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In a 2009 National Survey of Consumer and Workforce Satisfaction in Nursing Homes as compiled by My InnerView, more than 150,000 family members and more than 82,000 residents were interviewed about their satisfaction and preferences.

One aspect of the study focused on what drives consumer recommendations. The top 5, as cited by the survey:

This list reinforced to me that there is a real difference in how care is perceived. Taking care of someone’s needs is not the same as the very human element of compassion. I also found it interesting that things like quality of meals and meaningfulness of activities ranked near the bottom of the list in importance. This tells us it’s the experience, rather than the features, that factor into whether a resident or family member will make a referral.

You might say, well, isn’t this an operations issue? What does this mean for us in marketing? Let me give you a real example.

A skilled nursing and memory care community I work with can confidently claim high employee and resident satisfaction. They can also boast a beautiful new building that raises the standard of long-term care in their area ─ think well-appointed hotel with rich colors and commissioned artwork. But after three years in operation, they approached us for marketing support because occupancy held at less than 50%.

What was missing in their marketing program? First, a focus on what they do well, compassionate individualized care, rather than on the amenities and building. Second, a marketing communications program that projected that same caring attitude and connected with their target audiences – residents, families and professionals.

This community had already done the hard part of meeting expectations for all who experienced it. Our job was to craft and deliver the right message to the right audience. What once focused on features, not benefits, and affordability rather than care was repositioned. Their story now goes beyond a list of bullet points to how their staff, building design features, services, amenities and activities promote skilled nursing and memory care at its best: The way a loving family member would deliver it.

It is summed up in a new tagline: Living up to your idea of care. A thought that is right on target for what matters most to residents and families. 

I’ve shared in this space several times that I rarely visit a community without coming away with some new learning or insight. But sometimes, it’s re-learning a fundamental truth in senior living marketing. That was the case when I was recently touring a community with one of the sales counselors. At one point in the conversation, she said, “And you have to remember these folks are all planners; they’re into the details.”

And there it was, my lesson. I have heard that mantra since I began working in senior living marketing and know it to be true. But hearing it made me think: How am I using that in my recommendations and work with our clients? Are we crafting messages for the planner, and do we position community benefits to meet their particular mindset?

Planners want the facts, they need all the answers, they expect you to have thought through the details and have all the loose ends tied up. If they can think of the question, they expect you should have, too. These are folks who talk value, not price. They’re the ones who want to know about options and expect flexibility. Planners pride themselves on making smart, informed decisions, whether they’re 70, 80 or 90 years old. 

Even today, when we see independent living prospects who are older and perhaps a little more need-driven, they still don’t have to make the move. It is up to us to give them good reasons. Incentives, discounts and deferrals may help close the deal, but they aren’t going to win the argument. There is still a need for persuasion, for counseling, for challenging their misperceptions and for moving individuals forward in the process. And while it’s always about the individual and their particular situation, don’t forget that more often than not, you’re talking with a planner. Don’t cut corners, lay it all out, give them the facts and then respect their decision.

Lesson learned, again.

I had lunch the other day with a long-time friend who is also a marketing professional. We are working in two very different worlds right now ─ I’m in senior living and she’s in kids marketing ─ but we always seem to find some common ground when talking shop. During our last lunch, we discussed what elements were needed to create breakthrough marketing ideas.

Innovation doesn’t happen because it is an agenda item at a monthly marketing meeting. Coming up with big ideas on demand is like catching lightning in a bottle, and we all know how often that happens. So what is required to foster innovation? Here are three important organizational/cultural qualities that I think, based on my experience, are almost always present in innovative marketing teams.

Individual Leadership – Innovation and breakthrough thinking happen when there is a recognizable and passionate leader who owns the vision and dream of the organization. Someone who embodies the very essence of what the organization is striving to attain and communicate. This doesn’t mean there must be a single all-powerful marketing person, or even that this leader must be the head of marketing. Rather, what this leadership offers is a guiding force, a source of inspiration, and an effective sounding board to initiate and feed the process.

Risk-Taking – Breakthroughs don’t typically happen on the first try. The big idea is often the third, fourth or fifth thing tried. Test and learn, try new things, understand it is a process. Organizations that value innovation also recognize that sometimes good ideas on paper don’t work in the real world. It is hard to be a conservative innovator. That doesn’t mean being foolish or not strategic, but it does require a tolerance for bumps in the road on the way to the breakthrough idea.

Investment – Hand in hand with risk-taking is knowledge that it might cost a little more to find that breakthrough idea. Whether this is partnering with premier resources, the costs of trial and error, or the need to continuously fund the effort over time, marketing innovation must be an organization value, and thus seen as an investment ─ not an expense.

Is the presence of these three qualities a guarantee of innovation – no. But consider your own situation.  Are you being asked to achieve, or are you striving for innovation without these? How successful have you been? New thinking is hard. Big ideas are more uncommon than common. But it isn’t all luck. Pay attention to the make-up of your organization to give yourself the best chance at breakthrough thinking.

A few other posts on this and similar subjects may be of interest to you.

Getting Noticed or Getting Connected? by Bill Sitton

Don’t Fix What’s Not Broken by Ken Curnes

Crisis communications is a hot topic these days. With a national spotlight scrutinizing how BP is handling its ultimate crisis, and more recently the fiasco stirred up by Steven Slater from JetBlue, now more than ever, companies across the country are re-thinking and re-evaluating their crisis communications plans.

In fact, when preparing their strategy, many organizations recognize it’s not a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when’ they might be protecting their reputation locally, regionally or even nationally. The same is true for senior living communities. In order to manage your current reputation, you need to have a consistent communications plan in place to prepare for an unforeseen crisis, such as a fire, earthquake, union strike or tax-exemption challenges.

Randy Eilts and Bill Sitton, former journalists, share their insights into the importance of crisis communication planning and reputation management, and how it pertains to the field of senior living.

Reputation Management: We Didn’t Do Anything Wrong from GlynnDevins on Vimeo.

News people will tell you that all news is local. Before a story makes it to CNN, Fox News or into the New York Times, it was somebody’s local story first. People care most about what’s happening around them. Organic search results on search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Bing) aren’t conducive to local searches. Looking for a florist? Organic search results are limited to the national chains ─ FTD, 1-800-Flowers, etc. ─ because they carry the most “authority” and have a lot of other websites linking to them. Sure ─ a local business can buy paid search links, but not everyone looks there.

Enter local business listings. (Actually, they entered about two years ago, but there are now a lot more people paying attention to these links.)

At least 40% of online searches have local intent. Just like the news, people are most interested in what’s around them. The big three search engines now present links for local businesses on the results page for searches they believe have local intent. