Is There A MAGIC Formula in Assisted Living Occupancy? Lou Ann Brubaker Brubaker Consulting

Transcription

1 Is There A MAGIC Formula in Assisted Living Occupancy? Lou Ann Brubaker Brubaker Consulting brubak97@aol.com

2 Occupancy Success is About a Focus Upon Maintaining a culture not just specific sales-related tasks Creating a team Offer a Leveraging of Selling IDing of Addressing of Analyzing Selling. Why should I you? 1

3 Nobody is the Only Game in Town Anymore. Every community. is hard. 2

4 Life-Style Special Is a Tough Row to Hoe. Every community offers pretty much the same : Everybody Themselves in the Same Ways 3

5 Baseline Ways to Differentiate Your membership in why you belong; what your commitment is in belonging Every single piece of positive information that has ever been about you Every note that a to you in the past 6 months longer than that no longer feels current First Things FIRST: Know Why You re Go back and interview. Ask -- What prompts you to think of us? What aspects of our care are you regarding? What causes you to send a somewhere else? Go back and interview. Ask -- Why they chose your community? What was their most memorable of your community? What types of things have pleased them the most since? Very, very few facilities EVER ask these questions. 4

6 Sometimes the biggest barriers to achieving occupancy are. Where Stuff Goes Wrong Poor impression at Coverage of /when marketing team is unavailable esp. evenings, weekends, holidays failure to capture information needed for follow-up Little confidence building message beyond a brochure that is personally described by staff Lack of follow-up inquiries drop through the cracks Not conducting an annual mystery shop your community and your competition 5

7 Where Stuff Goes Wrong Internal appearance of the community Clean, well-maintained is cheap should look great Resident appearances Well-groomed Engaged Staff interaction with Your Own Critical Eye On a daily basis, you should walk your building to critique yourself. 6

8 Walk the Building Every Day Stuff that matters: % clean/litter free; ashtrays/waste containers emptied 2X a day; front door glass cleaned 2X a day; entrance mats new(er); trash dumpters out of sight -- immediate acknowledgement; comfortable seating; knows who back-up is for inquiries; public restroom clean/nice -- from the ceiling tiles to the floor surfaces you look immaculately maintained and clean; no bugs in ceiling lights; odor free; trash containers less than 1/2 full Walk the Building Every Day / -- uncluttered; doors open -- not full of carts/wheelchairs, etc. -- flowers (not plastic) on tables; tables set for next meal if not used for other purposes; table cloths -- no arrangement displayed; noise level is appropriate -- clean & well-groomed (hair, nails, street clothes); men are clean-shaven; and dignity maintained at all times -- should be evident that respect & care 7

9 Other Sloppy/Poor Impressions Cluttered (or out-of-date ones) on Inappropriate (sarcastic) in work areas You don t keep stuff current the last never made it onto your website Casual days in the marketing office Staff pass by residents without acknowledging/greeting them. The Sales Processes 8

10 The Individual Critical Steps First contact point -- AND Initial gathering the community Refinement of at meeting Tour Post-tour strategies Post-move-in Create the Broader Team 9

11 Be at the Ready Who is covering for you when Marketing folks are out of the building or out of pocket? Someone needs to be available 7 days a week, on all shifts to drop what they re doing to handle an in-person or phone inquiry During regular hours, a representative from each department should be available to participate in a tour Weekend/Off-Hour Coverage Someone calls and you make certain that someone in a positive fashion encourages them to s their information for marketing team follow-up Someone and you make certain someone is available to capably tour them through the community 10

12 Handling Phone Inquiries No one for not being the marketing person. about the community when caller identifies self as wanting information This is a terrific place. Let me have you speak to. She can tell you all about us. Receptionist finds the marketing representative And doesn t just transfer it where it might roll into. A call transferred is often a move-in lost. Marketing staff throughout the building Handling Phone Inquiries When the marketing person gets on the line and the caller describes why they re calling ( My Dad has fallen a couple of times in the past month and his doctor says we need to look at another living situation for him. ). FYI -- If caller insists on your sending information out, packets of information with a customized letter. 11

13 I would love for you to visit our community and meet some of my colleagues. I think you ll gain such an insight into what we re all about, the quality of our care and what daily life is like with us. Would Wednesday or Thursday of this week work for you? Why the Weekend/Off-Hour Response is Critical Nearly EVERY senior care information source tells families and prospective residents that is important in choosing a senior care provider. many tell people to try to see what s going on when the senior management team isn t there. They also encourage 12

14 The Right People for the Broader Team This department representative should be ABLE to in the community why they describe something about your ID people with great Good = Good Care No one is ever. Optimally you re to greet prospects when they arrive. 13

