patient care coordinator

audiologist

instrument technician

apprentice

telemarketer

HearingLife

Prospective employees beware. 

Sadly HearingLife has changed, and all for the worse. There has recently been a complete turnover of senior level management, which has led to an inexperienced and inept group of management now "leading" the company. The employee turnover rate has been phenomenal over the past year. There are many openings at many locations, yet the positions are staying vacant because the hearing aid industry is a small industry and the word is out and people with industry experience are staying away, resulting in inexperienced people filling their slots.

The current management team governs by threats and intimidation. The ones I dealt with are also vulgar, rude, overbearing and obnoxious. Very little effective communication occurs. Employees are constantly threatened with their jobs and many are scared to leave due to management forcing them to sign non-compete clauses and they have a history of many previous lawsuits against employees. The current management team was previously with AHAA and if you want to see what this management team did at AHAA you can easily research it.

While patient care has always been a priority for most professionals within the hearing aid industry this concept has been lost by HearingLife and current patients are not well taken care of as they once were and are constantly being prodded for leads and referrals. Patients are hounded every time they are contacted to provide more leads and many patients are no longer willing to come in for services and are taking their business elsewhere. 

The marketing has fallen off tremendously and what little marketing occurs is generally very ineffective. Along with all other duties the hearing professionals and front office staff are also now tasked with generating all the business. HearingLife is held by the Demant Group and is part of a very large hearing organization and as such should be very competitive in the market, yet HearingLife is not competitive at all. Pricing is generally much higher than the competition and the product lines and manufacturers used are generally inferior. The marketing team is now led by someone who has an accounting background, not marketing, and apparently they are looking to cut costs in marketing. HearingLife was once very active in advertising and marketing, but now is not even considered a player in most markets.

The front office staff are basically now telemarketers and sales people, yet all front office duties still have to be done as well, yet highest priority is on lead generation and all the training focuses on this. Compensation for front office staff is an average hourly salary with promised bonuses based on performance, but generally bonuses, if achieved, are small and insignificant. Count on the hourly salary only.

The hearing professionals compensation is generally a base salary plus commission, however the commission base is the lowest I have heard of in the industry and the hearing professionals commissions are always being deducted to cover credit card fees, “marketing” fees and so forth, so most hearing professionals are making basically a base salary, which put them at an average lower income than the industry standards.

The upside to HearingLife is that they generally offer a standard 9-5 work week, with little nights or weekends and a fairly decent benefits package, including decent PTO.

I have probably learned more about the hearing aid industry and have seen more change in the job requirements and expectations while working for Hearing Life than with any other employment experience in my forty year work history.

Initially, when I was hired, I was given minimal direction, limited support, and a significant amount of autonomy to make decisions regarding patient care, choice of product, and overall management of the office.  However, in the two years I worked with Hearing Life, the entire management structure changed.  Everyone was replaced with new people from the president on down through middle managers and eventually changes in all the dispensers in my central Florida division as well.  By the time I chose to leave this job, that change in management had effected a very significant change resulting in a very structured, tightly managed job culture.  While I enjoyed working with my immediate D.O. for the state of Florida as well as my Regional Vice President and felt that they were always open to listening to what I had to say, the change in management styles with numerous conference calls and increasing pressure changed the work environment.  I find it hard to relax and to do my personal best by having my focus stay on helping the patient when I am under that type management style, 

The hardest part of then job was having to compromise and edit my personal style particularly in taking as much time as I felt was needed to work with patients in order to meet the more unified, structured standards of the corporate expectations.

The most enjoyable part of the job, as always, was knowing that I had made a difference in someone's life and that difference was due to the relationship I established with them when they trusted me to help them with their Hearing and their Quality of Life.

