed,” he adds.

What people in the DME business can do, he says, is personalize the products a bit more for the customer. He makes his best efforts to address both form and function with his clients, but “of course, you go with function first because you have to be concerned with weight capacities and transfer abilities, and things of that nature,” he says. “So a lot of times what someone may want is aesthetically pleasing, but you know what they are going to be doing with it and realize it might not fulfill the function they need in the first place.”

Because of this, like the old architecture saying goes, form must follow function. If you have both, “then you are hitting a home run,” Robison says.

Bath Product Know-how
One misconception about bath safety products Robison sees among DME providers is the idea that if customers can buy this equipment at any “big box” store, such as Home Depot, why is it worth selling? “I went to the big box stores because, of course, I wanted to see what my competitors had out there,” he says. “And it was very interesting to notice that in these huge, huge stores, they devote [to bath safety products] an area sandwiched between some plumbing supplies, sinks, and ornamental towel holders, with maybe a few grab bars,” laments Robison. “Everything is in a five-foot section, and it is all in boxes.”

The bottom line, he says, is that though these stores do sell these products, people do not want to buy a piece of equipment like this in a box. “You want to see it, you want to touch it,” he says. “The key to having any kind of bath safety business that is profitable and keeps people coming back is to have an interactive display. You must have that.”

This means more than throwing “a few shower chairs on your showroom floor and saying, ‘This is what we’ve got.’” Instead, he says, people want to know how the products work and what they do. “I am constantly climbing in and out of my shower, showing people transfers, showing people why they want to install their grab bars here or there,” he says. “What gets people to buy the product is that interactive ability to see things and work with them.”

Even if these products make up a small portion of your inventory, they can be featured prominently. “I can’t tell you how many times people walk in here and they make a beeline for that area,” he says, explaining that many customers do not want to talk about it at first, so it should be very accessible. And though price points are always a factor in selling new products, Robison says the key aspect providers should look for in a bath safety line is its durability, “because so much can happen in a bathroom.”

Aesthetics do play a role, he says, “but sometimes you can’t sacrifice certain things” for looks. For example, “there’s no such thing as a pretty piece of bariatric bath safety equipment, though some companies have done a lot of things recently to really soften up the product,” he says, so durability has to remain the first focus.

Providers should also have a range of products to work with for different customers. For example, the region Robison works in has many older houses with claw-foot bathtubs, so he needs to make sure he is “stocking products with a wide range of adaptability to fit in a lot of these homes,” he says. “You want to know your market.”

A business should also keep a lot of equipment on hand because you never know when several patients from a local hospital will be discharged, causing a run on bath safety products. This can be tricky, but providers can ultimately get a feel for the market and determine which products to carry.

Bathroom Business
Robison says that he generates referrals for the most part by word of mouth from customers, but that he also visits physical and occupational therapists, as well as case management units, to show them the equipment. “You would be amazed at how many case managers—people making decisions over patient medical equipment—have no idea what a transfer bench is, how it works, what it can do, or its client safety,” he says. And though this is surprising, it can be helpful to show them how these products work. “I can’t say enough about going out and doing those in-services, especially if you have something new and innovative.”

He adds that since the saying is often true that “Medicare stops at the bathroom door,” and much of this equipment is not covered, it is helpful to show the products to PTs who may be able to help clients receive the products. He adds that on average about 50% of his customers pay cash for bath safety equipment. And though there are some related bath products such as bath brushes that can be seen as “add-ons,” most bath equipment is not purchased on impulse.

Sarah Schmelling is a contributing writer for Dealer/Provider.