Category: Seniors Housing

At our virtual sales and marketing roundtable, we brainstormed tactics to help prospects overcome their reluctance to move during a pandemic.

Check out the takeaways below. Please also join us for our next roundtable, coming up this week.

Please join our next roundtable discussion on Thursday, September 24, at noon ET.

We’ll be joined by Lana Peck, Senior Principal at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC). She’ll be discussing insights from NIC’s ongoing executive survey. NIC has conducted 12 waves of surveys with C-suite execs, across senior living, with near real-time data on the pulse of the market and the fundamentals of senior housing. The study includes topics like changes in occupancy, how communities are supporting staff and reasons for acceleration and deceleration of move-ins (among other topics).

For log-in information, please contact DDunham@VarsityBranding.com.

 

Today I’m talking to Joe Gorman, Division President East at Morrison Living. Morrison Living provides culinary, design, wellness and environmental services to 450 clients in 41 states, including some of the most prominent senior living communities in the United States.

How are you keeping things safe at the communities you partner with?

At Continuing Care Retirement Communities, we have an in-depth checklist to make sure that associates are safe; that the environment is clean, sanitized and effective; and that we’re thinking through all the elements so that, when communities are getting ready to restart and reopen, they’re in the best possible situation.

We’re doing some unique things—working with different types of communities that are having challenges. They’re looking for the expertise, help and compassion we can provide.

If they need to make design changes, they can turn to our subject-matter experts. We can also help them as they make labor changes so that they can be both efficient and sensitive to what residents need.

Communities may have had two dining services a day. Now, to keep people socially distanced, they have four or five services, as well as a dining room functioning at 25 to 50 percent capacity. They need resources and tools to manage these challenges. We have a robust restart program that addresses these areas, so no one feels alone.

We’re also getting calls from clients asking, from an environmental perspective, what should we be doing? What about disinfectants? We’re enhancing our environmental teams and restructuring to make sure that we can fulfill the needs of all these communities in various geographic areas.

How does your parent company, Compass Group, help you support your communities?

Compass Group, a best-in-class organization, provides food and support services to millions of people across the globe. They’ve published a guide to helps their 25 business sectors deal with the COVID-19 environment. Called “Stay Safe, Eat Well,” the guide is comprehensive, because it has to address the COVID-19 issue in every sector. It gives us resources, technology, design and wonderful tools that can cross over every sector. One of my favorites is ChefNet, a network of local and celebrity chefs who make virtual appearances at communities. They teach kitchens to lift residents’ spirits and show them how to make exciting new dishes.

How are you restarting and reopening communities?

We have a robust platform: ReSTART + ReNEW. In our industry, as the virus changes, reopening practices have to match the needs of different states and counties, at different times. Our plans have to be flexible in addressing the ever-changing environment. When COVID-19 started, we collaborated with our best subject-matter experts in all categories. We immediately looked at how to handle this situation. Now, we have an in-depth formula that we follow depending on the level of care required.

We’ve reopened multiple communities in the middle of this pandemic. One innovation is at The Templeton of Cary, a brand-new CCRC, where residents are moving in right now. We’re introducing a robot that is helping staff by clearing plates, so employees aren’t handling multiple plates, and they can spend more quality time interacting with residents. Learn more about Penny,  the self-driving robot.

What kinds of design changes are you making?

We have a robust team of culinary innovators and designers. They work with design companies and architects to enact multiple changes. As self-service, with beverages and salad, goes away, for social distancing reasons, we’re coming up with different innovations and platforms to solve those problems. Morrison Living’s team is critical right now. People have to make major decisions in a very short window of time.

You think about the pressure that communities are under right now—what they’ve gone through is unprecedented, unbelievable. We want to give them tools and resources so that they don’t have to feel that they are alone, and that they are getting the help they need.

During our latest COVID-19 roundtable, communities talked about the changing moods in their respective states and exchanged advice for successful virtual events.

Dig into the summary below. Please also join us for our next roundtable, coming this week!

Please join us for our next roundtable discussion on Thursday, September 10, at noon ET.

Aging-services expert Scott Townsley from Trilogy Consulting will join us to discuss consumer research and other insights related to the pandemic.

For log-in information, please contact DDunham@VarsityBranding.com.

 

Last week, at our sales and marketing roundtable, communities shared creative ways to drive move-ins and brainstormed solutions to their biggest reopening challenges.

Dig into the recap below. Please also join us for our next virtual roundtable, coming this week!

 

Please join our next roundtable discussions on Thursday, September 3, and Thursday, September 10, at noon ET.

On September 10, aging services expert Scott Townsley from Trilogy Consulting will be joining us to discuss consumer research and other insights related to the pandemic.

