Making the Patient’s Experience a Priority

“I always tell people that I have the best job,” said Arica Black, Au.D., CCC-A, FAAA, owner of The Hearing Doctor. “As an audiologist, we get to help our patients fix their hearing problem — usually that day. Afterward, we get to know that patient for years to come.”

As our Inner Circle Spotlight℠, Black shares her insights, business tips and experiences with the Phonak Partner Success℠ program.

Changing Perspectives

Black was inspired to become an audiologist as a child because of her sister who has special needs. “My family and I were in and out of every specialist’s office. And you can image that some of them were really good … and some were really bad,” she explained. “One of the terrible specialists was the audiologist.”

It was then Black knew she wanted to change people’s perspective on hearing care providers. As the owner of The Hearing Doctor, in Lubbock, Texas, she instills keeping the patient’s experience positive a priority with her entire team.

“I share with my team that it’s my goal to help patients hear better. It’s their goal to make them be heard,” she said. “When the patient walks in the door, we want them to have the best experience … even if they come back just to have coffee and cookies in the waiting room because they like it here.”

Partner With Your Patients

Black’s advice for other hearing care providers is to really get to know your patient beyond the intake form. Ask are they retired or working, who is their family and what matters to them?

“I truly enjoy patients. I really do,” she said. “There are other things going on in their lives, and I love to get to know them. Everybody needs somebody there to care for them. And I think a lot of people in this world today are just looking for somebody to care.”

The Hearing Doctor provides long-term care; hearing isn’t just a one-time thing — patients don’t walk in, hear better and that’s the end of the story. Black makes sure team members really partner with their patients for years to come because they see them so frequently.

Building Your Business With Phonak

Black enjoys being able to build her practice easily by taking advantage of the Practice Services available to Inner Circle members. “There are definitely parts of the business that are easier for me than others,” she said. “However, having a business like Phonak that is behind you and wants you to be successful is such a great thing.”

Two Practice Services she has utilized are the marketing services and Phonak Freedom. “Phonak Freedom helps my patients who are really wanting higher levels of technology but also need monthly payments to stay the same,” she said of the Practice Service. “There are a lot of options for different levels of technology in this program.”

Black encourages everyone to participate fully in the Phonak Partner Success program.

“It has so many different things that it can help you with. At any given moment in your practice, you might need help with marketing or office training. There’s always something different, and it always changes,” she added. “Phonak has done an excellent job of providing those tools and having them displayed on the Partner Success dashboard, so you can look at those, decide what things you might need help with and really help you grow your practice.”