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Smart homes are all the rage these days, with many nearly constructed dwellings having built-in smart technology, such as connected thermostats, locks and lighting. For individuals or communities looking to retrofit existing structures with this technology, the price tag can be pretty high. However, there are ways to add these amenities to existing structures without breaking the bank. For less than $850 per home, an existing unit can be upgraded with smart technology. Here’s how.

Amazon Echo Show with an additional Echo Dot — $270

The Amazon Echo was an amazing device, but Amazon really upped its game with the Echo Show. This new piece of technology incorporates a screen, along with voice command capabilities.

The Echo serves as the hub for smart home technology, syncing seamlessly with key devices in your home. By using voice commands, the unit will turn lights on and off, change the temperature, provide reminders and much more.

We also recommend the addition of an Echo Dot, which will expand the systems capabilities by adding a satellite station. The Echo Show unit should be placed in a common area, such as a living room or kitchen. The Echo Dot is a smaller, voice-only-activated device that is perfect for the bedroom. The Dot can perform nearly all of the functions of the larger unit, but in a size more suitable for the bedside table.

Nest G3 thermostat — $250

Nest is the industry leader in smart home heating and cooling. This thermostat will sync wireless with the Echo unit, allowing you to raise or lower the temperature of your home with a simple voice command. The Nest also learns the patterns of your home, raising the temperature during key awake times and lowering it automatically when you’re sleeping or away. This automated learning helps to save money on costly heating and cooling bills, making it a no-brainer for inclusion.

Philips Hue starter pack with two additional bulbs — $110

Philips has developed a very sharp product with its Hue range of light bulbs and accessories. Each bulb fits into a regular, existing fixture, whether it be a table lamp or an overhead light. Once installed, the bulbs will sync with your in-home system so that you can order the lights on, off or dimmed with a simple voice command. If you want to get even fancier, you can upgrade your bulbs so that they can change color, providing hues from across the entire spectrum. One of the best features of these lights is that they can also be controlled from your smartphone, so if you’re coming home late, you can turn on all of the lights in the house before you even open the garage door!

Schlade Z-Wave Connect Century Deadbolt — $200

Have you ever settled into bed for the evening and wondered, “Did I lock the front door?” Of course you have! It’s at that moment that you have the conversation in your head about whether or not to get up from your cozy spot to go check. With the addition of this Schlade lock, however, you’ll never have to do that again. The lock connects to your Echo system, allowing you to open and close it with a voice command. It also offers the convenience of a keypad for an unlock code, in addition to the use of a regular key. Our favorite feature, however, is the built-in alarm system. It operates in three modes — alter, tamper and forced entry. This will allow you to know if someone happens to come through your door (such as a neighbor or maintenance worker) or if someone has tried to breach the lock through devious means. Oh, and it will send those alerts to your Echo and your smartphone, giving you around-the-clock notice of everything that is happening in the home.

So, there you have it. For a mere $830, any home can be upgraded to include the key features of modern smart homes. Plus, by offering the Amazon Echo as the key component of the system, homeowners can continue to add additional devices to the system. This makes a great marketing tool for retirement communities, as for just a small investment, they can advertise a modern (and expandable) product to potential residents.

Nonprofit life plan communities are incredibly focused on their mission and values. These qualities generally start with their board of directors in collaboration with senior leadership. However, the board isn’t at the community every day, working directly with those involved in carrying out the mission. The vision they so eloquently craft during their quarterly meetings may not meet the everyday needs of associates and residents. Getting your board of directors actively engaged in your community can create positive changes that can have a ripple effect throughout the entire organization. But how do you go about it?

We asked the leadership team at Saint John’s On The Lake, Milwaukee’s premier retirement community, how they engage their board of directors, which includes community and faith-based leaders that share a unified vision. Renee E. Anderson, president and CEO, offers some great suggestions!

Says Anderson, “Outside of the seven board of directors meetings per year, board members serve on one committee, which typically includes both leadership and residents. Board members are frequently seen enjoying life on campus — attending lectures, concerts, dining, using the gym and the pool or visiting family, friends or parishioners.”

Anderson’s statement provides some clear insights into how Saint John’s board is more than just a steering committee. Ensuring that your board feels comfortable visiting your community and utilizing its resources alongside residents and associates can have a significant effect. By being actively involved, they become visible members of the greater community, creating personal relationships with those they serve. Naturally, this will lead them to think about the impact their decisions have on those living there day to day.

