Marketing 2 Seniors | The Blog

with Author: Diane Masson

Top 12 Traits Needed to Fill a Senior Living Community?

Hiring in Senior LivingWhat is your recipe for hiring a successful senior living sales person at your retirement community?  There are so many qualified candidates, what are your must have personality traits?  When I interview, here are the qualities that I look for in no particular order:

1)   Phone Experience and Voice – The applicant needs a great phone voice to even qualify for a live interview with me!  What is their history of making calls?  Have they made 50 calls in at least one day of their career?  How many calls did they need to make in order to have one live customer?  Phone calling can be one third of the job to fill the building.  It is crucial to have ongoing phone contact with our leads to make cool leads – warm, warm leads – hot and hot leads turning into move-ins.

2)   Real Sales Experience – They need to be able to give examples of how to warm people up, find communality, do discovery and educate the customer on a wonderful service.  I need to be able to visualize them describing our Continuing Care Retirement Community or Assisted Living.  I don’t require a background in senior living sales.

3)   Closing Experience – What is their closing ratio?  How many live customers do they need in order to achieve one sale?  Did they close me?

4)   Listener – If they practice good listening skills with me, then they can do the same for the customer.  This is vital…

5)   Teachable – Are they willing to learn and grow?  Some people want to live in a rut.  I want someone who can morph themselves and strategize the sales presentation and closing techniques based on the current economy.  I want someone who is willing to be a student of this business.

6)   Genuine – Are they believable?  Will the customer embrace their passion?

7)   Sincere love and compassion for seniors – Have they ever cared for a senior or helped find skilled nursing care for a relative or neighbor?  Do they have a history in working with seniors?

8)   Team Player – Is it all about them or do they enjoy and contribute to a team approach?  Operations definitely has a team approach in caring for the residents.  Marketing works best with a team approach as well!  I like to hear examples…

9)   Motivated by helping others improve their lives? – Does this rock their boat or is it all money, money, money?

10)   Education – If they had the dedication to complete their schooling, then they can have the dedication to fill the building.

11)    Professional Appearance – Great smile, well groomed and speaks well – These are all a must!

12)   Computer Literate? – Can they type at a decent speed, navigate through Word and Excel and learn a new database quickly?

Please share your top 12 favorite traits in hiring a senior housing sales person or feel free to add onto mine…

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

Marketing a Twenty-Year-Old Senior Living Property?

Twenty-year-old Retirement CommunityIs this you?  Then you are in one of two situations – either your owners have renovated in the last 5 or 10 years or everything in your senior living property is original…

1) A Renovated Twenty-Year-Old Senior Living Community?

If your retirement community owners have renovated – thank your lucky stars!   It is awesome to be able to tell prospective seniors that a great sign of a quality organization is how well the building is kept up.  Tout the age of your building and make it a plus for future senior residents.

Yes, you may have limited community space or smaller apartments than your newer senior living competition, but competition could have insurmountable debt from financing in the last 5 years.  I am finding that older communities have more flexible payment plans for seniors who are considering an entrance fee for a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC).

2) Original Furnishings and Tired Looking Senior Living Community?

Do you need to avoid the PUMPKIN carpet that has multiple stains in the dining room?  Are the couches covered with throws, because of the discoloration?  Is the carpet threadbare in spots?  This is a sales person nightmare.  What can you do?

Well, there are many in our industry who face this daunting sales task everyday!

You have two hopes in my opinion.  First, let’s hope that your quality of care is amazing and secondly that the operations team has done everything in their power to have a clean, fresh smelling building.   The best defense is often a strong offense.  You can say, “You can go down the street to live in a newer building, but no one can come close to us on the quality of our care.  So you have a choice.  You need to decide if the cosmetic appearance of a community is most important to you or if it is more vital to you in how your loved one will be treated and cared for in the coming months and years.”  Wow!  This is a powerful statement to make!

What would you pick if you were comparing two assisted living communities?  Remember to think like the customer!  Boomers want their parents to live in a nice community.  Surface people will only consider appearances.  Educate the boomer children to determine that care is most important and they will look past the frayed furniture.

