Exploring the homelift market

The homelift market is a relatively new one compared to stairlifts and a clear understanding of how relevant our products are to potential customers is extremely important. To develop this understanding, Stannah asked the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC) to look at the current market, the trends and opportunities for and how to gain a better understanding of customers’ experience and attitudes.

The RiDC conduct user-centred research involving disabled and older people.  This research helps people to choose the right products that with enable them to live independent lives.  Using an online survey to their consumer panel they were able to select a group of people who either had a stairlift or homelift or if not had mobility issues and had already installed some other home adaptations.  A selection of these respondents was then invited to Stannah head office for an afternoon workshop.

The respondents came from a variety of backgrounds and ages but all had some mobility issues.  They and were split into two groups, one group were quite knowledgeable about homelifts whilst the other group were not.  Over the course of the afternoon both considered a variety of topics about needs and attitudes towards homelifts before having a demonstration of the Salise homelift.  Guided by a team from the RiDC they had lots of questions about its design, sparking some great discussions.   They were surprised at how many features it had and how many other homelift options were available.  For the team from Stannah which included people from concepts, engineering and marketing, there were some great opportunities to understand what the priorities are for customers as well as the barriers they perceive in buying new equipment.  By the end of the afternoon the group also felt they had learnt a lot with several saying how they felt that a homelift could be the solution for them, not having considered it before.

RiDC will produce a full report of the all the discussions from the workshop which will help Stannah in future product design and marketing.