Also, it should be noted that using board members on committees is critical. Where possible, these committee assignments should be directly related to a director’s personal and professional talents. It makes sense to have accountants on the finance committee and skilled trades professionals working with the facilities team, but don’t pigeonhole your directors so quickly! Give them an opportunity to express interests in the committee work to which they’d like to be assigned. If someone is crunching numbers all day professionally, he or she might be eager to serve on the resident relations committee, as it provides a new and interesting challenge that he or she might not otherwise face.

Keeping the board engaged as business leaders is also important. Luci Klebar, director of sales for Saint John’s On The Lake, provides some insight into how leadership stays apprised of the issues that impact operations.

She says, “The Board meets quarterly and receives a financial update and leadership update. Additionally, a dashboard that identifies KPI on which the organization is working overall is provided. If there are variances to goal, brief reports are provided.”

Klebar highlights another tactic for an engaged board — consistency. By providing a standardized report that includes performance indicators and goals, directors stay focused on the most important items and are able to compare apples to apples between meetings. Optimizing communications in this way will also make for more efficient and productive meetings.

Every board of directors is different, and what engages one board might not be suitable for another. Knowing what individual passions have brought your board members to the team will provide you with critical insights into how they can become an integral part of the organization’s leadership. New board members look to those already serving, including senior management, to find their role. In short, give them something to do that they both enjoy and find meaning in, and your board will be better for it!

Anyone who has worked at a retirement community, for even a short length of time, has encountered a resident that never receives visitors. The situations may vary from case to case, with one resident having no children or family, while another has an extensive family network that happens to live far away. Regardless of the reasons, lack of social interactions with the one’s you love will leave anyone in the doldrums. If this continues long enough, mental health issues could arise, leading to more severe repercussions. It’s important for residents to have visitors that actively engage with them. But, how do you encourage family and friends to come visit when, more often than not, the last place they want to spend their Saturday is hanging around a retirement community?

In 2010, the CDC conducted a survey at residential care facilities, asking participants how many times  a resident received a visitor from outside the community. While visitation frequency varied among the group, 8 percent of those surveys received no outside visitors in 90 days. Extrapolating this, how many residents does your community have? That means, for every 100 residents, roughly eight of them have not had any outside contact in the last month. Now that’s a statistic to be concerned about.

As a community, it behooves senior living providers to make visitation not only easy, but also enjoyable for everyone. Taking a creative look at ways to engage residents, their families and friends will help encourage more frequent visitations and improved morale.

Some ideas include:

• Mani/pedi day, where residents and their families can schedule a manicure with a professional at your community. Make sure to provide plenty of magazines and really go for the full salon experience!
• Provide designated areas for dogs at your community. This way, families can bring their pets for a day with a resident.
• Schedule a bus trip to a local restaurant and invite the family to have a meal with the resident outside of your community.
• Plan a movie night, with a newer film that families may not have seen before. Bring in a popcorn machine and candy to really provide the full movie-viewing experience!
• Families can bring unfolded laundry and visit while folding it. Yes, this sounds incredibly strange, but look at it from another angle. Many residents spent years being productive and contributing to their households. The ability to feel useful and needed again can be a big ego boost to someone who doesn’t see many visitors (but, make sure the resident is okay with this before coming with your duffel full of clothes!)
• Organize a resident-family scavenger hunt. This provides time for meaningful interaction with the resident, as well an opportunity to explore the community.
• Host a traveling zoo! Many local zoological societies have a traveling zoo that they can bring to your community. Residents and families alike will love this event!
• Produce a trivia night, just like at the local pub! Many times, events are geared toward families with children. But what about having a pub trivia night? Offer adult beverages and hire a professional to host the game. This could encourage 20-somethings to visit and engage with their relatives when they might not otherwise!
• Many communities have cooking classes or demonstrations already. Why not have one that is family-oriented, where children and grandchildren can assist the resident in making a delicious dish for all to share!
• For those active residents, how about an on-site sports league with family and friends! Billiards, bowling, bocce and tennis make a great option. Pairing an active resident with a younger family member in a multi-week league will provide a great reason for ongoing interactions.

The key to all of these ideas is simple — by creating a little bit of enticement, you can encourage residents’ families to visit more frequently, having more meaningful interactions in the process. At the end of the day, this will not only make your community happier and more lively, but it will give you a unique niche in the marketplace that many other organizations aren’t yet exploring.

The Better Business Bureau has declared May National Moving Month, a time when the rate of moves from one living situation to another dramatically increases. This trend can be seen across many demographics, from college students leaving their dorms to begin careers, to homeowners making a change. According to the United States Census Bureau, about one in nine Americans changes domicile every year, meaning that roughly 40 million of us will celebrate New Year’s Eve at a new home when 2017 comes to a close.

