29 July 2021
7am Most important start to the day… eat a healthy breakfast and drink an espresso while I check through any outstanding emails that need actioning and refresh myself with today’s appointments. After this I organise stock for appointments and make any tweaks on products ready for assessments and handovers.
9am Today's first appointment is an hour’s drive away - it's to handover a powered wheelchair.
9:55am Arrive at the customer's address. They seem to be very excited and are already waiting outside for me on their drive!
10am Have a quick catch up with the customer. At this point I usually check if there’s any change in their condition to ensure the handover goes smoothly and to make sure it’s set up correctly for them.
First thing I like to do is unveil the product and walk the customer through their lovely new purchase, going through all the chair’s different functions.
I now have the customer in the chair so I can make any tweaks to the seating or the positioning of the chair…and now the fun bit of getting the customer to test drive it and for me to have a walk along side while they enjoy the fact I can’t keep up with them! At this point I also point out the live maintenance portal we use for Permobil chairs that allows us to remotely diagnose chairs quickly and more efficiently.
After the customer is completely happy with all the functionality of the chair and they have had a good drive in all the different profiles, I then walk through the handover process which is an intricate checklist to ensure we cover all aspects including safety, charging and insurance to name a few.
11:45am Now that the customer is happy, I wrap up the appointment and get back into the van to get on route to the next one.
12:45pm Arrive at my next appointment, which is an assessment for a lightweight, active wheelchair. I am checking through the notes to make sure I have a good idea of what has been discussed over the phone before the appointment, grab a couple of demo chairs from the van and smile nicely into the ‘ring doorbell’. I carry out the assessment trying to find the most applicable product for the customer’s needs. This will include measuring the customer, discussing reasoning for the different products so they can compare what’s available. I’ll also check vehicle compatibility so they can get further afield, house compatibility so that they can use it around any tight bits of the house and then finally go through budgets and if any funding streams are available as there are so many wonderful charities nowadays that can help out when customers are in real need.
I now get to have another walk(!) as the customer wants the chair to have good outdoor capability. I use this time to run through complications they may have out and about including different cambers and safe kerb climbing if applicable.
This customer is using a wheelchair service voucher to part fund their chair, they have all the paperwork to hand, making it much easier for both parties.
Now the customer is happy and excited having ordered their new chair, we finish up with any burning questions the customer has about the next process.
3pm Quick pit stop for a sandwich and a drink, then onto the final assessment of the day which is for a more complex powerchair. After following pretty much the same process as the earlier manual chair assessment, I get to have yet another walk with the customer who spoils me by taking me through some well maintained country lanes and past some superb houses.
4:50pm This customer has a lovely big motorhome that needs to accommodate the new chair so extra measurements and discussion take place, making sure they are fully ready for any holidays or outings without worry. Now that I’m suitably jealous of his motorhome and he’s happy that everything works well, the customer is ready to order but needs to communicate with their family about what they want to do. Quotation left and then it's back on the road for me.
6:30pm Arrive home to my favourite welcoming committee, finalise all of today’s paperwork and work through any outstanding quotes and emails making sure I’m ready to go first thing the following morning.
7-8pm Enjoy a well-earned surf…
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