If your retirement community has lousy care and looks old, just quit… or there has to be some redeeming quality that you can highlight.   Become a senior living expert in your area, know your competition and accentuate your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

Please share your marketing success or struggle story, if your retirement community is twenty years or older…

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

8 Keys to Create Compelling Events that Drive Sales in Senior Living

Do you have 50 plus prospective residents at every event?  If not, why not?  Here are just eight keys to keep in mind when planning great events that can fill your building.

1)   Pick a theme that would compel a senior to leave the comfort of their home, spend $4.00 a gallon on gas to drive to your retirement community and want to invite a friend to enjoy the experience with them.

2)   Organize your event, so every first impression is excellent.  Have someone out front directing parking, greet them at the door with a registration table, train tour guides, your community should be spotless, have an exciting program and maybe most important – present excellent food and beverages for their enjoyment.

3)   The goal is fill your building!  If you are going to have live entertainment, there must still be a 10 to 15 minute program with a resident testimonial.   Or maybe you are going to have a Power Point of your benefits and what differentiates you from other senior living communities?  Don’t be boring…

4)   You only have the senior’s attention for about 1½ hours maximum, so if you spend the time feeding and entertaining them, they will be too tired to tour your community.  Strategize out every minute they are going to be in the building.

5)   Invite them to come back and spend more time, so they can get a better feel of your retirement community.  It’s hard for people to decide in 1½ hours where they are going to spend the next chapter of their life.

6)   There should be at least 1/3 new faces at your event.

7)   Some senior living communities draw new prospective seniors best by advertising with direct mail, others with newspaper and still others work best with a combo.

8)   After spending all the time, money and staff resources on a great event, don’t forget to call them the next day.  Invite them back…

I had two events this week for Continuing Care Retirement Communities; one drew 85 seniors to RSVP in a rural area and the other had over 100 seniors RSVP in a metropolitan area.  This traffic will help fill the building for the next two months.

Do you want more information on how to put on a great event?  Chapter 6 of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” offers a step-by-step approach to successful events and many ideas for compelling themes.  Good luck and please share your success…

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  For more information:   Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

Calling it – “The steak is the shoulder of a cow” – In Senior Living?

Prime cuts of beefThe first impressions of the dining experience at your senior living community can affect occupancy…or someone coming back…

Is your community twenty years old and does it look it?  Can you add fresh flowers on each dining table to spruce it up?  Are linen tablecloths and napkins a standard?  Or have you cut these items from your operations budget?  You may have a great chef, the best service and a beautiful dining room, but the wrong words can also leave a bad impression…

On a recent trip to Seattle, my family decided to go to McCormick and Schmicks – a nice dining restaurant on the water.  The waiter greeted us and shared his steak and lobster special of the day.  Hmm, I thought – that sounds good.  We asked what type of steak it was.  Then he said, “The steak is the shoulder of a cow.”  He walked away from us, so we could contemplate the menu and we immediately started saying – what???  Why would someone talk about the steak as the shoulder of cow, which is not very appetizing?  My sister-in-law said, I envision a cow with a hacked off shoulder.”  We all started getting grossed out and laughing.    When the waiter came back, we teased him and told him that the shoulder of a cow did not sound good.  He apologized and said he forgot the proper term to say which was “Terrace Major.”  We all agreed that was not appetizing either.

What descriptor words are on your retirement community’s menu?  Is the dining staff trained to sell the food?  We’ve all been to fine dining restaurants where they describe the desert in a magnificent way or they bring a tray to show the yummy deserts – then it is really hard to say no.  Many senior living communities that I have visited – say, “Would you like desert?”  That’s it!?!!  They should say we have 10 deserts for you to select from, can I share the choices with you?  (Most retirement communities have many ice creams to choose from, a sugar free desert, a baked desert, fresh fruit and canned fruit.)

Let’s make our residents feel special every day of the week!  Dining should be a stimulating experience for them!  What does your senior living community do to make the residents feel like they are experiencing fine dining?

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  For more information:   Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

Is There A Strawberry On Your Plate – In Senior Living?