For log-in information, please contact DDunham@VarsityBranding.com.

 

At our weekly sales and marketing roundtable, Varsity team members Cory Lorenz, Media Director, and Cara Stefchak, Senior Social Media Strategist, joined us to share their thoughts on social media and digital media use during the pandemic.

Check out the highlights below. Please also join us for our next sales and marketing roundtable next week!

Thoughts on social media from Cara Stefchak: 

Hello, everyone! Last time I joined you, I talked about content creation and brainstorming around what makes good content and best practices. I wanted to keep it more informal this time. I wanted to address some things I saw in last week’s roundtable—activities that I thought would make great social content.

• Think about how a video tour or other event can be leveraged on social
  • I encourage you to work with whomever is filming and editing to get multiple deliverables out of a project. Engagement falls off at the two-minute mark for Facebook content, and one minute for an Instagram post. Always look at what your video is—how you can slice and dice it in different ways to provide you with legs on social media.
  • Design for sound off. We always encourage people to keep in mind that viewers may have their sound off. If someone is narrating the tour, include captions and include your logo early in the video to help communicate your message.
  • Two minutes is the longer end of things. Really, you have probably just a few seconds to get your audience’s attention. With a community tour, you probably have more leeway, but it’s still a good idea to catch their attention in the first few seconds to get them to hang on a little longer.
  • Question: How do you upload a longer video?
    • Answer: If you upload a video that is longer than one minute to Instagram, it will prompt you to go directly to Instagram TV. It will sense that it is too long for the feed, and that it should go to Instagram TV.
  • Question: Can you add captions to an iPhone video? 
    • Answer: You can’t do Instagram Live or Facebook Live with captions—you have to add them post-filming. Facebook has smart captioning, and it might be able to detect your voice, but I would still go back through and make sure everything is correct.

• Virtual events make great social content—whether it’s bingo, or happy hour, or having folks share a meal in their room.
  • Always try to remove as many barriers as possible for participation.
    • Prepare for the event in advance (provide the cards, markers, and step-by-step directions for logging on) to make it as user-friendly as possible.
    • Snap a photo of care packages/prizes outside doors, and share on social media channels. Doing so shows that, even though there’s social distancing, your teams are doing their best to keep residents engaged.

• • Question: Do you keep the activity in small groups of 5 or 6 or a bigger group of 30?  
    • Answer: Smaller might be helpful depending on how much participation you anticipate. You can communicate more easily that way and have more back and forth. When you get in those larger Zoom meetings, it’s hard to jump in and speak up. Smaller breakout groups are definitely a nice idea.
  • Tip: It doesn’t have to be: “We need to do something for social content.”

A lot of things you’re already doing. Ask yourself: What activities do we have that could be nice to capture and share out on social? It’s a smart way to show people that life is going on, and life is still great in the community. It’s always nice when you can share a virtual event. It gives an impression of vitality and vibrancy.

• What virtual events are you doing right now? 
  • We’ve posted some of our activities on Facebook—short programs with people exercising in the courtyard.
  • One community wanted to have a celebrity chef do a cooking demonstration, so they sent ingredients to those who RSVPed. We’re still working on setting it up

• What moments are coming up that you could build an event around?

September 16 is National Play-Doh Day. Maybe artists can create with Play-Doh. It’s an excuse for something fun. There’s never a shortage of those interesting holidays that you’ve never heard of.

Grandparents Day: What a time to highlight intergenerational connections.

Instead of having grandchildren visit, grandparents can make gifts for grandchildren, and they could be delivered.Grandparents can share advice for grandchildren, and it can be shared on social.

• Is anyone addressing COVID concerns directly in social content? If so, what response have you gotten?
  • I follow a lot of clients and I haven’t seen much lately.
  • We’ve been sharing our COVID status and policies via Constant Contact. People are sharing how grateful they are that we are taking care of the community. We’ve been COVID-free since June 1.
  • Have you purposely not put that content on social? No, we just haven’t thought about it, but I guess we also haven’t wanted to brag about being COVID-free because that could change tomorrow.
• Question: A lot of people I know had their Instagram accounts hacked. How can we stop that?
  • Answer: Update your passwords. (Since our personal Instagram is our gateway to community sites, it’s even more important to make that more secure.) Another person said, “I recently had my accounts hacked. There’s a link you can use to report to Facebook that this isn’t you.”

Cory Lorenz presented an Enquire data slide showing recent media trends:

Cory: Social media inquiries are up year to year, and email is up huge. Conversely, direct mail is taking a hit, and out-of-home and paid referrals are way down. We’re curious whether this looks accurate to you for your specific communities. Are you seeing the same trends?

