Marketing 2 Seniors | The Blog
with Author: Diane Masson
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 a dining room and knowing someone needed his or her depends changed to smelling that old building smell.
4) No activities happening and the residents looking bored.
5) Having a resident say the food is bad (this literally happened).
6) Being shown an apartment that was not rent ready with equipment lying around or was being used as a storage room. This was surprisingly very common!
7) Not being offered a cold refreshment when it was 90 degrees outside. This happened at half the communities.
8) The majority of marketers sat me down and started grilling me on my mom’s medical needs. It was all about medical questions and they didn’t focus on her as a person or my concerns as an adult child.
9) Seeing a resident eating alone in the dining room.
10) Experiencing a receptionist on the telephone, hold up her finger to me to wait, say something rude to a resident, hang up, roll her eyes and then ask me what I wanted…
Most of these negative first impressions can be easily corrected with good management and coaching the senior living marketer. Even the best communities out there can’t predict what some of your residents would say to a tour. But if your residents don’t look happy – what can your team do to redirect the seniors into an engaging activity? Look around your retirement community with the fresh eyes of an adult boomer child. What do you see? Can you say that all of the first impressions of your new future residents are great?
+++++++++
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 coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her put on a sales retreat for your organization – please call: 206-853-6655 or emaildiane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web:www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
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 love to meet my mom in person. This resident got an A+ in my view. Too bad the senior living sales people did not trust her to give out brochures or talk price – maybe they would be full…
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 coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her put on a sales retreat for your organization – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
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 would enjoy using it (based on her capabilities).
7) Being introduced to important staff that would be caring for my mom. It was especially impressive if they said, “We would love for your mom to live here.”
8) Having a housekeeper or caregiver smile at me as I walked down the hall. It gave me the impression that they were happy to work there and would smile at my mom.
9) Hearing the residents being called by name and looking happy.
10) Seeing vibrant activities taking place in a variety of community spaces.
First impressions are everything to an adult boomer child trying to evaluate the best place for his or her senior parent. What first impressions are your senior living staff and community giving out? Would you want your own mom to live there? Could you sleep at night, knowing your own mom lived at your community?
Next week:
Diane Twohy Masson’s top 10 negative first impressions in touring 15 senior living communities in 3 days and how some senior living communities chose to put their proverbial foot in their mouth will be coming in part 2.
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 coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her put on a sales retreat for your organization – please call: 206-853-6655 or email: diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web:www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
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 professional salesperson.
Symptom 3) Reactive marketers urge spending money on advertising because they claim they don’t have any leads and therefore no new sales.
Symptom 4) Reactive marketers exhibit a lack of urgency to answer the phone within two rings.
Symptom 5) Reactive marketers have a lackadaisical attitude returning phone, web, and social media inquiries.
These reactive marketing teams are waiting for walk-ins and call-ins. They believe the customer should just say, “Yep, here’s my deposit. Let’s call the moving company right now.”
Spending money on new leads is a waste of the marketing budget for a reactive marketing team. Many prospects can be slow (which is normal) to make a decision. A reactive marketer does not initiate calls with the non-hot prospects, so a cool or lukewarm prospect will never be contacted again. This means that 20 percent to 30 percent of sales can just slip through the fingers of this type of marketer. This really does happen, and it can be affecting your financial performance. Is it?
This was an excerpt from “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full.“
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 coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her put on a sales retreat for your organization – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
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 phone number three times and inquired when I would be in town to visit. But when I asked them how they rated for a third time, they talked about the activities or their medical services (without answering the rating question).
A C- answered the phone with an award winning description. Then they said their boss would be in on Monday to answer more of my questions and never asked for my phone number.
One of the “mumblers” transferred me to the sweetest gal who gave the most sincere and heartfelt description of the community. The nice gal kept going and started giving too much information that I never asked about like the price, rooms were available and the nurse would need to do an assessment first. Overall the community was given a C- because of the heartfelt description.
