COVID-19 Service & Operational Updates

We understand the concern that this new scenario is bringing. As our business partners, valuable customers and long-standing friends, we want to do all we can to support you during this time. We are very aware of how the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the UK is already impacting you, including decline in patient visits, potential restriction in clinic openings plus the unpredictable impact of absenteeism as people stay at home to remain healthy, and protect others.

At Sonova we are following the government guidelines closely and currently we can confirm remain fully functional for both Phonak and Unitron brands to ensure we support both our customers and end-users to the best of our ability. We will provide regular updates should the situation change and ensure that both customers and staff are at the forefront on any decisions we make. Over the upcoming weeks, we will be updating this page with weekly updates surround the Sonova Business and providing you with the latest operational updates.

Our phone lines will be closed on the following Easter Bank Holidays:

•Friday 10th April

•Monday 13th April

At all other times during this period of government lockdown, our Customer Services & Technical Support Teams continue to operate from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

We understand that customers may still have problems during these challenging times, and our repair services remain available so we can continue to partner with you to ensure that all necessary repairs are managed.

• We are shipping consumable and maintenance supplies to you as normal, enabling you to arrange for receivers, domes, and filter changes to be completed avoiding hearing aids needing to be sent away unnecessarily.
• If devices do need to be sent in for repairs after your maintenance checks and support, please arrange the best and safest way to achieve this with your customer as always, as we remain unable to accept liability for items lost or delayed in the mail to us.
• Repairs may take up to 7 days to process over the coming weeks, please be assured that all orders will ship at the soonest opportunity and we will keep you informed regarding individual orders as much as possible.
• Let us know by emailing info@phonak.co.uk if you need a small supply of repair boxes or address labels to send to your customer with the repair form so they can pop their device straight in the post box to us. Please remember that our labels do not provide recorded/tracked mail.
• We are happy to ship repairs back to customers during April and May if this helps, simply indicate on the repair form where you would like the repair to be shipped, and remember to let us know where it should be sent if the settings are lost – this is important to prevent anything being shipped to your office if it’s closed.
• As usual, where customers contact us directly we will inform them to seek advice from you by phone or email.

As we monitor the progress of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), we continue to implement all the necessary measures to protect the health of our employees and our partners, whilst ensuring the continuation of our services.

At this challenging time, we want to assure you that our service remains open and it is our priority to maintain the highest levels of customer service. As with many businesses across the country, we will be operating with reduced staffing levels as we continue to ask our employees to stay home and stay safe. However, please be assured you can continue to contact us as normal and a member of our team will be on hand to help.

Please find a summary of key contacts that we hope will be useful;
 

• The main switchboard will remain open from 9am to 5pm and can be contacted: (0044) 1925 623 600

• Our Customer Services and Technical Support team are available and will continue to respond to any enquiry as quickly as possible, for any queries please contact us via:
  • Email: info@phonak.co.uk
  • Phone: (0044) 1925 623600 (press option 1 for Customer Services and 3 for Tech Support)

• We also continue to invite you to place orders via our eStore platform or by email to the following address:
  •  info@phonak.co.uk.

• Our Accounts Departments can be contacted for accounts receivable / credit control queries -
  • uk.creditcontrol@phonak.com

• Our Marketing and Professional Services Departments will be working on a smaller team, but please email any queries to the following email addresses and we will action or respond to any requests as soon as possible:
  • Marketing - marketinguk@phonak.com
  • Professional Services – graham.hilton@phonak.com

• If you are unable to contact your Regional Sales Manager directly, please feel free to contact any of our sales managers below who are available and ready to help:
  • Huw Evans (North Region) huw.evans@phonak.com 07725 927937  
  • Adam Sharples (South Region) adam.sharples@phonak.com 07824 436910       
  • Alice Alkins (NHS) alice.alkins@phonak.com 07702 118 046
  • Tim Clark (Education) tim.clark@phonak.com

Thank you for your patience and understanding during these difficult circumstances. We greatly appreciate the flexibility and understanding of our customers and partners. We are doing our best to ensure your contact with Phonak is not interrupted while still taking the safety of all our employees and partners in to consideration. 

In the meantime, look out for our regular e-newsletter, complete with hints/tips on the different solutions available, direct links to useful government guidance to help your business through this time, as well as the latest news surrounding both the Industry and Sonova.

Stay safe, look after your families and loved ones and thank you for your continued support.

We are very sorry to inform you that the Sonova Operations Center in Ireland has had to temporarily shut down. At Sonova like many businesses we have closely followed government guidelines and today one staff member informed us they had potentially been exposed to the virus and were having to self-isolate. To ensure the safety of our staff and anyone they may come into contact with them, we have had to recommend that all members of the team also self-isolate and close the facility, I can assure you this decision was not made lightly.  
 

• From the 24^th of March, all ITE orders / impressions / credit returns and all repairs must be sent to the UK office in Warrington until further notice. Sonova UK Limited, Sonova House, Lakeside, Centre Park, Warrington. WA1 1RX. GBR. 

• For all other orders, including BTE’s and RIC’s, please continue to place your orders in the same way via the Customer Service teams at Phonak and Unitron UK.

We have done all we can to ensure that we maintain service levels to our Irish customers, as such we are in the process of redirecting all postage orders from the Sonova Ireland to the UK facility. We appreciate that this may affect orders or repairs placed in the last 48hours and we will do all we can resolve any issues, for any urgent enquiries please contact the customer service team in the UK.

 

For all Customer Service and Technical Support queries, please continue to contact both the Phonak and Unitron Technical Support team via the Sonova UK switch board, as you have done previously.