I am thinking requesting a tour at 5 pm on a Sunday afternoon may not be quite fair, but I did.
I think I need to be gentle here . . .
After two weeks straight of traveling, I spent this past week catching up on old stuff and taking care of new business. I was behind the eight ball, but needed some “get outside” time today (Sunday). I took care of that by doing a 5 mile hike with my 85 year old dad (gotta brag on him a little) and my dog. All of that meant not getting out to do my Senior Housing Forum On Tour thing until 5 pm today. I tried visiting two 40-70 unit Assisted Living / Memory care communities and found locked doors at both. After ringing the doorbell twice at the first community someone came and opened the door to let me in. It was hard for her, she was helping to serve dinner and had to break away to answer the doorbell. She opened the door and immediately headed back to her duties. I had to stop her to ask if I could get some information about the community. She said Monday through Saturday and maybe Sunday mornings would work, but that there were no managers available right then. I confess that after finding no way to get into the second building, I didn’t try very hard, I just gave up and went home.
Being Fair
Senior communities can’t and shouldn’t have marketing people in the building 24/7 and I think if there were ever a time to not expect prospects it would be a Sunday evening at supper time. That being said . . . .
- If I were a real prospect looking late Sunday afternoon I would probably not be particularly surprised to find no one to show me around. Many businesses, maybe even most, close early on Sunday evenings because they have figured out being open is a money losing proposition.
If I had a real need, been a real prospect I would come back the next day or the day after.
- On the other hand I can see a daughter coming off a trying weekend of caring for a loved one with dementia and at the end of her rope making the decision to go out and see what she can find before heading to work on Monday morning.
- Finally and kind of my biggest gripe is this: Why is it that operators do zero training on what to do or say to someone who comes looking for a tour or information at off hours? I was not even asked my name or phone number.
- While perhaps not necessary, always having someone trained to provide some basic information or to at least take a name and phone number could be the tie breaker that means getting a new resident or not. I find myself wondering what is that training or lack of training worth? $35,000 to $70,000 for each resident lost or gained.
I will try both of these buildings at more reasonable times this coming week.
After researching/visiting several CCRCs I have this to say about Marketing and weekends:
First, I would always call for an appointment. If my itinerary had me at a CCRC of possible interest on a weekend, I would start my “appointment” phone conversation with the Marketing person by saying, “I know your Marketing Department probably doesn’t work on weekends …. is there any way I could just show myself around your common areas, with some sort of authorization from you?” Many times I was hoping that the reply would be, “Oh, we do have someone here on weekends!” That didn’t happen, but I was impressed by the following responses:
“Since you’re coming from a distance and can only be on our campus on Saturday (or Sunday), I’ll make sure someone from Marketing is there at the appointed time of your arrival” or, “We have resident Ambassadors who show visitors around on weekends; I can arrange someone to meet you in the lobby.” (Admittedly, more than likely only CCRCs could utilize residents, as there is a population of independent living peope to draw upon.)
Because our society has a majority of adult children who work and these offspring have parents who need a facility, I’m surprised there isn’t more scheduled “weekend duty” of Marketing staff if a prospect calls ahead for an appointment. The M-F, 8 to 5 workweek shouldn’t necessarily exist for a senior housing institution that “runs” 24/7, and Marketing people should know this upon accepting the job.
Drop-ins with no call-ahead appointment, in my opinion shouldn’t expect red carpet treatment. A frazzled adult child who works M-F should call ahead for a weekend appointment and perhaps get lucky.
Or, how about I was waiting for a daughter who called me Friday morning and begged to come in Friday night. I made it a point to be there at 7:00…..and no daughter showed up. No phone call, no message. Where is the consideration for us who are in marketing, who have our own aging parents, kids, etc. we are taking care of?
I hope you called her and “nicely” asked if there was a misunderstanding (which there wasn’t; it was a clear act of inconsideration). I think it’s perfectly okay for a follow-up call that shows “I was here; where were you?” You are right — that shouldn’t happen.
I do agree with Steve on this. Someone should always be around to help that family member that just came from the ER where Mom fell at home and doctors are saying she cannot go back home alone. Hospitals nowadays tend to discharge patients any day or time and without notice. So that daughter that was at the hospital and the SSW is telling the daughter at 5pm on Sunday that she is being discharged in the AM and cannot go home alone.
Training your line staff to know where the brochures are. Location of the models. Taking some info from the walk in and making a quick phone call to the Marketing Manager so they can talk to the prospect right then and there if it is critical. Sometimes it is difficult to train your entire staff to do this but train the person in charge and If you don’t do this the next community they stop by may.
Maybe it’s just me, but if I were a proud and confident ambassador of my community, I would make my apologies that no one was available to tour them at the time, and then ask the prospective client if they would care to join them in the dining room and have a bite to eat with the residents! What a gracious gesture and first impression! The short-notice invitation to dine would show-case the community spirit of caring and willingness to be of service to others even if the prospect declined to dine. On the other hand, if the prospect enjoyed her meal experience while engaging with the residents and staff, the deal might be sealed right there and then!
This is such a great idea. The big challenge seems to be getting senior living communities to think about how they should deal with off hours visitors. It is really surprising that most communities seem to give this so little thought.
I guess it is somewhat difficult to train everyone, but something as simple as “If someone comes in looking for information, invite them in to look around. Here is where we keep some brochures and it would be great if you got their name and phone number so we could follow up the next day.”
Steve
As a manager of a seniors’ facility, I struggle between the urgency of maintaining the building and maintaining a sense of Sunday as a day of rest, or at least different from, all of the rest of the week, which we have found to be an expectation of our seniors’ community. Our staff would certainly offer a cup of coffee to a visitor, but our food is portioned, and while we always have lots, it is impolite, to say the least, to expect a meal on short notice. Our residents’ guests are invited with at least two hours notice for the food service staff so that the table can be set appropriately and no one feels displaced. Our first responsibility is to the residents who are living with us at the moment, and they do not appreciate delays or disruption, especially at meal time. Just wondering…For other business relating to your elderly loved one, would you expect your lawyer, or accountant, or social worker, or dentist, or mechanic for regular car maintenance to be available at suppertime on a Sunday?
Hi Kathy:
You make some great points and some thoughts:
– I would have been surprised even blown away if they had offered to feed me on that Sunday evening and of course here is the thing as I think about it, because it would have been unexpected it would have created a WOW moment and those are the kinds of moments that can make a difference between getting a move-in or not.
That being said, I had no expectation of the offer of a meal, and would have turned it down if it had been offered.
– On one hand I get what you are saying about not expecting other professionals to be available and yet none of those operate as a 24/7 business so it is not quite the same.
– For me on that inconvenient if she had just had a little bit more to say about the building other than there is no one here who can help you, I would have been impressed. Instead when I asked for a brochure she said they were all locked up, though it turned out there were some on the front desk.
I still sort land in the place that on one hand, Sunday night was far from ideal and yet, giving everyone some basic tools could make a difference between a move-in coming to you or going someplace else.
Steve