Did you know at Complete Care Shop you can get free advice on products and product suitability from our team of Occupational Therapists and Occupational Therapy Assistants?
No catch, just the advice you need to help make sure if a product is right for your unique needs. We spoke to our Occupational Therapist, Sharon, who heads up the team to find out more about the work they do.
The team consists of Sharon, who’s been an Occupational Therapist for 17 years, and three Occupational Therapy Assistants, who answer customers questions via email, phone, and live chat.
“I think it’s a valuable resource that Complete Care Shop have,” says Sharon. “The primary aim of the Expert Advice Service is to give advice and guidance on product suitability depending on the needs of the person. We’re here to help a customer get the best possible product for their individual needs that we can possibly advise them to get. Whether that’s finding them the right product on Complete Care Shop or sending them somewhere else to get that product.”
“Everything and anything!” Sharon laughs. “It all depends on what that particular person needs help with in the moment. For some it might be advice on using a hoist with a hot tub, for others it could be checking a measurement on a commode. We answer questions to help people live more independently and continue doing what’s important to them.
“We also ask them questions in return, to help clinically reason what they’re struggling with, what they’re using now, what their environment’s like, and then we can look at how we can offer something else to help in that situation. It’s helpful if people can give us as much information as they can, so we can give them the right advice.”
“There are some things people will need to speak to Customer Service about,” says Sharon. “For example, we can’t help with order enquiries, refunds, returns, or replacements. We’re also not able to give medical advice. However, for everything else, we always like to answer every question we can, even if it’s not something we can directly help with. We’ll always try and signpost people to other areas of help and support. I don’t like to leave people without an answer!
“If I feel we can’t advise or that they definitely need an Occupational Therapist to visit, I will always suggest they go to their local authority and ask for an occupational therapy assessment. They can also look into a Home Living Consultation with us, if they don’t want to wait.”
“We try and respond within the same working day,” says Sharon. “They will get a response regardless of whether we have an answer for them or not as sometimes we’ll need to speak to the manufacturers of a product or another team in the business.
“The team works Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm. We do our level best to respond to all queries that come in each day, just to update people on what’s happening, but it may take a little longer to find out the answer for them if we have to communicate with a manufacturer.”
You can speak with our free Expert Advice Service in a few different ways:
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