As you can see, there was a wide variety of scores but overall, the majority of these staff were not trained on how to answer the phone correctly and to ALWAYS request someone’s name and phone number. This same challenge can happen when the Monday thru Friday receptionist takes a break during the week. Could this be why your occupancy is down? There is a simple solution – training!
You may want to check out who is answering the phone at your community on a Saturday…
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 peaked to inquire on Diane’s availability to coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her put on a sales retreat for your organization – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
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.
Now they have arrived at your CCRC or independent living door because a resident friend encouraged them to come and see it or an exciting event intrigued them enough to leave their home. This prospective resident is not going to be sold with one visit. First they have to picture themselves living in your community. The first impressions are everything, so the food, the tour, the model apartment and enjoying some of the lifestyle are all vital. This person may need to come to three events such as: a musical event, a cultural event and an educational event. If possible, they need to experience the events in different parts of your community. Hearing testimonials from vibrant residents or having opportunities to interact with lively residents can be very helpful.
Your on-going monthly phone call to this prospective resident should be full of encouragement and discovery to learn what they really enjoy most in life. Maybe they swam at the local pool every morning for 40 years, but now the winter darkness is stopping them from driving. Or maybe they enjoyed his or her subscription to the symphony, but now they can’t drive in the dark and their best friend died. Wouldn’t it be nice if they did not have to “drive” to go to a pool, a gym, see live musical entertainment, enjoy an educational program or share a glass of wine with a friend?
What moves this type of person to give up their home? It’s to have a vividly painted lifestyle that is 10 times better than their current situation. At that point the perceived loss in their home value is no longer a factor. They realize that their home has become a ball and chain and they want the freedom and conveniences that your retirement community can offer them. It can take several months or even a year for seniors to make this decision. A health setback or scare always speeds the process up. Who will they think of first when they are lying in hospital recovering from a hip surgery? Why the community that called them every month and invited them to events of course…
Selling Lifestyle is Key in CCRC and Independent living Senior Sales. Is this helpful?
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 peaked to inquire on Diane’s availability to coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her put on a sales retreat for your organization – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
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 team members was vacuuming and cleaning apartments before move-ins. The operations team could not keep up with preparing apartments for new residents. The sales person did not want the residents moving into dirty apartments, so he stayed late at night to clean them, rather than be a burden to operations. Are you kidding me??!!? I met with the administrator immediately and said, “This is a great problem to have with all these move-ins! Let’s solve it and help our sales person get back to selling.” The administrator agreed and we hired an outside agency to clean and prep the apartments of the next five move-ins (happening that week). The sales person was thrilled to get back to selling and the operations team got caught up. Yahoo and problem solved.
My first rule of thumb is: The sales person does all the activities that help people move into the community – period. Once someone is living in the community, the sales person needs to direct the new resident to the appropriate person on the operations team. I believe that some sales people are so excited about their new resident that they would rather spend time talking with them, than getting on the phone to do follow calls. Doesn’t everyone want acceptance in person rather than possible rejection on the phone?
My second rule of thumb is: If a resident stops by to talk with the sales person, give them two minutes. Then the sales person should nicely let the resident know that they have a phone call to make or a meeting to attend. Residents will get the picture after a sales person gives them the two minutes rule… two or three times.
What is happening in your organization? Watch your occupancy start to skyrocket again, if the sales people are spending all their time on selling activities.
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 you need an energetic, creative and analytical mind to help increase your occupancy – inquire on Diane’s availability to coach your senior living marketing team (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) or have her develop an effective sales retreat for your organization – call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
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 straighten up by putting away all the walkers by the front door. He’d train the front desk staff to be welcoming – by standing up and greeting all guests with a smile and a handshake. He would have chocolate chip cookies baking right by the front entrance, so it would be the first thing they smelled walking in the building. There would always be a framed sign on the front desk welcoming the guest by name. Checking the parking lot for cans and cigarette butts was always on his list too.
