Welcome to Marketing 2 Seniors, my name is Diane Masson and this site is for senior living professionals.
I have filled up Continuing Care Retirement Communities, Independent Living, Assisted Living, Memory Care, Skilled Nursing Care and new developments for over 16 years in four different states.
The Book, Senior Housing Marketing, has 12 keys to increase your occupancy and holds a 5-star rating on Amazon.com.
Come on in, join my blog for sales tips and advice. Then consider if it’s best for just you to read my book, the sales team or your entire operational team. You can learn more about the book and order it on Amazon … Here’s wishing you 100% occupancy!
Marketing 2 Seniors Blog
Expert Tips to Increase Occupancy
10 Negative Impressions Through the Eyes of a Consumer in Senior Living
Please enjoy this published article I wrote for seniorhousingforum.net for my friend Steve Moran. – http://seniorhousingforum.net/ Here are my top 10 positive and negative first impressions after touring 15 senior living communities in 3 days. (Part 2) By Diane Twohy Masson My top 10 positive first impressions of touring 15 senior living communities were talked about in Part 1. My goal was to put myself in the shoes of the adult boomer child looking for the right retirement community for an aging senior parent. What would be his or her overall impression after viewing 3 to 5 senior living communities in a couple of days? Now, in part 2, let’s talk about how some senior living communities chose to put their proverbial foot in their mouth and some of the reasons why they did not make a good first impression for this adult boomer child. What were my top 10 negative first impressions of 15 senior living communities? 1) Driving up and seeing a weed filled garden, the lawn too long or the building in any type of disrepair. (If they can’t weed the garden on a regular basis, maybe they won’t be able to take good care of my mom on a consistent basis.) 2) A sea of people in walkers and wheel chairs staring at me as I walked in the building or looked in the dining room. If they were having a stimulating dining room conversation with their fellow residents or staff, they would not even have looked up at me (instead they were bored and ALL looked at me). 3) Bad smells – from walking in...Do Residents Give Better Tours Than Senior Living Sales People?
After touring 11 retirement communities in the last several days, I say yes – to residents being the best! The senior living sales people who gave me tours – only focused on the real estate. It was all about showing apartments, casitas and duplexes. They only asked enough questions about my mom to determine if she could live independently in one of those choices. The resident tour guide was fabulous! She wanted to know about mom as a person. Her questions were geared toward learning about what my mom enjoys now and then proceeded to explain how my mom could experience an even better life and social connections at the retirement community. The resident brought the lifestyle to life first, by describing all the fun activities in every single community space that I was shown. For example, when she showed me the swimming pool, she proceeded to describe how the residents enjoy water volleyball and how she personally enjoys it twice a week. I was blown away. The life she described was so exciting that I wanted to move in immediately. After the resident painted the dream of the lifestyle, she then showed me her own beautiful home. It was one of the best tours that I have ever been on. She apologized that there was no brochure to give me. The sales people don’t let her give them out. She made sure she captured my contact information too. Now here is the icing on the cake, she called me back two hours after I left to tell me something she forgot. She shared again, that she would truly...10 Positive Impressions . . . Through the Eyes of a Consumer
Please enjoy this published article I wrote for seniorhousingforum.net for my friend Steve Moran. – http://seniorhousingforum.net/ Top 10 positive and negative first impressions after touring 15 senior living communities in 3 days. (Part 1) By Diane Twohy Masson My goal was to put myself in the shoes of the adult boomer child looking for the right retirement community for an aging senior parent. What would be his or her overall impression after viewing 3 to 5 senior living communities in a couple of days? What community would rise to the top and be their first choice? What were my top 10 ten positive first impressions? 1) Smelling freshly baked chocolate chip cookies when I walked into the lobby. 2) As I drove up seeing perfectly manicured lawns, a good-looking building and some colorful flowers out front. (Flowers in pots by the front door looked great.) 3) Some kind of “wow” when I entered the lobby that would direct my eye to the beauty of the community and not see the walkers and wheel chairs. An example was seeing a gorgeous/expensive flower/plant arrangement on a circular table as I entered the lobby. Another retirement community had a beautiful living room area with a fireplace, a FRESH flower arrangement on the coffee table and happy residents conversing. 4) Having the receptionist stand to greet me with a smile and a handshake. 5) Being offered refreshments immediately (I was parched from all my touring!) 6) Having a marketer tailor the tour to the needs of my mom. They would bring each community space to life by painting a picture on how my mom...Do You Have Proactive or Reactive Marketing?