A strawberry can be a "wow"On my recent flight to Seattle, I had the most plain Jane lunch plate presentation ever in first class.  It was literally a sandwich on the plate.  Seriously?!!?  No chips, cut up fruit, piece of parsley, a piece of lettuce with a tomato – nothing!  The stark whiteness of the plate surprised me.  Then I started thinking, why didn’t they at least put a nice red strawberry on the plate like they used to – what happened?  Is Alaska Airlines cutting costs?  How much could twelve strawberries cost?  My impression of food in first class was not a “Wow” experience.

Has your senior living community cut too many operational costs too?  Could it be affecting the first impressions of your community and keeping the occupancy down?  Are you serving guests refreshments in real glasses or china?  Or have you cut refreshments out all together or serve them in cheap syrofoam?  Are there fresh flowers in the lobby?  As you walk down the halls, are the walls streaked black from walkers and electric carts?  Have the corner edges and doorways of apartments been banged and dented from electric carts?  When was the last time you refurbished the lobby?  Is the furniture getting old and tattered?

Marketing directors and sales people cannot work miracles!  If your occupancy is down, invest in some “Wow Strawberries” to make a great first impression!  It keeps your current residents and family members thinking positively about the retirement community.  Happy residents can mean lots of referrals.

A chef in one of my Continuing Care Retirement Communities said, “The very first bite is always with the eyes.”  When lunch or dinner plates are served in your senior living community dining room, what do they look like?  Are they a “wow?”

The details make the difference…can you afford 12 strawberries?

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  For more information:   Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

How to Help a Struggling Senior Living Sales Person?

Occupancy is down, the pressure is up and your retirement counselor or marketing director is not performing like they used to…  The economy and the presidential election are just excuses for low occupancy.

The first thing is to check the sales person attitude.  Do they smile as they exit their office on the way to meet a walk-in tour?  Can you observe their enthusiasm as they show a prospective resident the retirement community?   When you walk by their office, can you hear animation and passion in their voice as they explain the community and invite someone to come visit?

If the answer is no to any of the above, I suggest that you actually accompany them on a real tour.  Find out exactly what is going on… During the tour be a silent rock and don’t interject at all.  Even if you see or hear mistakes, just take notes…  If you interrupt, the sales person will lose their flow, become more nervous and you won’t get a true picture of a tour from start to finish.  The opening of a conversation is just as important as the close at the completion.

Did they steer the customer toward making a decision?  Were they listening more than they talked?   Did they find out what prompted the visit to your community?   How was the warm up and discovery?  Could you say it was conversational?  At what point did they ask the prospective resident or family member how they felt about their current situation or being at the community?  Ultimately, did the prospect open up?

Was the tour tailored to the customer’s desire or needs?  When pricing and costs came up, did they build value for the senior living community first?  Did the sales person introduce the guests to department heads, other staff and residents?

At the end, did the sales person steer them into sitting down one more time to answer any remaining questions?  Did they solve the customer’s problem?  Is your community a better choice than living in his or her own home? The most important question to ask is – what their time frame is for wanting to make a move!  If the time frame was less than three months, did they ask for the deposit for that “one of a kind” apartment they really liked?  If you are a Continuing Care Retirement Community, did they build urgency for the wait list?  Was a plan made for them to come back again to have another meal, bring another family member or attend an event?

After the customer goes home, walk through your observations with the sales person.  Remember to share something positive first, then any negatives and always end on a positive note.  If it was a great tour, maybe you just don’t have enough walk-ins and leads in your database.  If the tour was terrible, maybe you need to let them go.  If the tour was mediocre, maybe you want to invest in some sales training or mandate that they start reading a senior living book that can help them improve in all areas of the sales process.

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  For more information:   Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

Is Your Senior Living Team – Only Going for the Easy Sale?

Phone Calling Brings Sales in Senior LivingEvery senior living sales person loves the easy sale.  A senior walks into your community, his or her home has just sold quickly and now they HAVE TO MOVE in the next 30 days.  Or a family member’s parent is in the hospital and the doctor has stated they can’t return to their home, the senior must move to assisted living now.  Will these easy sales fill your retirement community?  No!!

The words patience, dedication and persistence come to mind – to reach out to the reluctant customers who can fill your senior living community.   When someone comes in to tour your community, first impressions are everything.  The sales person needs to take the time and compassion to find out what prompted their visit and show how their senior living community can be the answer.

