Kelly Rudolph wrote:
I also want to ask you (and others who will give us feedback) the following questions:
would you or could you pay extra for a Custom Fitting Nasal CPAP Mask?
I would definitely pay "extra" for a custom fitting mask if the company stands behind it with a full money back guarantee should the mask not provide a comfortable and leakproof fit. That would be a miracle mask, indeed.
Kelly Rudolph wrote:
how much would you pay if you had a mask that was comfortable and guaranteed to fit leak free?
Since I buy all my own masks out of pocket, the amount I, personally, would be willing to pay would depend entirely on the terms of the guarantee. i would most
definitely be willing to pay
quite a bit more than the usual price for premium masks -- for a mask that was
guaranteed to be both comfortable and leak free. A company willing to stand behind a mask with a full money back guarantee would impress me enough that I'd spend a lot of extra dollars to try it.
If it really, truly works for most people...really has a
guarantee that it will provide a comfortable, leak free fit... then Kelly, I think you would find word-of-mouth advertising spreading through message boards, A.W.A.K.E. support groups, patient advocate groups, etc., to the point that DME's would take notice.
It wouldn't take many DME's using it for the word to spread more and more until your digital face-mapping cameras would start showing up all over the country.
"My DME had a camera that that took a picture of my face and the mask was custom made to fit me perfectly. Didn't your DME do that?!!"
$450 for the camera would be a drop in the bucket to the DME, if grass roots demand for that mask built up the way it could through internet message board and local support groups' word-of-mouth praise.
Over the next twenty years more and more baby boomers will be diagnosed with OSA, will be getting cpap machines...and... masks. A comfortable, leak free mask is the absolute #1 key to compliance with cpap treatment, imho. Baby boomers are also comfortable with computers. They turn to the internet for information. That includes information about methods and equipment to treat their disorders as they age!
If your custom mask
truly can do what you say it will, I think there'll be more than enough baby boomers with the means to pay out of pocket, and (more importantly) the
willingness to pay a premium price out of pocket for a mask
guaranteed to have a comfortable, leak free fit.
As a practical way to get the ball rolling, have you thought about offering to loan the camera (with a $450 deposit) to people who are interested in seeing if a mask mapped that way and then purchased under your guarantee can live up to real sleeping conditions? Real cpap users who are savvy about what it takes for a mask to work properly.
I must admit, I have the exact same misgivings as Never Sleeps about how it would maintain its "custom fitted" seal as a person turned, moved their head, etc...all the changing positions that make gravity pull the cheeks one way and another. If you all have a cushion that can cope with the dynamics of REAL sleeping conditions successfully and comfortably, then you do have a mask worth sticking a money-back guarantee on. People wouldn't be returning a mask that really IS "comfortable" and really IS "leak free."
Kelly, given the concerns raised by DME's your company has contacted, I think you're doing exactly what it will take to make your company's custom fitted mask idea eventually reach the really big market -- the DME's. It will have to be a grass roots effort if it takes off at all. Not many mask manufacturers have the nerve to come onto a message board and speak of their mask being
guaranteed to provide "comfort" and "leak free fit".
If it can live up to that, and
if the custom fitting mask carries a money back guarantee, you've got a real winner and the word
will spread.