Moving is often cited as one of the most stressful events for people. The process of packing up one’s life and shipping it off to somewhere new is stressful enough. Top it off with the mountain of address changes, changing utilities and new municipalities, and it’s easy to understand how the whole process can be overwhelming! Now, let’s imagine that you’re 70 years old and haven’t had to move in 30 to 40 years. How daunting a task must that move be! That is exactly the situation that new retirement community residents are in.

As retirement community marketers and specialists, we realize that the biggest competitors a retirement community has aren’t other senior living options. Rather, it’s the home the potential residents are already in. As they contemplate the move, they begin to look around their homes and realize the scope of the task at hand. Cleaning out all of those closets full of memories, changing neighbors and routines, along with having to sell the home causes retirees an incredible amount of stress. How can communities overcome this?

It’s simple, really — solve the problem!

Okay, it sounds simple, but we know that it’s really not. Every potential resident is different. The challenges that one individual finds overwhelming can be completely unassuming to another. It’s the job of the sales person/marketer to listen closely to what the customer is saying, work toward identifying the problem, and then offer a solution. Sales are more often won by listening instead of talking!

Let’s use an example scenario for what this might look like in real life.

Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins have looked at your community for several months. They’ve come to events and have proven a solid lead. But you just can’t get them to sign on the dotted line. Time is running out, and soon they’ll be forced onto the waiting list if they don’t make a decision. You call the couple, getting Mr. Jenkins on the line. You explain the situation to him in hopes that you can push through to the sale. Mr. Jenkins remains reluctant, however. He seems particularly hung up on your pet policy, since he loves his bulldog, Bluto. You remind him that your community welcomes pets and that there are plenty of other dogs in the neighborhood where the Jenkins would reside. Still, he seems wary. When you push him about coming for another visit, he hands the phone over to his wife. You mention to Mrs. Jenkins about the pet policy and try to reassure her that Bluto would make a fine addition to the neighborhood. That’s when you find out what the real problem is. Bluto has been having some health troubles the last few months and has been to the vet several times. He’s on some new medications, and Mr. Jenkins is wary of having to switch vets in order to move to your community. Eureka! Now you know what the problem is and how to solve it.

How would you go about solving this sales problem? Perhaps you’d provide the Jenkins a list of nearby vets. But what can you do to really build the relationship and seal the deal? Perhaps you could arrange a meeting between the Jenkins and a local veterinarian that has a good relationship with the community. Maybe host a resident-lead event where they can bring out their pets to meet with the vet. Getting creative about solving the problem can make the difference between a missed opportunity and a sale.

With so many people looking to move in May, now is the time to think about how you can make moving to your community easier. Having a toolbox of unique and helpful solutions will enable you to build better relationships by listening to prospect’s real needs more than trying to meet perceived ones.

As the annual United States tax-filing deadline looms near, many are scrambling to assemble their documents and get their returns filed on time. When a person is young, taxes always seem so simple, but as we age, and as our financial lives grow, taxes get more complicated. Children, mortgages, business expenses ­— they all play a factor in how much each of us pays to the government. Then, children move out, businesses get sold, and mortgages get paid off, leading people to believe that their taxes just got a bit easier. Don’t be fooled! Boomers and seniors can be missing out on some major tax benefits by taking the simple way out and paying less attention to their filings.

According to the Tax Policy Center, filers over the age of 65 are the largest single group to benefit from special provisions of the federal tax code. Some people refer to these provisions as “loopholes,” but they’re not! They are built into the tax code to specifically help aging adults that may not have a large or stable income as they exit the workforce.

Everyone has heard that they should pay a professional to do their taxes because they will get more money back. However, the expense of the professional may cut into those returns severely, especially for low to moderate-income households. For Boomers and seniors, there are government programs that will provide professional tax preparation at little to no cost. One such program, titled VITA, offers free tax help to people who make less than $52,000 and need assistance in preparing their return. Additionally, there is the TCE program that provides free tax help to people over 60. This program specializes in help with retirement investments, such as pensions and 401(k)s. For retirement communities, these programs can be especially helpful to residents and their families. Encourage your residents to take advantage of VITA and TCE, and provide a place for individuals to meet with the volunteers during tax season. Ensuring residents are financially stable is critical to keeping them in your community.

Specialized tax credits are also important for the Boomer and senior population. The Elderly and Disabled Tax Credit is probably the most well-known, but it requires the use of a 1040 form (as opposed to the 1040EZ) to receive it. If the filer, or his or her spouse, is 65 years or older or is under 65 and permanently disabled, he or she could qualify. The only catch is income level, which varies on how someone files. The maximum yearly income allowed is $25,000 for those that are married and file jointly, and both must qualify. While this does limit the number of people who qualify, nonprofit communities that provide mission-based services may have many residents that could take advantage of this program.