When a senior or family member says they are “Not Ready Yet,” don’t blow them off!    It simply means they don’t have enough information to make a decision yet and they need to come back and see you again.  The prospect is scared!  It is a big decision to move out of a home they have lived in for 30 to 50 years.  Most seniors don’t make the decision to move in a one or two hour meeting with a senior living sales person.  Give them the compassion and care they so desperately need… Call them the next day and find a reason for them to visit again – maybe it’s a lunch, an exciting event or showing them one more apartment.  Turn their reluctance into excitement.

If they don’t answer, keep calling.  Senior living sales people are not making enough calls on average, it’s easier to go talk to a resident than hear rejections, no’s and hang ups on the phone.  Call two days in row…make the 2nd message on their recorder different from the first and then say, “Please give me a call back or I will try you back.”  If I were listening to my voicemail, I would think – “Oh, I better give them a call or they will keep calling.”

Then when they call you back, invite them to visit your senior living community again and the chance of selling them on a 2nd or 3rd tour are even higher!  At Continuing Care Retirement Communities in California, it is taking 5 or 6 visits to turn a reluctant customer into a sale…  How many visits on average are your prospects making to your retirement community, before they decide to move in? It would be fantastic to hear averages from all over the country…

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  For more information:   Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

Does Your Senior Living Sales Team Need Sales Training?

My new senior living sales teams went from selling need driven independent living rentals (which is a piece of cake) to successfully selling CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community) entrance fees.  The organization completely transformed.  Do you want this for your team or do you just want to improve occupancy?  Start investing into some type of training through a sales training or book review.  Watch your team grow and start getting excited about selling again…this is a fun and rewarding business…

Do you have an experienced sales team at your retirement community and the sales are just not happening like they used to?  Or do you have some brand new team players that need to learn everything?

Is It Time for Sales Training?  Hopefully you have someone in your organization that can take a half-day or a whole day to build some team camaraderie and put the sales team back on track.

Here are 5 reasons to invest in Sales Training as soon as possible:

  1. Your team(s) may just be burnt out or could be in a rut…
  2. What if there are 10 basic things to warm up a customer and they are just leaving one out?  A refresher course on the basics could help…
  3. How to steer the customer through the sales process…
  4. Are they focused on listening to the customer or have they progressed to just giving a tour and being an order taker?
  5. Do the sales people realize that if the prospective resident gives the same objection at the end of every tour, adding some key stories into the presentation can cure it?

What if your budget can’t afford sales training and no one in the organization has the know-how or the experience to be the trainer?  Start a book review…one chapter a week.   Pick the right book, there are so many to choose from.  My teams just completed an entire book called Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full.  (This is a book I wrote to help experienced and brand new sales and marketing people improve quickly.)

CCRC entrance fee sales are on the upswing now…the economy is improving… Is it time to kick-start your senior living sales team?

Please share your stories of success, so we can all benefit!

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  For more information:   Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

What Can Make Your Senior Living Community Extraordinary?

Every senior living community struggles to differentiate themselves from their competitors.  How can you do it?  When a customer walks in the door – how can they feel an immediate difference with your community?  Let’s take a moment to compare restaurants – which can be so alike too…

My husband and I decided to treat our selves to Sunday brunch at Laguna Beach.  We didn’t want to go to the expensive tourist choice on the bluff.  Hmm, where to go?  We picked a place that looked good, but was not on the ocean side of the street.  The wait for a table outside (it was 80 degrees) was 2 hours.  We decided to eat inside and we had a small view of the ocean.

Five extraordinary experiences happened at this restaurant that blew us away.  Our waiter was wonderfully attentive, the overall service was outstanding and the food was incredible – none of these made it extraordinary.  Here are the five things that did:

  1. The waiter welcomed us the moment we sat down, asked if we had been there before (we said no) and then he assured us that we were going to have the most incredible brunch (Wow!).
  2. When my husband asked where the restroom was (after he tried to find it himself) a server did not just point in the right direction, they actually escorted him (Wow!).
  3. Then my husband returned to the table, a staff member anticipated his arrival, picked up his napkin and as he sat, put it on his lap (Wow!).
  4. The plates were removed within 20 seconds of each of us finishing our food (Wow!).
  5. Now listen to this one, they quietly wiped the water up that had sweated from the ice water glasses, so our table was perfectly clean again (Wow!).