This is a sales related job and if you’re not meeting budget goals it becomes stressful. The PCC often gets blamed for budget shortfalls. Each office is set up differently and each provider has different expectations of their PCC. Some providers are laid back and easy going, and will help do their part. Others want the PCC to do it all and then some. The PCC is actually the office manager and sometimes for more than one clinic. And without any extra compensation for that! The worst part is all the calling! You are basically a telemarketer. It is not medical field related at all like they claim. The training sucks because there is no formal training. You are corresponding through emails and zoom calls. The budgets are ridiculous and often out of reach and your salary depends on commission. The managers that are hired often come from outside the hearing industry. Just because you have manager experience doesn’t mean you are qualified to manage this type of business. Employees who are management material are overlooked and told they are not good enough. I witnessed that first hand with my provider. Promote from within, that’s true appreciation for hard work and dedication. The company isn’t big on giving raises and forget about a Christmas bonus or even a card from the company. They are constantly buying out other clinics but don’t have staff to operate these offices. The new hires get paid more and other staff members making less are often asked to train them! The upper management gets quarterly bonuses but the guys holding down the office never see a dime extra! You might get a free lunch or a gift card to show appreciation, but that is like a slap in the face. It was a rewarding experience for me in the beginning, but at the end I was exhausted and felt defeated. They could do so much better. 

The PCC is the most underpaid, overworked, under appreciated position you can have at HearingLife. The providers and the telemarketers get all the praise while the PCCs are tasked with more responsibilities. I worked there for 2.5 years; I was a resource for many of my peers including doctors who needed help. New hires got paid more than me and when I asked for a raise I was told by my people leader “my hands are tied”. How strange that they could not pay an existing employee the same as a new hire. They have telemarketers crowd your schedule with incomplete appointments and have you finish their job which is counter productive because they could have done it right the first time had they trained their telemarketers to do their job correct. HL is not open to feedback from the people who work in clinic. They treat you like trash and love to dangle incentives in your face instead of paying people fairly. Their corporate team will talk down on you as if you are stupid. I did not feel valued in my role at HearingLife nor did I feel like my opinion ever mattered. I really loved what I did but it’s sad I had to leave because I was not being paid fairly and I was one of the hardest workers. Now that I am no longer employed with HearingLife, I see that my previous role is now posted and the starting rate is far more than I made during my time there even after both my annual salary increases combined. 

Coming upon a year with the company. I'm with the Patient Support Center (PSC) telemarketing. And I must say, I enjoy my co-workers and management, and the entire leadership team. Most importantly, I enjoy speaking and working with the patients. The company leadership holds weekly and monthly meetings, keeping everyone in the loop. It's all about having a positive mindset and grinding, making the calls. The more calls you make, the more people you speak with, coupled with a positive attitude and genuine delivery, you will be successful. We help people, and everyday is rewarding and redeeming. It's a pretty well oiled machine with a few kinks in the engine from time to time (that's expected). Sometimes those kinks can directly affect your pay and are outside of your control (no shows, cancellations, clinic shenanigans) but there are mechanisms in place to address your grievances and even be compensated for any errors or mishaps. They're good at that. We are human, and of course when the human element is at play there will be mistakes and mishaps. Great company, great people, and great patients. Looking forward to another positive successful year with HearingLife!!

As a designer/coder for HearingLife, I find the work to be fast-paced and interesting. Sure, it's about hearing aids. They may not use all my puns – which is probably for the best – but my Team members hear me out and listen to my ideas. 

In the Marketing Dept., we work at the HQ. There is still a somewhat hybrid work situation. The office has just been beautifully redesigned and it is comfortable and conducive to being productive...without feeling like a sterile, cold place to spend a portion of your day at. 

Management is accessible and knowledgeable... Our Team dynamic is strong... even after numerous years as a designer/coder, I am learning new things every day in order to help the business. Speaking of learning, the company is very much into furthering your education and encourage us to keep learning and not become stagnant. 

Company-wide we are really into giving back with food drives, coat drives and even have programs to help people who are in need of hearing aids but have trouble affording them. 

