I awakened this morning to a dead hearing aid charger. This dedicated travel charger has charged my hearing aids without fail every night that we are in Vanda, as well as the occasional night as a guest at a family member’s or friend’s home, or at a hotel. It is a tough little charging device and, while I may have been subconsciously appreciative of it all this time, I don’t think I ever gave it much intentional thought. Until it died, that is.
As a birder, being able to hear the subtleties of various bird song is important to me, as well as the ability to engage in routine conversation with humans. We saw via the GPS that we would be driving through both Madison and La Crosse, two relatively large cities in which I thought I would surely find an audiology service office that carried my brand of hearing aid and supplies…As it turns out, there were NONE in Madison that had the charger in stock. I googled hearing aid providers/service offices in La Crosse, when I was blessed to have my call answered by a conscientious staff member at Mayo Clinic Audiology. After explaining my situation to her, I left my name and phone number in the hopes that she could track a charger down. I even told her that I could pay for overnight shipping to the clinic and delay our departure from Whitewater State Park, where we will be camping this evening, to get back to La Crosse to pick up a shipped charger tomorrow.
The other option was to buy one from Amazon then attempt to coordinate delivery and pick up at an Amazon station—a daunting challenge.
Within a couple of hours, the staff member called me back! She had located a charger just like the one I’ve been using for the past three years, in their satellite office outside of La Crosse. Within 10 minutes there we were, at the clinic, a new charger in hand! What fabulous customer service! It would have been easy for that staff person to simply tell me there were none in stock at her office, and wish me luck, but she went above and beyond to meet my needs. Magic! Sunshine! Rainbows!
I called this staff person back to let her know of my gratitude. She (reluctantly) gave me her supervisor’s email address so I could send a letter of accommodation, acknowledging her stellar customer service. As a retired health care provider, I know the value of positive feedback in a medical care environment being offered to a supervisor, acknowledging excellence in customer service.
My hearing aids just finished charging! Hear, Hear!