One of the reasons your occupancy may be down is because you may have reactive marketing. What does this mean? Do any of the following scenarios happen at your community? You walk into Bored Brad’s marketing office and he’s sorting paper clips. He just wants to give a tour but no one is coming in or calling the community. When you stop by Blabby Barbara’s office, she is on the phone, but you quickly determine that she’s talking to a friend and not a potential resident. Residents complain to management that phone calls to the marketing department are not returned in a timely fashion to friends they have referred and who are prospective residents. You march right over to Moody Marbella on your marketing team to address the residents’ concerns. She responds by changing the subject and, worse, blaming you with her explanation, “Events won’t work. Low occupancy is not my fault.” Do you think she missed the point? Does this really happen? Yes! Reactive marketing people truly exist and I have worked with some of them. It can be a challenge to determine if the new team you are managing is reactive, but once you know the symptoms it’s easy to identify: Symptom 1) Reactive marketing does not have programs or policies in place to make a certain number of outbound phone calls per day. This means every day. Symptom 2) After conducting a tour, reactive marketing people wait for prospects to call them back to say they are interested in moving in. This is really the function of an order taker and not the attitude of a...Who Answers the Phone at your Senior Living Community on Saturday?
Here are my results after calling 12 retirement communities in the Mid-West on a Saturday morning at 10:00 AM Central time: The scores were one A+, two B’s, five C’s, one D and three F’s… I asked everyone the same question, “I am looking for a place for my mom – she lives in your town – how many places are there to choose from and how do you rate?” This was apparently a tough question for many…ratings were graded higher if they answered the telephone, could be clearly understood, answered the questions and asked for my name and telephone number before the conversation ended. Only four people asked for my phone number, so those unique individuals were awarded a C+ or above for their heroic efforts. Two assisted living communities went straight into voice mail, so they received automatic F’s. The A+ person was an executive director (E.D.) working on a Saturday. The E.D. was outstanding answering all my questions and asked for my name and phone number. Three communities had workers that mumbled when they answered the telephone (I literally had no idea what they said and had to clarify if I had called the correct number – which of course I had). One of the “mumblers” sounded like a 4 year old answering the phone. I had to clarify three times that they were indeed an assisted living community and then they said no one was available to answer my questions. They never asked for my phone number and I eventually hung up giving them a F- as a score. The B- score asked for my...Why are Seniors Waiting Longer to Move into Retirement Communities?
When the decision to move to a senior living community is finally made – the seniors tend to be older and frailer. Many providers blame the economy and accept a lower occupancy as a sign of the times. The days of having someone move in off the wait list have disappeared. So it is time to strategize… Let’s enter the mind of a senior. Many have experienced painful losses in their stock portfolios in recent years. Depending on the area of the country they live, their home is worth much less than the inflated value they recognized as truth in 2007. Many seniors feel they have lost several hundred thousand dollars and can’t afford to move into a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) with an entrance fee. Some silent generation seniors are penny pinching again and think it’s less expensive to live in his or her paid off home. Other seniors are just so attached to their home of 40 or 50 years that they can’t imagine living somewhere else. Yet as they age, day-to-day living can become more of an effort. Many of the responsibilities of their home have to be hired out – such as gardening, yard work, window and gutter cleaning, possibly housekeeping and painting. Many seniors had a do-it-your-self mindset and become frustrated at the quality of workmanship that hired help provides. Cooking a healthy meal for one or two is just too much work and who wants to wash all those dishes? Maybe the laundry room is located down the basement stairs, they live in a split-level home or stairs have become a struggle....What Percent of Time Does Your Senior Living Sales Person Spend Selling?