• Internal referrals are down a little, but we’re working on a new testimonial campaign
• We’re getting more leads from the internet and email; direct mail has flattened out.
• We’ve cut way back on direct mail and advertising—it’s expensive in big-city markets. Most of my referrals are coming fromfriends, family and other people who are aware of the community.
• We are getting more internet advertising referrals, and paid professional referrals are down. Since you can’t have events anymore, that’s one reason direct mail is taking such a hit.

Please join our next roundtable discussion on Thursday, August 27, at noon ET.

For log-in information, please contact DDunham@VarsityBranding.com.

 

 

In our most recent sales and marketing roundtable, community marketers shared their recent sales ups and downs as well as some valuable tips for virtual events.

Check out the recap of our discussion below. Please also join us for our next sales and marketing roundtable next week. Details are at the end of the post.

Please join our next roundtable discussion on Thursday, August 20, at noon ET.

Cara Stefchak and Cory Lorenz will join us to discuss social media and digital media usage during the pandemic.

For log-in information, please contact DDunham@VarsityBranding.com.

 

In this guest post, Jill Janes, vice president of sales and marketing at Methodist Retirement Communities (MRC), shares her thoughts on how to market and sell communities during COVID-19.

The current environment is a challenge for salespeople and marketers, but at no point has giving up been an option. It’s the same as facing any other obstacle in the sales process. It’s our job to get around it. That’s what we do. Here are some tips and techniques my sales team is using to overcome the challenges of COVID-19.

1. Stress the Positives of Senior Living

Residents who move to senior living regain ground. They slow down the aging process; they became more social, active and intellectually stimulated. We’ve lost ground during these past four or five months, but I believe 100 percent that our residents are still aging in a superior fashion to those living in their homes right now.

Our residents are enjoying three delicious, nutritious meals, delivered to their doors every day. There are virtual exercise and wellness programs, socially distanced opportunities to engage with others, consistent education about illness prevention, and resources for grocery delivery so that they don’t have to leave their communities. Someone aging in their home doesn’t have any of that. It’s important to stress these benefits during your conversations with prospects.

2. Understand the Shifting Customer Profile

Our customer profile is changing, specifically for independent living sales. Customers were always intrigued by a maintenance-free, worry-free, lock-it-to-leave-on-vacation lifestyle. They found it appealing to get rid of a big, cumbersome house and find a new world of friends and neighbors. That’s no longer our message.

For the youthful senior who would’ve normally been attracted to this lifestyle, they’re pulling back. The ones who are leaning forward are older, more frail; they’re saying, “Oh, you’ve got three meals delivered to the door? You coordinate grocery delivery?” The people who are active and well don’t feel the pressures of the pandemic as much as those who are frail or less mobile, or who have transportation issues.

We’re finding that the people we’re bringing in the front door are coming to us with a genuine need more than ever before. We’ve had lots of sales despite the pandemic, but they’ve shifted; they’re from a need-based group of folks.

As an industry, we must shift our expectations for continued attrition—add shorter lengths of stay at all levels. Residents are aging, and people are coming in frailer than ever.

3. Use Creative Tactics for Keeping Depositors Engaged

To keep depositors interested, we have to change tactics. Normally, the way we sell our community is through experiences—come have lunch with us, meet our residents. The question now is, how do we create ways to bring the experience to depositors when we can’t have them on campus?

What we’re doing is taking the experience to them. We’re giving people opportunities to taste our food by having our chefs make mini-casseroles—or lunches that we’ve boxed up, with yummy desserts—which we take to their homes. Depositors are receiving one meal a week, and getting activity packs with games and puzzles.

At these visits, we’re getting our sales staff in front of depositors to nurture the sale. One sales counselor went to a home and saw that the person needed their lawn mowed. He had it mowed and dropped off a pie with a note; it said, “We wanted you to have a taste of a worry-free lifestyle.”

4. Provide Peace of Mind During Troubling Times

There hasn’t been a single thing since mid-March that has lined up with expectations—everything has been unpredictable and up in the air. The most valuable things we can give back to seniors are a sense of control, security and peace of mind. Potential language to use: “When everything is crazy and unpredictable, it’s nice to have something that you’re in control of.” “It has always been important to plan ahead, but it has never been more critical that you secure a plan for your future—in a community with excellent infection control and quality measures.”

5. Accept Deposits Without a Move-in Date

We’re now accepting risk-free deposits without a move-in date, but we’re telling people that, by the end of the year, we’re going to reassess.

