CPAPer Power

In another, thread, which was unmercifully hijacked from its original poster, I was commenting on the need for better software, and this became another discussion. It's here.

viewtopic/t37039/viewtopic.php?p=322413#p322413

Here is a summary:

jnk wrote:jskinner, now that you know what Kiralynx and I want, can you please call all the manufacturers and let them know to please get on it!
James wrote: I wish they would talk to end users... every attempt i have made they refuse to talk and say I must go to my DME...
jnk wrote: Or can you at least sneak us some kind of an underground program and interface system that will do all of that for us?
James wrote: Which I could. Problem is that the format of data on the smart card is not published.

This is something which I learned some years ago -- we, the users of a service, have more power than we think we do. In this case, we need Respironics (and Resmed) to release the proprietary format of their cards. Or at the very least, make the kind of software and storage media we want!

One of the things which we CPAPers possess is far more economic clout than we may realize.

About twenty years ago, a very dear friend of mine, Judy Voros of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I were discussing the fact that a another friend, Peter, was one of the most huggable people we knew. Peter played role-playing games; one of his characters was a pacifist werewolf.

Judy and I decided we wanted to give Peter a Dakin stuffed wolf. As I'm sure you know, Dakin plush toys are some of the cutest and most huggable, and I'm equally sure you can see the connection.

So we started... I was doing a good bit of traveling around the SouthEast US then, and any time I got to a toy store, I would ask about a Dakin wolf. They never had one, but always wrote down the suggestion. Judy also hit toy stores in Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, etc. etc. -- all over the US Midwest.

About a year later, Dakin announced, with great fanfare, that they were bringing out their "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing", a Dakin wolf with a faux sheep skin cloak. Well, that thing was so terminally CUTE that they literally could not keep it on the shelves for almost six months. (Judy and I *did* manage to get one and surprised the heck out of Peter for his birthday.)

Know what we were told?

Dakin designed and brought out the "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" because they were getting requests for a wolf from ALL OVER THE COUNTRY!

But it was only two determined women, wanting a fun gift for a friend.

If we two, operating solo, could do this, how much more impact can we CPAPers have on marketing decisions (like the storage of of personal medical data) as dedicated clients?

One recommendation is to get a physical address and WRITE the company. A physical letter has even more impact in these days of quick telephone calls and emails.

Moreover, according to a survey I saw back when the Coca-Cola Company was going through their furore over Old Coke / New Coke, a business counts each physical letter to represent approximately 300 customers who felt the same way, but 299 didn't care enough to write.

Keep letters simple, to the point, typed in a basic business format. (Perhaps someone who is skilled at writing short and to the point could post a form which people who tend to babble on (like me) could use as a template.) We are, after all, as much professionals as the people we are writing to: we are professional CPAPers, and who can possibly have more interest in our health than we do?

There are nearly 36,000 people on this list: that means that this group has the clout of something like 10,800,000 people. Yeah, REALLY! Ten Million, Eight Hundred Thousand people. Thassalottapeople!

Just imagine Respironics and Resmed getting hundreds or thousands of letters from their real (even if they won't admit it) customers. For that matter, we could also consider bombarding our DMEs with real, physical letters.

If we want businesses to acknowledge we exist, and do something for us, we need to write!

<grin> And may our situation turn out like a Dakin Wolf In Sheep's Clothing!

Just,...
The customers of DMEs are the doctors. If they write a prescription for, say, Respironics, the Respironics it is.
You pay, but you don't choose. The doctor, of course, can let you choose, but the doctor has the last word.

The power of suggestion / recommendation is very strong.

Several years ago I bought a copy of a newly released software called SimCity. You would set various rules and the simulator would build a city, and it would flourish or die as you managed it. I spent way too many hours on it fascinated how it related a few basic rules into projecting the future. I thought about how I wanted to teach my son life principles but he couldn't "project" the outcomes into his future.

Well I built an idea around that and wrote the company. I asked them to write a people simulator where you could teach the outcomes of life management. I wrote, show them the importance of education, money management, living up to responsibility, etc. They replied with a rather terse email that they had no intention of doing a "people based" simulation.

So that was that. Unfortunately I didn't save my emails and today we have the Sims empire. While it doesn't really accomplish the limited scope I envisioned, I like to think I had something to do with that. Well, that thought and about $3.00 will get me a cup of coffee. Sigh....