Having tax specialists present at lead-generating events and resident gatherings isn’t new. By doing so, the community provides information to potential residents that helps them understand their ability to retire. It also benefits the tax professionals, as they gain clients. It’s an idea that has worked in many instances, but what can you do to freshen it up?

Instead of inviting just one professional, how about asking several — all specializing in different fields — to attend? Having a “finance fair,” with a wide range of experts, could be a great draw. If you’re working with a higher-income bracket of potential residents, have an “investment symposium” that concentrates on issues relating to larger investment accounts. Both of these can be great ways to generate warm leads for your marketing strategy.

Helping your residents and potential residents understand tax issues is in your best interest. It can keep current residents in your community and aid potential residents in understanding how affordable life can be by retiring with you. Connecting these groups to tax preparation resources isn’t just a kind-hearted move; it’s a fiscally responsible one that has real-world benefits for everyone involved.

Sources:

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/why-some-tax-units-pay-no-income-tax

Across the country, census rates for assisted living facilities are seeing declines. Health care and insurance organizations are working ever harder to keep older adults needing assistance with daily living in their homes, where costs of care are lower. Of course, mature adults also like this trend as they get to remain in their home, which creates a perceived “win/win” for both groups.

Once the foundation of retirement communities, assisted living accommodations are continually being downsized, and their space repositioned for apartments, common spaces and other profit centers. However, many communities don’t have the time, money or desire to remodel to meet these changing trends. How do they keep assisted living census high and deliver quality service?

Get your leads from many, varied sources

As the retirement field adjusts to changes in health care, we realize that leads are going to come from an increasingly wider array of sources. The standards of direct mail and print advertising must now be supplemented with digital ads. The decision-makers for those needing assisted living are commonly their adult children, and even their grandchildren. These groups intuitively turn to the digital space for help finding options and making good decisions. If your community isn’t well-represented with an actionable website, and optimized for searches, you are going to miss out on potential leads — guaranteed.

Follow up using the correct medium and in a timely manner

If a potential resident or his or her family has reached out to you asking for more information, act with haste. Provide them with the information they asked for, in the way they requested it, in a timely manner. This means that if someone specifically requested to be emailed information, then respond with an email — don’t pick up the phone right and try to make a hard sell. People are becoming increasingly wary of giving out their personal information online because they don’t want to be on the receiving end of a sales call. Yes, follow up, but do so in the medium with which the prospect is most comfortable.

Retain the residents you have

It’s easy to get tied up in the race to find new residents, moving them in as soon as possible to raise your census. But what about the residents you already obtained? Of course you can’t help when a resident passes away, but you can deal with dissatisfaction among current residents and their families. If they feel they aren’t receiving the care and attention that is needed, or the services provided aren’t up to par, they can and will take their business elsewhere. You must be proactive in engaging with your current residents, finding out what their needs and preferences are and satisfying them. It used to be that “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” That’s not the case anymore. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’re going to see diminishing returns by not keeping up with the desires of the market.

Potential residents and their families are increasingly turning to the internet to aid in their search for a retirement community. Nearly every community has a website, and most employ lead-generating tactics on them (contact page, downloadable brochures, etc.). But there is always room for improvement. Over a period of three weeks, we’ll provide you with three actionable tips that you can use to improve your digital footprint.

It’s Friday night, and you’re feeling great. You’re ready for an adventure, so you plan to try a new restaurant for dinner. Do you just pick one at random that you saw on a billboard? Probably not. You’re far more likely to give it a try if you’ve read glowing reviews on Yelp, Google or OpenTable. It makes sense, really. No one likes to go into a situation blind. The same sentiment goes for your potential residents.

The online reputation of your organization is just as critical to your success as Yelp reviews are to restaurants. The first step in improving that reputation is to know where people are looking for reviews. The biggest players, by far, are Google and Facebook. These sites allow you to review just about any product, with little to no oversight. Once a bad review appears on one of these pages, your only choice is to be open and transparent in your response. Unfortunately, most retirement communities aren’t even aware that these poor sentiments exist on the web — let alone how to respond to them.

One site that often gets overlooked is Glassdoor.com. Glassdoor is an employment site where potential employees can go to find reviews of an organization. It allows users to rate the interview process, share benefits information and comment on how they were treated as an employee. Have you looked to see if your organization is being reviewed on Glassdoor? Perhaps now is the time — especially as the employment market for skilled professionals, such as nurses, is getting more competitive.

