Managing customer experience in the retirement living and aged care sector

Organisations often get the art of sales back-to-front, investing in marketing without a strategy that clarifies what exactly they’re promoting. The retirement living and aged care market environment is increasingly competitive. To see a return on your investment — and ensure a positive customer experience — your overarching sales and marketing strategy must weave together all the key processes that make your organisation tick.

Today’s post is all about ensuring quality performance through each stage of the customer sales experience, from first impressions and keeping in touch all the way through to review and evaluation.

Customer experience

We all want to receive customer service that makes us feel welcomed, heard and ultimately wowed by the quality and fitness of the product we choose.

Today, as consumers, we’re increasingly aware of what an outstanding customer experience feels like — and more vocal than ever when we don’t receive it.

The retirement living and aged care sector is no different. According to KPMG’s report on customer-centricity in the ageing sector, consumers and families are looking for seamless, personalised services delivered in an environment where they feel respected and engaged.

First impressions count

A warm first impression is vital to building any successful relationship and the same goes for customer service.

In the retirement and aged care sector in particular, strong conversion relies on making a memorably positive impact in your presentation and your service.

Seeking out options is often an emotional experience. A prospective customer isn’t looking for the quickest, cheapest solution; they’re looking for rapport, reassurance, empathy and respectful engagement — not to mention quality accommodation and appropriate care.

A process that ensures consistent, professional service in line with your organisation’s values will smoothly manage a customer’s journey from initial contact to tour and follow-up — and drive sales conversions from the very first moment of awareness.

Try to map out a customer’s interactions with you across a range of touchpoints — social media, email, phone or in person — from start (awareness) to finish (conversion). Visualising this process will help you have every step of the customer journey covered, so you’re always ready with the next level of support suited to your prospective customer.

The customer journey

Think about how a customer’s interactions with you across a range of touchpoints — social media, email, phone or in person — might map out visually.

Mapping this process will help you have every step of the journey covered, so that a prospective customer doesn’t have to hunt around for what they need. Like a savvy butler, you’re at the ready with the next level of information and support.

Keeping in touch

The process of choosing a new home is inevitably a lengthy one, often stretching well over a year. Any organisation needs a tailored system to manage leads.

A quality CRM database and contact management plan will ensure you maintain engagement with prospective customers over time, as well as provide you with valuable insights along the way.

Tip: Keep your promises! For instance, if you say you’ll confirm an appointment the day before, make sure you do — and consider what systems you need in place to automate reminders to make following-up a cinch.

Continuous improvement

Strategy isn’t worth much without an ongoing system of review and evaluation that shows you which parts of your process are working and which aren’t.

Successful sales consultants set clear, measurable goals about what they want to achieve — and monitoring that performance will help drive continuous improvement.

But it’s more than simply reviewing the numbers. A good review and evaluation system analyses and learns from all the data available by assessing:

  • your sales ability and staff proficiency;
  • the effectiveness of your promotional activities; and
  • the quality and consistency of your service offering.

Tip: Don’t forget the power of word-of-mouth referrals — or warnings! If you don’t monitor your performance, your past and current customers definitely will.

Whatever your system of review, your two main goals are always to increase number of enquiries (from high-quality leads) and conversion rates.

Powerful processes

Developing these systems of best-practice processes — from first impressions through to review and evaluation — you and your team will be best positioned to:

  • make a positive impression with prospective customers;
  • offer consistent quality matching that positive impression;
  • support successful business outcomes through goal-setting, reviewing sales-management activities, and meeting legal obligations; and
  • support staff by providing clear expectations and training, increasing both productivity and job satisfaction.

Takeaway: As a first step, what KPIs could you put in place to more effectively track the customer journey and various processes?

At Edmonds Marketing, we work with a wide range of retirement living and aged care brands supporting them to define their sales and marketing direction and put plans in place to make it happen. We have specialist experience in assisting retirement living and aged care organisations to successfully navigate a changing market environment as well as expand business through new market development.

 If you would like to discuss, please get in touch with our team. We are forward thinking strategic marketing consultants who love unpacking complex brand and marketing challenges.

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