AccuQuest Hearing Centers This company forced me to lie to the elderly population in order to make sales. Hoffman Estates Illinois

I worked for this company as a Patient Care Coordinator and in order to keep my job I had to take part in scamming the elderly population.  I did this out of necessity in a tough job market.  Now that I have moved on I feel that the public has a right to know what AccuQuest is all about.

The scam works like this:

AccuQuest runs attractive full page ads in major newspapers as well as sends out direct mailings and now TV ads.  The direct mailings pull from a list that AccuQuest will not disclose.  These ads/letters are a textbook bait and switch.  There are only 2 carefully designed marketing tactics that the company uses and the marketing never changes because it works and people fall for it.  

Tactic #1:  Work Shop direct mailings that pull from the undisclosed list.  "Come in and meet locally renowned hearing aid expert _____________.  Take part in our FREE workshop!"  Gullible letter recipients see 'Expert' and believe it.  The AccuQuest angle is...put another warm body in the office and have 2 guys work together that day...sell more hearing aids.  From a PCC standpoint, we know that the locally renowned hearing aid expert is a trainee that is awaiting licensure and cannot yet practice.  But the general public could never know this and they fall for it every time.  They believe this person to be an expert and they open up their wallet to purchase.

Tactic #2:  "Try our NEW invisible hearing aids for $750!"  What they don't tell you is we know that the advertised hearing aids are not really hearing aids nor do they work for patients with anything but mild hearing loss.  So they use the $750 to lure the consumer in, test their hearing, find it to be markably worse than the patient expected and then drop the boom.  "Yeah, we know that you WANTED to pay $750 but for someone with your type of hearing loss, you need these $8000 hearing aids or you will almost surely will end up with dementia"  Next thing you know, they are opening their wallet to purchase.

Now let's talk cameras.  AccuQuest has 2 cameras set up in every office.  One at the front desk and one in the "practitioner" office.  They use these cameras to monitor and record the patient and family without them knowing.  Why do this?  Well, it drives the sales pitch.  Someone else is watching the appointment from beginning to end and then helping the inexperienced practitioner close the sale.  You'll notice during your appointment that the practitioner will get up and leave every so often...they are leaving so you will talk with your spouse/family in his absence.  The video is being monitored and helps drive the sale.  Is it price, well then we will come down on the price.  See how that works?  

By the way, those ads that I mentioned before?  They go to a marketing and sales tracking site called Call Source http://www.callsource.com.  AccuQuest uses different phone numbers on each mailing and ad to determine which ads are working and which arent.  Call Source also keeps track of addresses, phone numbers of callers as well as demographic information such as what type of neighborhood they live in and how much money they make.  AccuQuest trains PCC's to triage importance of appointments based on the likelihood of making sales based on the patient's income.  

Now let's talk 3rd Party or Familiar Voice Test as AccuQuest likes to call it.  When PCC's follow up on sales leads we are trained to convince the patient that we need their spouse to come to the appointment to say a series of words to them.  It is explained that it is important to measure their abiity to hear the tones and pitches of the voice of their loved one.  This sounds logical to most.  But we know that this is one of the most important factors in closing the door to the sale.  We need to make sure the decision maker, bread winner, the person controlling the finances, or the person who has the ability to convince their loved one to seek help will be the factor tipping the scale in the sales process.  Therefore, you MUST have your spouse present or the testing won't be as accurate.  

Now let's talk price.  So AccuQuest has a lot of cushion around the cost of their hearing aids, all income based.  In other words, if an attorney comes in to buy hearing aids, the price will be $8000.  If an elderly person living on pension and fixed income comes in to buy hearing aids, the price can be as low as $2500 for the same set of hearing aids.  We find out how much you make because you tell us!

You called in to Call Source off of our pretty ad, so you told us where you live, what type of area you live in, we looked up your home on Google Maps to see how nice it is, and we now know the general mean of income for the area in which you live.  You told us more when you came in to your appointment and filled out the intake form.  You told us what your profession is.  You wrote attorney in the blank. Guess what, you're paying $8000 for your hearing aids. See how that works?

Be mindful of replying to marketing ads.  This is how AccuQuest was able to make $$ in their short career as a business.