Knowing what is being said about your organization is just the start. At Varsity, we help our clients be proactive instead of reactive. Businesses need to be actively establishing and managing their online reputations and working to build positive reviews on key websites. That way, when someone searches for a community, they’ll be overwhelmed with the positive reviews, while the negative ones are pushed to the bottom of the page.

Potential residents and their families are increasingly turning to the internet to aid in their search for a retirement community. Nearly every community has a website, and most employ lead-generating tactics on them (contact page, downloadable brochures, etc.). But there is always room for improvement. Over a period of three weeks, we’ll provide you with three actionable tips that you can use to improve your digital footprint.

Today we’re tackling the every important “call to action.”

A call-to-action, often referred to as a “CTA,” is a tool used in web design to direct the user to do something that the website owner wants. In the old days, this was a blinking piece of text that shouted, “CLICK HERE!!!!” Today, the CTA has matured into buttons, forms and other interactions. These elements have converted websites from being static, digital brochures to engaging marketing tools that put the user in the driver’s seat when it comes to how they are advertised.

Retirement community CTAs are most often an attempt to get the user to provide some personal contact information so that he or she can become a warm lead for marketers. The site might offer a free e-book or resource document in exchange for an email address or phone number. Potential residents may also be able to register for seminars and tours through a website call-to-action that encourages them to “Sign up now!” The trick is for the potential resident to make that initial contact so that a salesperson can follow up and begin working him or her down the sales funnel toward a move-in.

Mixing up these calls-to-action, offering different incentives and using different copy will help you determine which ones work best and which are ineffective. No one gets it right every time when it comes to marketing. Testing, honing and refining are key steps in creating strong, lead-generating CTAs. At Varsity, we’ve had the privilege of working with many varied clients, in all market conditions. Our curiosity drives us to continually test and refine the CTAs we develop for our clients. This accumulated knowledge and testing then proves its real-world value with not only increased leads, but better quality leads that are more likely to commit to purchase.

What does increased marijuana use among aging adults mean for retirement communities and health care organizations?

February was Marijuana Awareness Month. With the national attitude toward the drug changing sharply in recent years, use of the substance among many cohorts is on the rise. At one time, its use by Boomers and seniors was only acknowledged in hushed whispers. Today, those same users are being more open about the medical benefits and their enjoyment of marijuana recreationally, furthering the cultural shift surrounding its legalization in many states.

This attitudinal change is becoming especially prevalent among aging adults who are usually thought of as being traditional and conservative. Recent studies show that, while drug and alcohol use and abuse are down among teens, they are rising among those 50 and older. A 2013 study showed that 7.1 percent of adults aged 50 to 64 had used marijuana in the past 12 months, with projections that the statistic will continue to rise.

What does this mean for organizations working with this population and providing for its health care needs? According to the journal, Health Affairs, it’s having a major impact on the prescription rate of painkillers, antidepressants and several other classes of drugs. The typical physician in a medical marijuana state prescribed 1,826 fewer doses of painkillers in a given year following legalization. Not only does that statistic impact those prescribed the drug, but it also has a greater community impact for those addicted to prescription painkillers and the drug trade that is dependent on their availability.

For retirement communities, the situation is a challenge. In many states, communities are avoiding dispensing the drug themselves, leaving it to the resident to obtain the substance and self-medicate. Those that are managing its use are relying on synthetic versions under physician guidance; however, one common trait that remains is communities being smoke-free, regardless of whether or not the substance is being consumed.

More than half of all Americans live in a place where marijuana is legal for recreational or medical purposes. Many Boomers and seniors came of age during the 1960s, when marijuana was demonized and classified as a “Schedule 1” substance by the government. But, at the same time, teens and young adults were experimenting with the substance, learning firsthand that it wasn’t nearly as scary as the authorities described. Perhaps the direct experience of youthful rebellion has helped steer the changing dialogue around the drug as those young “hippies” of the 1960s have become the leaders of today.

Wouldn’t you like to know on which day of the week residents exercise most? In what weather they exercise least? Where staff and residents interact most on campus? The answers to these and other questions were revealed in a LeadingAge Annual Meeting & Expo session on data’s link to wellness. Missed it? Watch the video to hear residents and leaders share how big data makes a big difference in well-being.

The video kicked off “Linking Data to Wellness, a Personalized Approach to Well-being,” presented by John Bassounas, Partner, Varsity; Kevin Purcell, Chief Data Scientist, Varsity; and Justin Margut, Wellness Manager, Bethany Village Retirement Community.

The session revealed three important things data analysis can tell you about wellness:

1. The movement of behavior and trends among your residents at all levels of care
2. How residents use the resources and facilities within a community
3. Patterns of interaction between staff and residents along the continuum of care

For the rest of the session’s insights, contact us for an in-person presentation.