6. Offer Preapproval for Life Care

We’re offering to preapprove candidates for our Life Care Communities right now. If they pass a medical exam and have a health crisis in six months, they’re already approved for Life Care. We may reassess this policy at the end of the year, so this is not forever. People need to take advantage of it while we’re in this unusual situation.

7. Increase Bonuses for Resident Referrals

Most of our traffic and successes are coming from people we have relationships with, through resident referrals and friends of the community. Our residents are saying, “This is wonderful; they’re taking care of us so well.” To thank them for their participation, we’ve dialed up our residential referral bonus an extra $500.

8. Offer Incentives to Sales Staff

We’re adding commissions now too. After their first move-in for the month, for every additional move-in, salespeople will receive $500. This discourages them from letting the deposit linger, and encourages them to cross the finish line.

We hope you found these tips helpful! Read more sales and marketing advice in another guest post by Jill: Using a Blue-Sky Approach to Sell Current Inventory. 

 

 

As communities gathered virtually last week, most people seemed to be feeling frustrated, finding that prospects of late are need-driven. On a positive note, salespeople realized they aren’t alone, and it was comforting to know that others are in the same boat.

Check out the highlights of our discussion below. Please also join us for our next sales and marketing roundtable, coming up next week.

J

Join the next sales and marketing roundtable on August 13!

Please join our next roundtable discussion on Thursday, August 13, at noon ET.

For log-in information, please contact DDunham@VarsityBranding.com.

 

 

At Thursday’s sales and marketing roundtable, communities met virtually to discuss their reopening challenges. Mark Ingram, CEO of SenioROI, joined us to share his thoughts on direct marketing and list procurement in the time of COVID-19.

Check out the recap of our discussion below. Please also join us for our next sales and marketing roundtable, coming up next week.

Today’s guest: Mark Ingram, CEO, SenioROI

SeniorROI has worked in the retirement industry for 20 years and offers a variety of services related to data on senior living. We lived through the 2008 financial crisis, but this is different. This situation will last longer, and it’s already having a different effect on the industry. Some of the creative methods we’re using may stay around after the crisis, but we have to get through this. Here are some tips to connect with prospects:

• Stay productive now, and prepare for what’s next
  • Lessons learned from 2008
    • Stay in front of waiting lists
    • Follow up on leads
    • Mail (mass and personal)
    • Phone calls
    • Curated gift boxes targeted to your prospects (senior-related, COVID-19-related, people whose adult children live far away)—the gifts let people know you’re thinking about them and brighten their day
    • Send a meal from the community to the top 5% of the database
    • Use time wisely to capture the leads that are ready!

• What can you do right now?
  • Harness the power of your CRM. Clean up your internal database. Determine how many of your leads have moved to a competitor, how many are deceased and how many have moved out of the target market. (In case of a death, append the spouse’s name—it could trigger a buying behavior.)
  • Append demographics. You can do a reverse-append from email, and/or mobile, to get the postal data 50 or 60% of the time. If you have the postal data, you can append home equity, age, financial information, spouse’s name and age, or third person in home. Put the info in your CRM using custom fields—and make sure the sales team knows how to use it. Example: “We’ve got a one-bedroom unit; let’s find all the single females who can afford it.” Think about different scenarios, and get the sales team comfortable with appended data. Once you understand the prospect, it changes the conversation and helps the sales team dramatically.
  • Create a profile of your best prospects. Look at age, financial and geographic information that will help you buy the right list. Once you have the list, you can do direct mail, but it’s not the only thing you can do with a database. When you have the postal addresses, you can match individuals on Facebook. Some of the highest match rates will be through mobile devices and email, but you need a postal address to do that. Once you can match people on Facebook, you can serve them digital ads, through addressable geo-fencing, that go to their phone, laptop and desktop. Note: Addressable geofencing is essentially putting a digital fence around their address and serving ads to devices that are active in that zone. Looking at the database a little differently is extremely important to maximizing its value, or what you get out of it.
  • How many records do you need to create a profile? You need about 300 to 500 records. There are different segments in the profile. One is existing residents, which can go back 2 to 3 years, but the most relevant data is within the last year. Every status code should create a profile—a move-in, a tour, a lost lead.
  • Tips on purchasing a list: When you’re buying data, ask specific questions. Three to 10 percent of the data is outdated the day that you get it—that’s the acceptable percentage in the industry. People have moved out of the market, are deceased, etc. Ask your list provider: How often is the data updated? What compiler is it coming from? There are a ton of sources, some better than others; all have strengths and weaknesses. Some of the best data comes from using a multi-source compiler—that’s what we do. Ask specific questions.