3) Orchestrating a Great Tour – When new people wanted to tour the community, he did everything within his power to make sure it would be a great experience. Instead of giving everyone the exact same tour, he would tailor it to the guest’s needs and interests (after he spent some time sitting down with them to find out exactly what prompted the visit and what they hoped to see). He went out of his way to introduce key staff to the guests, like the dining director, administrator or director of nursing (again it would depend on their needs). When he showed an apartment, it would be rent ready and appeal to their needs and budget. Then he would sit down again with them (before they left), to find out if they had any additional questions and to offer to take the deposit check for the apartment they liked the best (He always asked for a deposit). If they decided not to deposit, he assumed they would, when he made a follow up call the next day.
Congrats to my friend and colleague for 98.4% occupancy. He was just promoted to a larger community. It has been my pleasure to coach and mentor him!
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 (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
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) On the way down the hall to show the available bed in a room (semi-private suite is better terminology), talk about how life can be vibrant at the community and mention some of the residents by name.
6) Paint the picture of the live music coming in on a weekly basis, how a sitting room can be place where the guest can visit with their parent in the future and how residents are engaged on a daily basis.
7) Show the activity calendar and share an example which happened today such as — how many residents enjoyed the morning exercise program.
8) Talk about how they can make their parent’s side of the healthcare suite (nicer word than room) more home-like with personal touches and give examples (so many are two-bed suites).
9) Find out what the resident can currently enjoy and what they could possibly do in the future through excellent therapy at your community.
10) After careful listening, give examples of how their parent could be mentally engaged through an activity program, visiting volunteers or caring staff. Give the guest a copy of the activity calendar and dining menu.
No one ever wants to be admitted to a skilled nursing facility. And no one wants to picture their parent trapped in a wheel chair for the rest of their lives with no brain stimulation. So an admission person has an opportunity to treat the family with compassion and care. They can paint the picture of great activities in the long-term lifestyle and bring some hope for the future of the long-term resident and their family. A better admission process – produces better feelings from the family – and can increase your referrals.
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 (CCRC, independent living, assisted living or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Web: www.marketing2seniors.net Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/
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 to talk about the majority of residents wearing diapers. He actually said, “Don’t worry that the two-bed rooms only have one bathroom, most residents don’t use them – because they wear diapers.” What??? Are you kidding me? Why would you tell us this? Then we were shown the dining room with an activity happening – a funeral. We were told they had a monthly funeral for all the residents that were gone. Wow, that sounds like a depressing activity to look forward to every month. I thought he would follow up by talking about some vibrant activity, but he did not. He did not talk about the lifestyle my mom could enjoy, how they keep residents engaged or the quality of the care that my mom could enjoy. I had to request an activity program and menu.
The third facility had the most unwelcoming receptionist. I said, “Hi, can we have a tour?” She said, “Oh, you want a tour?” (In a very bored voice, like maybe we would not want a tour). I said, “Yes, is a tour possible?” She said, “Well — Mary can help you with that, she’s in that room.” She pointed us toward a doorway, so we had to approach the room… They did not accept Medicaid, even though several websites said they did – so no tour was offered.
Several years ago, my sales and marketing office was located in a skilled nursing community. Some residents were very ill, but others led lives with hope and purpose through wonderful activities. I personally saw the joy and loved the ice cream cones served by volunteers every Friday afternoon. The admissions person was a lovely woman who painted the picture of living the best quality of life that someone could with the best possible care.
So my number one question, after touring three skilled nursing facilities, is do skilled nursing communities currently describe lifestyle for incoming long-term care residents? Thank goodness we were not in rush to place my mom immediately, since she is safely in an assisted living community.
Diane Twohy Masson’s top 10 ways to discuss lifestyle for long-term care residents in the skilled care nursing admissions process will be coming in part 2.
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 (CCRC, independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing or memory care) – please call: 206-853-6655 or email diane@marketing2seniors.net. For more information: Twitter: @market2seniors Blog: http://marketing2seniors.net/blog/ Web: www.marketing2seniors.net
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