How much real time is your senior living sale person spending in nonrevenue generating activities? The operations team should consistently do all nonrevenue generating activities, so the sales person can just focus on selling – right? Yet sales people can get caught up wanting to be accepted by coworkers, so they start contributing part of their precious sales day to the operations team. Suddenly the sales person may be helping at a resident event or going to visit new residents to make sure they are adjusting to life in the community. Sales people tend to be the best event organizers, so it is also a very frequent practice in retirement communities to have them organize the annual resident picnic. FYI – the resident picnic should really be the focus of activity director. Any salesperson can slowly evolve into participating in nonrevenue activities in any healthy organization. Even great executive directors, might not notice two hours here and a three hour project there. A retirement community may literally need an outside consultant or regional marketer to evaluate – how much time the sales person spends not selling. The administrator may have just needed help with one certain project that turned into more time wasters, because the sales person was so efficient at completing his or her requests. Then when the occupancy drops another 5% and corporate is breathing down the administrator’s neck to find out why – the administrators could be unknowingly sabotaging the occupancy themselves. Many administrators don’t even realize how his or her salesperson is utilizing their time. I actually found out that one of my regional sales...Learn 3 Keys how a Senior Living Community Achieved 98.4% Occupancy!
Are you looking for the secrets to occupancy success? How can you fill up your retirement community now? Maybe you work at a stand-alone assisted living, CCRC or independent living community? Here are three keys being utilized by a 98.4% occupied assisted living community sales person! 1) Referrals Through Outreach – The assisted living sales person built relationships with hospital discharge planners, skilled nursing/rehab social workers and other assisted livings that provided lighter care. The relationships were built by meeting each of these people monthly and offering interesting/fun events for referrals to visit his assisted living on a monthly basis. When referrals toured his assisted living community they could experience firsthand how happy the residents were and see the quality of the care. When an assisted living resident was suddenly out-placed to a hospital the resident family members might ask which skilled nursing or rehabilitation center would be the best for the recuperation of the parent. The community could share knowledgeable communication about the available choices, because they visit them regularly. When the family member selected a choice for their parent (with the doctor’s input of course and after visiting at least two choices), the sales person would call to their referral choice and let them know what the family selected. Outreach sources quickly realized the assisted living community cared about their residents even when they weren’t currently residing in the community and now their healthcare referrals have increased 50%. 2) First Impressions – If a guest called ahead, the sale person would walk the possible tour path to pick up an accidentally dropped Kleenex on the floor or...How Can Skilled Nursing Communities Describe Lifestyle? (Part 2)
Part 1 described how the lifestyle of long-term care resident was not discussed in the admission process of the skilled nursing facilities I toured. It was so bad that I could not call them communities, but instead considered them institutional facilities. These were the 10 worst skilled nursing tour experiences that I encountered recently: 1) Not one receptionist stood to greet me 2) No one invited me to sit down 3) I were not offered a beverage 4) There was no sales – just admissions needs 5) They did not talk about the quality of their care 6) No one mentioned how the residents minds would be engaged 7) No activity program or menu was offered 8) Lifestyle for long-term care was not discussed 9) They used terms like facility and diapers 10) No one asked about my mom as a human being and what was most important to her – such as what does she enjoy most? These would be my top 10 recommendations to discuss lifestyle for long-term care residents in the skilled care nursing admissions process. 1) The receptionist should stand to greet the guest with a warm smile and a friendly greeting. 2) The admission counselor should offer a beverage and invite the guest to sit down to discuss his or her parent’s needs. 3) The counselor should have empathy for the guest by listening to their full story and determine if it is long-term or short-term stay. 4) The quality of the nursing staff should be addressed and how this will benefit the guest’s parent on a long-term or short-term basis. 5) ...Do Any Skilled Nursing Communities Describe Lifestyle? (Part 1)
After working in senior housing for 13 years, I thought the majority of skilled nursing communities had broken the mold of institutionalized care from the past. After recently touring three skilled nursing communities in one day for my mom, I have changed my mind. The old skilled nursing concept of institutionalized seniors that helplessly live boring lives of eating, bathing and sleeping – still seems to exist. The admission folks did not paint a picture of any type of lifestyle such as: music to lift spirits, social activities to engage the mind or fellowship with other residents, volunteers or staff… I was shocked and discouraged. So in my examples, I have to call them facilities and not communities. The first facility offered to show me their only available bed. It was down a dark hallway with no natural light. The available bed was the middle bed of three-bed ward. Almost everyone was in bed at 2 PM in the afternoon with the curtains shut. Everyone else was in a wheel chair. The dining room had no chairs. There were institutional lifts and medical carts in the hallway. This tour guide did not mention how my mom could enjoy anything! She did not offer an activity program or talk about the quality of care. All she said was, “You will be lucky to get a bed and take it when it comes available.” I had to ask to see the dining room and had to request an activity program and menu. The second facility had a slightly friendlier admission person. This person showed us an available bed and then proceeded...Do you discuss T.E.A.M. with your senior living team?