• Direct mail during COVID-19—does it work?
  • It can definitely work and be part of your overall marketing plan:
    • Success story: After a $21,000 spend, a client got the following results: “After cleaning up our database, and appending key demographic and financial data, including email addresses, we identified metrics for a new purchased list for lead generation. This led to a successful webinar series, generating 164 new leads, 5 new sales and 5+ wait-list sales in just two weeks.” – Jeanne La Roe, Marketing Director, Givens Estates 

• Is there a concern with touching mail that comes to the house?
  • We’ve got some research from the Postal Service, and one of the direct marketing associations, that shows there is no evidence of COVID-19 being spread through the mail. Prospects look forward to going to the mailbox—it may be the only thing they’re doing to get out of the house every day
  • Here’s some information on this question:
    • From CBS News
    • From the USPS
    • From the CDC: “There is still a lot that is unknown about COVID-19 and how it spreads. Coronaviruses are thought to be spread most often by respiratory droplets. Although the virus can survive for a short period on some surfaces, it’s unlikely to be spread from domestic or international mail, products or packaging. However, it may be possible that people can get COVID-19 by touching a surface, or object that has the virus on it, and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”

• What can you do if people get mail for a deceased loved one and threaten to sue? Each community should keep its own “do not mail” list on file. As these calls come in, address the issues, and provide callers with a link to be removed from lists. Make sure you have that “do not mail/call” list, and make sure your provider is taking people off the list. Deceased suppression should be run every time you send a direct mail. Doing that decreases the chance that you will get a call like that. Most people who aren’t in the retirement industry don’t understand why this is so important.

Please join our next roundtable discussion on Thursday, August 6, at noon ET.

For log-in information, contact DDunham@VarsityBranding.com.

 

At our 18th sales and marketing roundtable, communities contributed ideas and talked about changes on their campuses. This week, Adam Grafton, vice president of culinary for Morrison Living, shared his tips for elevating environments while keeping communities safe.

Here are some tips from Adam’s discussion:

He and other Morrison Living employees live by this motto: “Through compassion and dedication, creating an equitable approach to memorable experiences.”

Elevating Experiences in the Next Normal

• Assure Safety
  • It’s obviously more important than ever
  • How are we communicating this to current and future residents?
• Deliver Care
  • Care of associates and residents
  • Focus on wellness
• Take Action
  • Look at opportunities to create innovation now and for the future

Culinary

Take Action:

• Wellness
  • Set snack time with fun vibes (music and dancing)—all while social distancing
• Flexibility
  • Residents have been introduced to different styles of service and food

and will want flexibility moving forward

Consider creating a marketplace for groceries for purchase or delivery

• Cognitive health
  • Superfoods—virtual demonstrations through community channel (e.g., health benefits of citrus)

Technology

Take Action:

• Wellness
• Equitable food solutions
  • iPads with menus
  • Self-order kiosks
  • Residents able to view nutritionals
  • Technology connects directly with POS at community
• Flexibility
• Cognitive health

Innovation

Take Action:

• Independence
• Variety and flexibility
  • Takeout becomes more important, as well as other styles of service
  • Heavy on tech side with automated machines
    • Takeout lockers
    • Automated salad makers
    • Automated barista coffee machine
    • Virtual teaching kitchens
    • Robots to help assist with service
  • Experience
  • Socialization

Training + Engagement:

Take Action:

• Retention
  • Let residents know that you’re thinking about them during this time with a takeout/delivery menu
  • Alcoholic/nonalcoholic drink kits to coincide with current events (e.g.,mint juleps for Kentucky Derby—which will be held on Saturday, September 5, this year)
  • Note that takeout items must be carefully selected as not everything will travel well
• Safety
• Pride of ownership

 Additional discussion:

• Social distancing
  • Distancing of tables
  • Encourage reservations and staggered seating times vs. everyone attending at 4:30 p.m.
  • Dining rooms won’t be filled since there will be so many different types of services (market cafe, takeout, sit-down dining, etc.)
  • Staying 6 feet apart will be the new norm
• Signage
  • Essential signs (floor/reminder to stay 6 feet apart)
  • General signage that assures residents, staff and visitors of the extra precautions your community is taking to keep them safe (washing hands/hand sinks)
• Dining updates
  • We’ve reopened our dining rooms, but only at 25% capacity. They are being used at all hours (7 a.m.–7 p.m. for bistro and 5–8 p.m. for fine dining)
  • Our bistro is open with limited service times

Join the next sales & marketing roundtable on July 30!

• Please join our next roundtable discussion on Thursday, July 30, at noon ET.

Mark Ingram from SenioROI will join us to share his thoughts on direct marketing and list procurement in the time of COVID-19.

For log-in information, contact DDunham@VarsityBranding.com