The Customer Service Imperative: Is Your Team Helping or Hurting Your Occupancy?

CustomerService-Blog

Jun 3, 2015 | Sales/Sales Training

As any savvy marketer will tell you, “word of mouth” is free and remains the most credible and influential form of advertising in the business world today. Now, traditional word of mouth has been made exponentially more powerful by social media with its instantaneous nature and large scale sharing capabilities.

If you weren’t focused on the importance of word of mouth advertising before, you should be now.

It used to be said that consumers who have a positive experience with an organization might tell up to six or seven others about it, but those who have a negative experience are likely to tell 20 or more.

Bad news still travels fast – more like at light speed today – and now the number of people hearing an unflattering story about your community can be mindboggling. Simply put, the rise of social media can make or break you. Therefore, being at your best every day has become not just a goal, but also an imperative in the increasingly competitive senior living space.

Customer Service: A Dying Art or a Huge Opportunity?

Karen Nelson Crolius, Senior Vice President & Senior Consultant for SageAge Strategies, says, “I routinely remind industry groups that the key to positive word of mouth lies in the day-to-day customer experience. This applies to virtually all customer groups including new prospects, current residents and their families and referral sources.”

“Today, it seems that great customer service has become a lost art, but for those who do it well, it serves as an effective strategic tool for helping them to stand out in the crowd.”

For some people, a pleasant demeanor and a helpful personality come naturally. For others, it is not so innate and is a skill that must be learned and consistently applied.

Adds Karen, “As many communities have experienced, you are only as strong as your weakest link. Unfortunately, a few bad apples can tarnish your entire brand. As a result, I spend much of my time conducting training for sales staff, first contact employees and care providers on best practices in service excellence and sales and retention optimization.”

What Creates Great Customer Service?

A person’s attitude, personality, demeanor and sense of service are among the critical factors for delivering superior service. Superior service encompasses the entire customer experience – from the moment a person logs onto your website, picks up the phone to call you walks through your community’s front door for the first time or beyond.

The real competitive edge is found in the way you treat your customers every day through every shift. Great service is found in simple acts of kindness, being understanding, empathizing, listening, being honest and showing a genuine desire to help. Great service is an advantage that costs you little or even nothing, but adds huge value to your community by creating new customers and keeping your current ones.

Great customer service happens by:

  • Developing trusting relationships
  • Taking the time to make every customer feel important and know you care
  • Listening to every customer like it’s the first time you’ve heard a story like theirs (even if it isn’t!)
  • Being flexible to meet with specific needs of each customer

Customer Service Is NOT A Department!

“When I’m asked what department should be in charge of customer service, I tell people that it is not a department, it is EVERYONE’S job. In fact, I encourage communities to include service excellence in every employee’s job description, from CEO to housekeeper, from the highest to lowest ranking employee.” Karen says.

What customer service is:

  • A personal commitment
  • Everyone’s responsibility
  • Part of everyone’s job description
  • Starts at the top of each department
  • Consistently role modeled by all members of the leadership team
  • Being available to customers when they need you
  • Going “the extra mile” to help them solve a problem

The First Point of Contact Is Crucial

First impressions count and they are lasting – both good and bad. What kinds of first impressions are you making every day? Are they consistently good? Are they exceptional and a legitimate point of differentiation from your competitors?

Karen says, “Those who are the first point of contact are the face and voice of your community. They hold your customers’ first impressions and potentially your customer’s business in their hands. They set the tone for what that customer’s experience with your community is going to be like. Do your first contact people sound cheerful, personable and engaged or passive and disinterested? It all starts with them.”

“Because of their importance and the potential for helping or hurting your organization, first contact training has become a major priority. A friendly, helpful and competent first contact person can help your clients feel at ease and confident in your community. And, in our business, trust and confidence are everything.

For many prospects, the first human touchpoint is a phone call. Karen offers the following telephone contact tips:

  • Ask for permission and wait for acknowledgement before you put customers on hold
  • Do not put customers on hold for more than 1 minute
  • Always listen completely
  • Help them – try your best to accommodate
  • Thank them – even if you’re transferring their call
  • Always ask permission to transfer their call
  • “Hold on, I’ll transfer you” is not sufficient
  • Take the time to communicate before making the transfer
  • Announce who you are transferring them to and direct a call back number
  • Let a staff member know the name of the person and reason for the call

Small Things Can Be Big Things to Customers

Karen says, “When I was in the hospital having major surgery, I closely watched every staff member come in and use the hand sanitizer before they approached me and before they left my room. This was a huge deal for me because I knew they were doing it to minimize my chance of infection. It was an important demonstration of the hospital’s customer-centered service excellence and what performance improvement organizations call a key ‘cue for quality’.”

