Page 24 - HME Business, August/September 2019

“We firmly believe in making raving fans. So we have our customers loving our customer service, products, and how we take care of them.”
— Doug Mykol, New Tech Mobility
PRIORITIZE PRODUCT QUALITY
To begin with, a retail provider must offer prod- ucts that it knows its clients will value and use, according to Slavitt. You have to stock merchandize you can stand behind, because in HME product, service and sales jointly contribute to success.
“It’s very, very simple. The decision to put a product on our floor is, we ask a very simple question, ‘Would I want my mother to use that product?’” he says. “I speak to Sue Chan about this on a regular basis. Sue Chen is, as you know, is the CEO and owner of Nova Medical Products, and we sell a lot of Nova products. I have developed a wonderful relationship with Sue over the years. And Sue tells me that we are one of the very few retailers that over the years, have begged her to sell more expen- sive, more feature-rich products than she does. And she says she regularly gets the question from retailers, ‘Do you have a really cheap $89 rollator? That’s what we want to sell.’ But our belief is that, ‘I wouldn’t want my mom to use that rollator because it’s going to fall apart in a couple of months. Because it’s not going to be comfortable to use, because it might even be unsafe to use.’
“At the end of the day, we as caregivers, family caregivers, trying to take care of aging parents. We are very busy in our lives. So if you can come into Mobül and you can find a product that we’re going to stand behind quality-wise, that we know is going to last a long time, you now can check that item off your list and you now know you’ve taken care of mom or dad in a way that’s going to be best for them.”
BE INSPIRED
As a mobility device user, Mykol says he gravitated towards “cool” product. He started with an iBOT, but after five years or so, it started having some issues and support for the product had evaporated. So he eventually landed on the WHILL Model M power wheelchair.
I think I was one of the first retail buyers in the U.S, when they came out here in 2015 and I loved it. And since I was a user and saw the pluses and
minuses and the features that it had that very few others had, I decided to sell them.
So he co-founded New Tech Mobility in 2015 with his wife around the WHILL product line. That level of enthusiasm is infectious; Mykol’s excite- ment about WHILL’s products helps him evange- lize the chairs to his customers. He likes the chairs so much that his initial enthusiasm and attraction to and affinity for the chairs still feels fresh.
“The style is important to me, and then the features are next,” he says. “As far as the cool front wheels that float instead of turn, and the seat slide are important. The first time I got my will that evening I went out with some friends
for dinner, and we went to a restaurant but there were no tables available and I had to slide into
a booth, but then the WHILL was in the way. So
I use my remote control and sent it down to the end of the restaurant, parked it. So it was out of the way of everybody. We had this great dinner and I called it back to me at the end and slid out of the booth into the WHILL, and we left. I mean it was a perfect test track.”
That’s the kind of story and enthusiasm that will resonate deeply with any potential WHILL buyer.
OFFER GOOD, BETTER,
BEST SELECTION
Slavitt offers a lot of products at his business and one category is rollators. Included in that lineup? A $1,195 unit, the Motion2 from Dutch manufac- turer Rollz. Even the casual observer would prob- ably raise their eyebrows at the notion of a near- $1,200 rollator, but the sleek unit with impressive design, unique features and attractive paint job sells, he says.
“When the rep from Rollz came in, I had not heard of the product nor had Roy Hannah, my general manager, who’s been in the business for almost 40 years; hadn’t heard of it. So we were very interested. The product itself is just a beau- tiful product.
“So I said to the rep, ‘How much does this retail for?’” he recounts. “And he said, ‘$1,195.’ I said, ‘We have a similar product from Medline. ... It does the same things for $395. Who is going
to pay three times that amount?’ And he said to me, ‘Wayne, you know what? I’m willing to let you have the product here for a month or so to see kind of feedback you get from customers.’
“So we left it there, he went home,” Slavitt continues. “The very next day we sold one, and it blew me away. But it also made me realize that we have an opportunity to present wonderful selections. So we’re not just selling a $200 rollator, we’re selling a $1,200 rollator and every- thing in between.”
And those more expensive items help sell other items. They give customers a good, better, best range that lets them decide what is the right product for their needs, wants and budget.
“We really feel that when a customer comes in and says, ‘I’m feeling a little unstable walking,’ we always will suggest a walker, and we’ll talk to them about how often they’re using it, what their mobility is, and if a rollator is what they need, then we’re going to show them what we would call the very best solution,” Slavitt explains. “Well, the very best solution is going to be the Rollz, but quite frankly, not everyone can afford a $1,200 rollator/transport chair.
“Well, no problem, no judgment at all. We
will then show them a step-down product,”
he continues. “It might be the Drive Nitro that retails for $395. It might be the Triumph, the Escape rollator that sells for in between $295
and $495. It might be a three-wheel walker from either Nova or Carex, that sells for $147. Or it might be the traditional rollator that Nova sells
in four different sizes, and that’s going to sell for anywhere between $178, $192. But what we’re doing here, by having various choices at different price points, we’re able to find a solution that not only is going to be functionally sound, but also fits into someone’s budget.”
CREATE RAVING FANS
Mykol says New Tech has been driving the majority of its traffic through word of mouth and customer referrals. How? He says it comes down to service.
“You know, it’s cliché, but I’ve always been a fan of Kenneth Blanchard’s and Sheldon Bowles’s ‘Raving Fans’ book,” he says. “We firmly believe in making raving fans. So we have our customers loving our customer service, products, or how we take care of them. So we get a lot of referrals from them. And that’s been, that’s the ultimate success for us.”
And how can a provider create raving fans? Mykol says creating product familiarity goes a long way. A customer or family member will come into his store that is attracted to the WHILL’s eye-catching design and wanting to
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