It’s almost that time of year again folks! There’s going to be a chill in the air, a crunch under our feet, and a big spike in home care management inquires coming your way. As people get together with their families visiting relatives they haven’t seen throughout the year, some things may become apparent. Your Uncle still can’t slice a ham, but maybe this year you notice that mom and dad aren’t getting around as easily as they used to. These seasonal get-togethers are the reason we see large increases in inquiries for home care staffing services, specifically non-medical home care, after the holidays. This is a time for everyone to come together, and out of these meetings can come shared observations and mutual ideas about how to care for the aging members of the family. This is such a common phenomenon that according to Senior Housing News, the first weeks after Christmas are the busiest time of the year for home care management inquiries. Is your office prepared? If not, here are our three “target areas” where you should focus to make the most out of upcoming flood of curious callers.
Dedicated Phones
Odds are, your company is not the only player in your market. When a potential client is going through their list of companies, it is likely that a busy signal or voice mail prompt will simply allow them to cross you off their list and move on to the next one. To prevent these clients from falling through the cracks there should be dedicated people using dedicated phone lines to handle inquires for home care staffing services. We put so much effort into getting potential customers to call us, doesn’t it make sense to have someone there to answer the phone?
The Pitch
Is your company still reading off the same script its used for the last five years? Ditch the script and start working a new fresh sounding pitch. As much as we’d like to believe that our callers aren’t talking to our competition, believe me, they are. It is important to set yourself apart right from the start. Make sure the person answering the phone is the person the customer needs to talk to, no one likes to be passed around until someone can help them. Don’t assume your customer is ignorant, instead of explaining what non-medical home care is, use that time to explain what sets your company apart from all the other home care management companies out there. If your pitch is the same as the competition’s, how is the customer supposed to tell you apart?
Initial Visit Staff
If we’re doing our jobs right, an increase in calls should translate into an increase in customer acquisitions. First impressions matter more in this business than they do for most. An increase in the amount of client first visits shouldn’t put a strain on your staff. Make sure you have people trained and ready to handle the uptick in appointments. The last thing you want is to make your new client feel rushed, or let them see you struggling with workload on the very first visit. The busiest time for home care staffing services coincides with some of the most popular travel times, make sure your entire intake team is not on vacation!
This year, be prepared for the post-holiday rush. Have a plan to handle customer calls, use a successful pitch to get yourself in the door, and then give that customer an all-star initial visit that lets them know they made the right choice with your company!