Save the Trees or Save Grandma! Going Paperless is Hurting our Seniors

Save the Trees or Save Grandma! Going Paperless is Hurting our Seniors

Imagine pressing their numbers and speaking to a machine when prompted? That’s happening now with most companies when you call them. There is no live customer service person. You either get a machine or you are sent to the Philippines, Mexico or India for technical support or to walk through your credit card statement.

Let’s take a step further. When you call, the machine may say:

Your wait time is 20 minutes. You can find all your answers or get the necessary information online. Go to www dot something dot com.

Ever felt frustrated with that?

How about our aging parents or grandparents? Some may be hearing impaired or can’t press the telephone numbers prompted fast enough…what would happen?

With the online thing…go paperless, save the trees and everything else. Who has been shoved off from customer care? Our seniors!

According to Pew Research, 42% of the 65 year olds and above are online and only 30% of those 74 and above called the GI Generation are online. The rest…nada…it’s a bad place to be. Would you sympathize with them? Not everybody is technologically talented.

We are in a very un-consumer friendly world right now. How can we help them around this? Not every senior has a computer. Are we going to do training just to train seniors to go paperless? Even if we train them, some may not even figure it out.

Some banks are charging a fee for paper statements now. Are we penalizing our seniors for not being computer savvy?

What are the solutions for our seniors when companies and government agencies are going paperless?

We don’t have to be the shiniest, and technologically advance to help our seniors’ quality of life. In recent months, Indiana has our fair share of tornado warnings. Could you imagine what would happen if the towers went down? Would technology help at that time?

There is a need to keep the basic things basic and simple. When Social Security Administration went paperless for their statements last year, could you imagine what happened to our seniors’ minds? Most of them are depending on Social Security checks to get by.

Go out and buy a computer, self-help hook up of Internet connections, pay for the monthly Internet connections, learn to navigate the browser and the list goes on. What stress they have to go through. Not to mention feeling inadequate and overwhelmed.

“Keeping in Touch Solutions is so aware of the situation and difficulties. We try to make it as friendly, easy as possible. We have a live person that your aging parents could talk to. We are aware of their difficulties. We have a friendly person who takes their calls when they call even though we have online enrolment available for those who so incline to go online” says Diana Beam Founder of Keeping In Touch Solutions.

Keeping in Touch Solutions believes in high touch and the importance of live customer care for seniors. More than half a century of their lives were lived in the paper world and without the advancement of computers, digital phones and wireless everything. Technology is not always senior friendly.

Remember our seniors when you are serving them on the telephone or sending out paperless information through the Internet. They may not get it!

How about the healthcare system and electronic records scam? Most seniors have to almost go into a closet to sign in at the Doctor’s office, yet everybody in the world has access to their electronic medical records…even if I say “no thanks!”

Help your aging parents with their paperless lifestyle. Or get your children, who have fingers typing the keyboards like lightning, help grandma or grandpa with digital paper work.

Some financial institutions and utility companies still provide paper statements. Find out various organizations and see if they would accommodate grandma’s needs.

Grandma may forget her conversations and who she talked to on the telephone. Remind her to write down names and telephone numbers when they contact agencies, doctors’ offices and any other institutions. Start their own personal phone directory on 4×6 index cards so she can keep track of phone calls, numbers and person called.

When you are at the computer, typing or Facebooking away, remember grandma may be having difficulties turning on the computer. Could you give a helping hand?

A daily check-in call could be the lifeline, the joy you give someone that makes the biggest difference in their perception of what old age is like.

Contact me at 317-480-1038 today. Let’s make a difference together.

I’m Diana Beam, Founder of Keeping in Touch Solutions. It is my heartfelt desire for every person to live a happy and healthy life in the place they call home, no matter what their age. You can’t put a price on peace of mind for your parents and yourself. It’s priceless . . . and significant.

For that reason, the goal of every Keeping In Touch Solutions program is to provide a caring connection and service that both the elderly and their caregivers can rely on to make living that good life easier.