Inspiration can be planned or it can come from out of the blue. As I was setting up for a pancake breakfast at church, I was encouraging the other volunteers. Then another volunteer inspired me – Michael said, “We are working as a “T.E.A.M.,” which stands for TOGETHER, EFFORT, ACCOMPLISH, MISSION.” As we start this New Year with each of our senior living teams, are you going to give an inspirational talk to build a team approach toward filling and marketing your retirement community? Why don’t you discuss T.E.A.M. (TOGETHER, EFFORT, ACCOMPLISH, MISSION) with them? TOGETHER – we can support marketing! It’s all about the first impressions each of us can provide the future resident and their family. From the receptionist standing to greet every guest with a smile; to every director “accidentally” running into future residents on a tour; to housekeeping/maintenance paying special attention to the front entrance area, community spaces, restrooms and hallways; to a caregiver or staff member greeting guests in the elevator/hallway to say, “We look forward to you choosing to live here!” or “This is a wonderful place to work.” or “I would love to take care of your mom.” EFFORT – is going the extra mile to be welcoming! Can every employee smile and greet the customer who passes them in the hallway? Out of the hundreds of communities that I have toured, only one retirement community in California blew me away when – every single staff person smiled at me during a tour. A dining room server said, “We would love to spoil your mom.” This community wide impression of caring and...What do you say to a senior living marketer who insists that this is a poor time of year to fill the building?
I say, “Bah, humbug.” Anytime can be a great time to sell senior housing, if you BELIEVE. It’s all about attitude! When family members get together during the holidays, this is when they might notice that mom or dad has really slowed down. A son or daughter might look around and see the dust bunnies collecting in the corner, the pie doesn’t quite taste the same or a parent keeps repeating himself or herself. The siblings might say, “What do we do now, mom and dad should not be on their own anymore?” A son may have flown in from across the country and only be in town for the week. They may call your assisted living or memory care community and hope that someone will direct them through this transition, so they can secure their parent before they leave in five days. Will your marketer be the compassionate educator and create an immediate solution to this adult child’s dilemma? Or will negative Nellie say, “No one wants to move during the holidays!” I know a senior living marketer who prides himself on 48-hour move-ins. This can be one of the best times of the year to fill the building, if you BELIEVE. Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com. For volume discount pricing or to inquire on Diane’s availability to coach and/or train your senior living marketing team – please contact Diane Twohy Masson directly at 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. Diane Twohy Masson is a seasoned senior living marketing coach with...New senior housing book can create your 2012 momentum!
Create your 2012 momentum with this new senior housing book! The 12 keys presented in this new book can kick start your success. Here are some of the results Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full produced for retirement communities in 2011: Increased the average occupancy from 82% to 91% of four newly acquired assisted living communities in just four months. Generated 525 deposits and 423 move-ins in 9 months with 386 move-outs (14 communities with a mix of IL, AL and MC). Built momentum by balancing each team’s follow-up phone calls, tours, outreach and events. Give your marketers a gift that can help them grow occupancy immediately. Holiday Special available for the first 10 requests: Buy 2 books and receive the 3rd one free. Shipping and tax included. Diane Twohy Masson is a seasoned senior living marketing coach with most recent experience as Corporate Director of Sales for 14 retirement communities in Washington, Utah and California. For the holiday special, volume discount pricing or to inquire on Diane’s availability to coach or train your senior living marketing team – please contact Diane Twohy Masson directly at 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full is also available for sale at Amazon.com for $39.95. For more information: Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/ Email: diane@marketing2seniors.net Twitter:...
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