The home care industry is white-hot these days and smart senior care providers are looking for innovative strategies to capitalize on this growing market. With annual growth rates expected to reach up to 7.5%, the industry is estimated to be worth an astonishing $130 billion by the end of 2017.
So, how can home care agencies save a piece of this pie for themselves?
The key to success for most home care agencies is to create a stable referral stream. While freeing you from endlessly chasing individual clients, a referral stream provides a steady flow of new business coming in the most effective way possible. In a competitive industry like home care, obtaining the maximum number of referrals from physicians, hospitals, and various other sources, can mean the difference between a home care business thriving or struggling – or even closing its doors.
Here are some powerful strategies that can help boost your home care referrals.
Deliver Quality Care:
It isn’t enough for home care agencies to simply say, “Our caregivers provide outstanding service.” Your potential clients want to see the evidence of how true it is. Agencies need to focus on unequivocally establishing that the care they provide aligns with the care the clients require. They should ensure that their elder care plans are always up-to-date and that every member of their care team always has access to these updated plans.
Another very critical factor here is the accuracy in agency visit documentation. Client visits are often tightly scheduled, leaving caregivers with very little time during or between the visits to complete their notes. A digital documentation solution can be of great help for the agency owners in this case. It puts automated surveys, standardized assessment forms, and other critical material right at your caregivers’ fingertips.
Continuous Improvement:
Home care is unpredictable and services do not always go as intended. What agencies must do is demonstrate that they’re committed to continually improving their services.
Doing this requires home care agencies to keep an eye on how they provide care.
- They need to see if their caregivers stay long enough to accomplish the duties assigned to them. Do they stay too long – or not long enough? To validate the visits against your care plans, you need accurate Electronic Visit Verification data.
- Automation of the workflow and eliminating paper based processes is also a smart move. This improves caregiver efficiency, which further helps increase productivity.
Identify Your Best Promoters:
Identify your “happy” clients and ask them for a referral. The easiest way of doing so is to ask them how much they liked your services. Many times, happy clients keep their praise to themselves. To gauge the satisfaction of a client, ask them this simple question: “On a scale of 1-10, how would you recommend our services to others?” If your clients show willingness to refer their friends and family to you, they are satisfied with your services. Once you get a score from your clients, categorize their answers into given categories, such as the following.
- Promoters (score 9-10): These are your loyal clients who are most likely to promote you.
- Passives (score 7-8): These clients are satisfied, but may easily be enticed by competitive offerings.
- Detractors (score 0-6): These are unsatisfied clients who may pose a threat to your brand reputation through negative word of mouth.
Creating positive client experiences with these proven strategies will help pave the way for more referrals.