In my opinion, this dining experience, at the Sapphire in Laguna Beach, was comparable to the finest service that I have ever received at Canlis – the most famous and expensive restaurant in Seattle, Washington that serves Presidents and Kings (I was lucky enough to go once on a “big” birthday.)

If your retirement community, assisted living or Continuing Care Retirement Community only did #1 – with every guest – what would happen to your occupancy?  I am a big advocate of speaking positive into existence!  Do you actually tell people when they arrive at your community that they will be in for a treat and that you are excited to show them around and introduce them to some staff and residents?

I would love for you to share something you or your staff does to make your senior living community extraordinary for people visiting your campus for the very first time?  Who’s first?

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  For more information:   Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

Can You Compare Your Senior Living Employees to Disney Employees?

In the last six weeks, I have been to Disneyland five times.  Am I a little crazy?  I certainly hope so and try on a regular basis to truly enjoy living in paradise.  After a series of interactions last night, I was forced to take an overall look at how I was treated by Disney employees.

The happiest place on earth did not have happy employees last night.  75% of the employees were grumpy, sullen, crabby, tired and worn out looking.  What a surprise, when it seemed that most Disney employees had a sunny personality when I have visited in the past.

There was not one smile on any parking attendant at the parking lot.  I waited 20 minutes to pay and should have been greeted with a smile, but it did not happen.  At the tram, no smiles – only frowns.  Going through the bag check, only weary and sullen expressions.  When I arrived at the park to go through the turnstile, the employee actually yelled at the person in front of me!  No kidding folks, she said, “Can’t you read the signs?  Mickey’s Halloween Party entrance is over there!”  So that meant I was in the wrong line too and changed lines, before I got yelled at too.

After I made it into the park, they were handing out trick or treat bags and I headed to the left, but I was reprimanded to instead head to the right.  Now my husband and I were in and heading down main street and it suddenly hit me that it was not the happiest place on earth tonight.  What happened to the famous Disney experience?  I thought that when each “cast member” comes out “on stage” to their position, they smile and leave all their own personal negativity and family challenges in the break room?

We headed to Space Mountain (transposed into the Galaxy Ghost for Halloween) and the fast passes were already gone for the day.  To make matters worse it had an 80-minute wait, so we went to the Haunted Mansion (transposed into the Nightmare Before Christmas) and it had a 45-minute wait.  Now I was grumpy and I have NEVER felt that way at Disneyland before!  Had all the negative employees affected me?  No one had said to have a wonderful night, enjoy Mickey’s Halloween Party or I am glad you are here – NOTHING!

What happened at your senior living community today?  What percentage of your employees were “Happy” or “Grumpy”?  Everyday I wake up grateful that I can help seniors improve their lives by moving into the Continuing Care Retirement Communities that I represent.  I know they will have a better life than being isolated in their own home.  Winter is coming and so many seniors don’t drive in the dark.  They will be literally trapped in their homes after 5 pm each night.  Plus seniors will live longer with more nutritious meals and the connectivity of other residents is what us humans need to grow and keep our brains sharp.  Okay, I will shut up, because I am preaching to the choir…

Every retirement community has at least one grumpy employee.  The question is what percentage of grumpy employees do you have?  This could be affecting your occupancy.  If your residents and staff don’t look happy, prospective senior residents see that and don’t want to move in.  Residents at my CCRC communities said the number one reason why they moved in was because of the friendly residents and smiling staff.  Do your residents say this too?

The good news to my Disney experience was that we went on Pirates of the Caribbean and then I was back to the happiest place on earth.  We saw the best fireworks of my life and later on only had to wait 20 minutes for the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain.

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available for sale at Amazon.com.  If your curiosity is piqued to inquire on Diane’s availability to speak at a senior housing conference (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net.  Diane is currently consulting in Southern California for Freedom Management Company, the proud debt-free owners of Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  For more information:   Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/

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