Knowing that we are helping people with hearing loss make HearingLife a very rewarding company to work for. 

Personally, I am actually hearing-impaired and the benefits for employees with hearing loss are very, very good! 





What is the best part of working at the company?
The patients.  This company does not advertise so they expect you to go out into the community and promote the company to generate business.  This is not made exactly clear during the hiring process.  They grind you everyday to see if you have made any appointments when I was hired as an office manager.  Endless zoom meetings.  I would not recommend this company to anyone.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The endless pressure to schedule appointments for them.  Again, they do not advertise.  Makes no sense.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They do create a sense of community as we are on a chat line all day referring to each other to get guidance on procedures.  Endless procedures.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Boring.  I would arrive at 8:30 am and open up the store.  Turn on the computer and do my opening procedures.  Prepare files for the appointments for the day.  Almost immediately after 10 am I do my confirmation calls.  Lunch time which is 30 minutes.  Not long enough.  After lunch I proceed to make my 25 minimum sales calls to try to get some appointments.  Continue my confirmation calls for the next 3 days appointments.  Close out and go home.

HearingLife is a good company. The hearing aid/audiology industry in general, has a bad stigma of high pressured sales tactics at the expense of patients. Hearinglife (our manager directly) offered the ability for the providers to run the clinic as their own. This model in turn, I believe leads to more referrals/revenue/and just an overall good feeling about the position.  The work itself is extremely rewarding and being able to provide help to a struggling family was a great sense of self accomplishment.
The compensation package (salary) could be slightly better with the changes to insurance coverage being added on most plans, the commission aspect isn’t quite as good for the same amount of work, sometimes more. This could be true for any medical provider that is FFS based, the more insurance involved typically drives less reimbursement with more paperwork.
Lastly, the company did previously use to provide meetings that would get everyone together but after Covid that had diminished with no sign of a return. I would recommend bringing those back in addition to offering to cover conferences for providers wanting to attend. (This could have changed since I left) 

You could work there for a bunch of years and never see a pay raise. There are people there who have worked for 10 years and still are at $14 an hour. The job is very easy and the patients are what makes staying at the job easier but some of the coworkers are very petty and drama filled. As for managers they favor some providers and overlook their wrongdoings. Overall I’ve enjoyed working at this company but when it came my time to leave due to circumstances that were uncontrollable in my situation they were unwilling to help, they say that you are an asset to the company but in reality you’re not. You have to be A provider or audiologist in order for them to care about you staying .You will have to be a telemarketer and make a bunch of calls a day and it’s to the point where you bug the patient a lot especially with the call center doing the same thing. It was a great experience for me to be at this company but after I’ve learned that all the company cares about is money it’s upsetting that they don’t care more for their elderly patients. As for breaks it’s voluntary but with everything they have you doing you don’t get time to take one. 

This company lacks visible leadership, corporate responsibility, structure, span of control, unity of command, and genuine care for its employees. Employee feedback and annual reviews are nonexistent for most. A recently poorly-executed strategy/vision shifted the cultural environment 180 degrees. In its wake, executive leadership resigned. Upon the loss of executive leadership, there was absolutely no communication or guidance from existing leadership regarding job security or company solidarity. Many, if not most, employees have no idea who is running the company. Via private and personal conversation, many employees are especially concerned about the inept management displayed by the regional directors, their assistants, and directors of operations. To work for this company means to work your heart out with little return on investment. It's easy to look at this as the ramblings of an ex-employee, but I challenge you to find other past employees or courageous current employees who don't fear losing their jobs. You will find I speak the truth.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Patient care coordinator 351 salaries reported	$18.83 per hour
Audiologist 59 salaries reported	$77,102 per year
Instrument technician 2 salaries reported	$67,500 per year
Apprentice 10 salaries reported	$20.19 per hour
Telemarketer 7 salaries reported	$14.00 per hour

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