Five Lessons from 500,000 Hours of Family Time
Whether it’s the holidays, a family reunion, or an annual gathering, too much family time for many can be a little stressful. At A Place for Mom, it’s what we thrive on as an organization.
A Place for Mom specializes in helping families take the complexity out of their search for senior living solutions for their parent or loved one through the help of local Senior Living Advisors. In 2014 our Senior Living Advisors spent more than 500,000 hours working with individual families in support of their senior living search. We have one simple goal: Help families find the right solution based on their budget, healthcare, lifestyle and geography needs.
Every day we encounter families with similar issues, concerns and confusion. Helping them work through these issues is the value we provide to both our families and our partner communities. In 2014 we helped more than 200,000 families better understand their options. We’ve learned five major lessons when it comes to having a productive and educational conversation with families in order to empower them and help them feel confident while weighing their options and making a decision.
1. Qualification
One surprising lesson we have learned is that we shouldn’t refer most of the families that reach out to us. The simple reason is they are not qualified. Some don’t have a need, require government financial aid, or aren’t in a position to make a transition. Our call center agents and local Advisors pre-qualify families, saving our partners time and more importantly providing highly qualified leads to our partner network.
2. Care Needs
Families don’t understand the types of care available or the common industry definitions, so our Senior Living Advisors take the time to explain the differences in level of care and help them understand why a specific type of community is the best fit.
3. Financial Requirements
Families need help in understanding the financial requirements to support a transition. They need guidance when it comes to the different types of funding, the true cost of senior living, and what to expect when discussing rates with communities.
4. Lifestyle
Families aren’t aware of the many great options that exist throughout our partners’ communities that allow seniors to thrive both individually and socially. We often focus on the level of care, but forget that making the move to senior living should also improve the quality of life. We’ve learned to devote some time talking about activities, clubs, and other social events at communities that can drastically improve a person’s enjoyment of life.
5. Geography & Availability
Some major metropolitan areas have hundreds of choices with varying availability, waiting lists, and units. Our Senior Living Advisors help families narrow down their search and explore unknown options by shifting their focus to locations that may not have been obvious to the family, but could be a better fit for the senior. It’s worth driving a few extra miles if that community is going to feel like home.
Spending this much time working with families helps us refine our techniques and specialize in upfront consultation with families so that you can focus on helping them understand the benefits of your community. On average we spend 1 – 3 hours of time per family, saving valuable time for our partners and allowing them to focus on the rest of the sales process. When families come to tour a referred community, many of the qualifying questions have been addressed and the community director can focus on sharing the benefits of their individual community, care options, and services provided.
We love family time at A Place for Mom! Click here to find out more about how our Senior Living Advisors work with partners and families.