Discovering how the public goes looking for senior living options.
Photo: pixelperfectdigital.com
I grew up in the town of Paradise, California a sleepy little foothill town of mostly retirees (when I was growing up). There were no signal lights and no fast food restaurants save A & W Root Beer. Even though I was teenager we all knew where the retirement homes were because we drove by them every day. If we didn’t, there was advertising in the “Paradise Post”, the town’s weekly paper that everyone read. In that town and that time, promoting a senior living business was simple and effective. While I don’t know for sure, I suspect that everyone in town, via word of mouth, knew which places were good and which were not so good.
It’s Not So Simple
It would be terrific if marketing senior living communities were still that easy (I would acknowledge it is likely there are some small towns where it still more or less works like this). Today, we have fewer little towns, fewer people reading the newspaper and more than anything else, a very low level of trust when it comes to traditional print or web advertising. Hard Data In April, Caring.com, a Senior Housing Forum Partner, completed an extensive research project to better understand how individuals shopping for senior living go about the search process. Here are some of the highlights:
- Today brand name means almost nothing to consumers, meaning it would be rare for consumers to search using company or community names like Brookdale or Sunrise
- Only 15% of prospects started with the name of a senior housing community or company
- 73% start with a general term like assisted living, senior apartments or senior housing
- Of those using generic terms, their patterns looked like this:
- 21% looked at a directory or comparison site
- 23% visited the website(s) of senior living communities they were familiar with
- 29% went to every site that came up in the search starting at the top of the list
- When asked where the best senior care information is found, 78% felt senior living customers were the best source of information while only 25% felt the senior living company itself provides the best information.
- Most Trusted Sources for Reviews:
- 43% of those survived said they trusted senior care website reviews.
- 22% indicated they trusted reviews posted on the community websites.
- Surprisingly 10% or less trusted reviews at sites like Yelp, Facebook and Google+.
Using The Information
To be effective you need to have a multipronged web strategy that would ideally include the following:
- A great website with up to date information. This means no activity calendars from 2013, or where the most recent press release is from 2011. You need to check your “about” page to see if it is current. Make sure there are no broken links. The site should be updated at least monthly.
- Current information at Yelp and Google Local (Google+)
- A Facebook page that is regularly updated
- You should consider paid enhanced listings on multiple web aggregation sites
- Ask families, residents and other visitors to provide consumer reviews at places like Caring.com, Google Local and Yelp
- Monitor what people are saying about you on consumer review sites.
If you would like to take a deeper dive into the data, Caring.com is presenting a webinar on their findings on Thursday, June 26, 2014 at 11:00 am PDT. There is no cost, but space is limited and you can register here:
How Consumers are Searching Senior Care and Housing Today
Steve Moran
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Did Caring.com publish their findings anywhere? If so, I’d love to see a link. I’m just disappointed that they would lump Yelp and Facebook together as they are two entirely different things with very different purposes.
Yelp is nothing BUT reviews, and with a growing reputation of the reviews being very fake and untrustworthy. If there is a national incident… for instance, the little girl with facial scars recently kicked out of a KFC, then everyone flocks to Yelp to berate them, even though they have never been to that particular restaurant and probably live across the country. That’s not a “review.” That’s public shaming. Yelp is also plagued by litigation and allegations of extortion.
Facebook added a review tab within the past 8 months or so (just because all the cool kids were doing it). The reviews are not the first thing you see and it’s really a very small part of the Facebook experience. What you get right off the bat is an organic, ever-evolving billboard that shows exactly what happens at a community. It’s real. It’s gritty. It’s honest and can’t be faked.
Sure, I’m biased. Facebook is what I do. We have 50+ active, engaged facebook pages and very, very few reviews on Yelp. Though, my favorite Yelp review is the one about one of our greater Boston-area communities where the reviewer says it’s the best Chinese bodega around.
I have the same question as Melinda. Do you know whether Caring.com has or is going to publish the findings anywhere? I unfortunately have a conflict on the 26th and will not be able to participate in their webinar.
Thank you, Melinda, great job in clarifying differences in Facebook and Yelp reviews.
I look forward to the webinar! Thanks, Steve, for letting us know.
I will confess that I am the one who did the linking of Facebook and Yelp, not because they are similar in what they do, but rather because they had similar numbers with respect to trustworthiness.
This link will give you some additional detail: http://providerblog.caring.com/finding-senior-care-online
Steve
Learning how we can better assist older adults and their families find the senior community that is right for them is of utmost importance. Gaining their trust in the process, priceless. Thank you Steve for providing the additional detail link. I’m looking forward to the Webinar too.