15 Good = Good Care You offers choice of. No styrofoam or plastic. Use ceramic or glass. Use nice napkin. in marketing office for sodas, bottled water, etc. Thank you letter goes out with any further needed information. Follow up call is made within to see if the prospect has any questions. Create Alignment 14

16 Who Does Care If You Do? The elderly woman who has been in the hospital for a week & thinks looks terrible. finds it disconcerting to be transported from familiar surroundings because she is easily confused. Alignment Requires Two Things: You resist the temptation to launch into a - explanation of EVERYTHING you know about your community. You ask about the prospective resident (or family s concerns) that lend you the insight you need. 15

17 What Kinds of Questions? NOT -- Does your Mother live alone? Tell me about your Mother s at the time she fell? How much was she? What did you find valuable to provide to her? Ask Questions. Mostly, - ones. Tell me a little bit about what s been going on with your Dad? What kinds of things are especially important to you? That will help me make certain you learn much of what you hope to today. How does your Dad spend his days right now? What types of things did he enjoy doing in the past? Expand the between you. 16

18 What Kinds of Questions? NOT --So you said your Mom is pretty, right? (In response to the daughter s mention of it.) You don t simply confirm. Instead ask, In what ways or about what things does your Mom? Provide Meaningful Descriptions. You want to talk about: What s the meaningful message? Dining venues Your culture Food/dietary services Life enrichments/activities Caregivers station Your QA committee Clinical services 17

19 What You Embed During Tours Your outcomes participation in lifestyle programs (activities) increased / low little to no within your community (vs national average) ie., less decline high is the BIG opportunity. Incorporate Other. If you pass a colleague, to the person you are touring. tell your guest what the other person does at your community. as you walk away, make a about your colleague. Janet is terrific with residents. The families adore her, too. I admire how she seems so attuned to what someone needs. 18

20 Post-Move In Follow-Up Help people know they made the to turn to you. Families: A phone call within 24 hours of move in, I thought I d let you know that I when I visited our dining room, your father was really enjoying his conversation with two other residents. I overheard them talking about what each had done for a living. One of the gentlemen had also worked in construction. You might want to ask him about his new table mates next time you visit. The Myth: The number one focus should be on. 19

21 The Truth: A focus on move-ins is. The right benchmarks. 20

22 Know Your Funnel X number X Calculate Productivity Hypothetically*, you are a 100 resident building. Your occupancy is currently 90% Budget is 95% for this quarter. You are currently admitting 5 residents per month, but you are also losing 5 on average. 21

23 As an Example for Your Community 30 raw inquiries/month 50% QUALIFY = are viable convert 33% = of viables are admitted First, Calculate Your Inquiry Needs Exercise: Based upon your historical numbers, calculate how many RAW inquiries drive a single move-in for your community? calculate how many viable inquiries drive a single move-in for your community? ANSWER: RAW inquiries = 1 move-in OR VIABLE inquiries = 1 move-in 22

24 Then Calculate How many more RAW referrals do you need in June to reach 95% occupancy for the month? OR How many more VIABLE referrals do you need in June to reach 95% occupancy? ANSWER: additional RAW inquiries + the 30 you typically get to achieve 10 move-ins 15 additional VIABLE referrals + the 15 you typically qualify to achieve 10 move-ins 23

25 Are There Other Options Available to You? Your current Increase to best practice of Resulting in Inquiries stay the same 30 but your % of viables improves # inquiries & viability % stays the same but your conversion rate improves from 50% to % 22 Viables = 7 move-ins 30 & 50% viability from 33% to % 11 move-ins Response Strategies Numbers drop Your immediate response Reduction in inquiries Increase time externally marketing to Reduction in % of viables Re-education of s to the types of residents you most successfully care for; Outreach to referrers with success stories Conversion rate drops Full court press within your community to assure your most 24

26 Another Opportunity Inquiries up for month You can Ahead of projected/needed inquiries by % Increase outreach to other potential referrers : ex., physician groups ex., home health agencies So... When It All Comes Down to It 25

27 To Achieve Your Occupancy Goals Be able to articulate what you re doing well to differentiate yourself. Make certain that you re using your time optimally. Monitor the flow of qualified inquiries and how you handle them and the move-ins will follow Communities Successfully Build Occupancy When They Focus on process marketing walk-throughs, time spent in analysis of current process/funnel analysis Create the marketing sub-culture so that everybody feels a part of marketing the community, not just those who s job descriptions include it 26

28 Communities Successfully Build Occupancy When They Honestly self-critique no matter how uncomfortable Embrace change you simply can t play a new game by the old rules Thanks for listening. 27