Nuheara unleashes series of IQconnect service initiatives to improve hearing health
Nuheara’s IQstore features Soundscape for sleep support and tinnitus as well as AUTOCROS for unilateral hearing challenges.
Audio wearables company Nuheara (ASX: NUH) has launched a point of sale “hearing screening kiosk” called IQconnect in tandem with a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) platform.
The dual-launch is designed to serve as an enhanced consultative sales process that helps to ensure Nuheara’s IQbuds product family is fit for purpose for any potential customer.
IQconnect is currently being trialled in several retailers that will ultimately stock Nuheara’s products including Specsavers in the UK, Hidden Hearing in Ireland and Vision Group in Italy.
It is planned for the kiosks to be incrementally deployed by retailers globally during the first quarter of 2019.
The announcement follows on from yesterday’s news that Nuheara launched the world’s first subscription-based hearing services app, IQstore at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The show also saw the company unveil its most potent product to date – the IQbuds Max device, that is reported to deliver triple the hearing and five times the processing power of Nuheara’s existing IQbuds Boost hearing devices.
The series of product launches intends to create an ecosystem of hardware and software products that improve the ability with which customers address their varying hearing needs.
“We believe in giving the consumer the power to tailor their hearing solutions and allow them to have direct access to their chosen level of service and cost on a subscription basis,” said Justin Miller, chief executive officer of Nuheara.
Social and interactive care
The smart hearing manufacturer has said that screening kiosk offers a two-minute in-store screening hearing test with different frequencies to test the level of a customer’s hearing loss.
The test will determine the extent of customers’ hearing loss and will ensure any potential solutions will be viable via the IQbuds range.
Furthermore, Nuheara has said that for customers with more profound hearing loss, the company will refer them to another hearing solution that fits their specific requirements.
One of the key issues screening kiosks seek to address is the pressing need for customer contact and interactive service.
Retailers are focusing on creating enhanced service and touch-point opportunities with their customers and Nuheara wants to provide that demand by providing a screening hearing test allowing interaction and engagement with potential customers.
Most importantly, the screening test breaks down traditional barriers to hearing health and unlocks affordability and accessibility.
Nuheara has vowed that customers will not need to visit an audiologist to have a data-based understanding of their hearing health – a feature that has proved to be exceptionally popular with customers that prefer to avoid the stigma of visiting a doctor and potentially waiting in queues.
“By having screening hearing tests readily available in retail stores, they will become a part of a simple shopping mall visit, normalising a focus on hearing health,” the company said.
In a further boost for customers and to substantiate its service orientated business model, Nuheara also plans to introduce extensive after-market care that utilises its recently launched IQstore app.
If a customer decides to purchase a product from the IQbuds range, they will automatically be enrolled into a comprehensive CRM platform, ensuring their hearing health is monitored “through the lifetime of their hearing journey” with Nuheara.
The newly-launched IQconnect product will integrate customers’ products with their ongoing healthcare goals with an equal focus on both pre-sale and post-sale, ensuring that customers will receive push notifications every six months to support users and to ensure their hearing is regularly monitored.
“From the moment they decide to screen their hearing, to the moment they purchase and are using their IQbuds, Nuheara will be on the same path with its customers, offering guidance, support and hearing health monitoring,” said Philip Newton, chief sales officer of Nuheara.
“We have created IQconnect for a simple reason: to have a stronger relationship with our customer and retailers and ensure we can provide the wrap around support for the hearing health journey of our customer,” he said.
Today’s news helped Nuheara shares to tick up almost 4% to $0.079 in morning trade.