There certain basic “cues for quality” for customers that can make a major difference in their perception of and experience with your community. These include:

  • Cleanliness – Keep it clean and keep it friendly. Seems almost too simple to mention – but that’s exactly the point.
  • Appearance – Hand-in-hand with cleanliness is the personal appearance and hygiene of staff. Do they represent you and your mission well? Do they look and act the part of service providers
  • Communication – Be clear and convey important information consistently and in timely fashion to your team. Do not assume employees know what’s expected of them. Tell them. In fact, tell them in every way you can from memos, posters, emails, tweets, staff presentations and one-on-one conversations. Leave no room for misunderstanding. Clarity and consistency are vital.
  • Thoughtfulness – Make sure to focus on each customer individually. Go the extra mile to ask thoughtful questions. Make them feel special.
  • Knowledge – Are employees well trained and educated? Do you test their knowledge? Are they evaluated based on their service skills with customers and fellow employees?

By creating a strong platform for consistently excellent service experiences for your prospects and existing clients, you can create a powerful engine for growing your reputation and building your occupancy. As many experts on the subject have written, service excellence truly is the ultimate weapon in today’s competitive marketplace.

We Would Love to Hear from You!

If you have comments or questions on the value of trait-based recruiting practices and best-practice sales training, we’d love to hear from you. We also encourage you to share any experiences you’ve had in these areas, whether they have been successful or not. Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

Growth-Focused Customer Service and Sales Training Assistance Is Available Today

SageAge Strategies is the ideal partner for strategically growing your sales and building your census. If you are a senior living provider considering the need for assistance in increasing sales through best-practice sales training, customer service and growth strategies, we encourage you to contact us for more information.

SageAge Strategies is a multiple award-winning, strategic growth and marketing organization that operates exclusively in the senior living industry and was recently named one of Inc. Magazine’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America. For more information, please call or e-mail Adrienne Mansfield Straub at 833-240-0655 ext. 202 / [email protected].

Contact us today!

Seniors & Technology: 5 Apps for Older Adults

Catch a glimpse into the digital revolution shaping senior living! Explore our curated list of top apps, empowering seniors with tools for health, connectivity, and enjoyment

Senior Living Reputation Management: How to Put Your Community’s Best Foot Forward

Mastering Senior Living Reputation Management In the rapidly growing senior living community sector, the integrity and perception of your brand will directly impact your success. Whether interfacing with senior adults, their adult children, referral sources,...

Marketing Events for Senior Living Communities

SageAge is here to make you stand out from the crowd with unique marketing ideas and events, helping you generate leads and enhance seniors’ lives.

7 Expert Tips for Maximizing Your Senior Living “Google My Business” Profile

As senior living marketing experts, we’re always looking for the best ways to improve our clients’ online presence. A client’s Google My Business (GMB) profile is one part of a greater digital presence, but it is truly an important component of online reputation and...

Where Should I Advertise to Seniors and Baby Boomers?

Marketing and advertising to seniors and Baby Boomers doesn’t need to be difficult. We’re here to help.

Senior Living Social Media 101

There’s a lot to know about senior living social media. From choosing a community’s social media platforms to implementing content marketing strategies and more, it can feel overwhelming to even the most seasoned social media gurus. What’s more, according to the Pew...

How To Develop a Senior Living Marketing Plan

What Is a Senior Living Marketing Plan? A marketing plan is also regarded as an advertising strategy that a company, in this case a retirement community, will implement to help them achieve (or exceed) their operational goals and marketing initiatives for a set period...

40 Years and 40 Pieces of Sage Advice

2023 has been a year full of new ideas, growth, and planning for the future. At SageAge, 2023 brings a significant milestone for our company – our 40th anniversary. In honor of our 40 years of delivering strategic marketing and business growth strategies to the senior...

The Best Senior Living CRM: Three Experts Weigh In

Looking to end your days of manually entering customer data in Excel? If so, a customer relationship management (CRM) tool is the perfect choice. Three of our senior living industry experts are weighing in on everything you need to know about CRM. Meet the SageAge...

How To Generate Leads for Senior Living Communities

Are you looking for ways to spark robust lead generation through your senior living marketing strategy? With the right team on your side and the right approach, it might be easier than you think. Check out some of these top ways to generate senior living leads through...
Share This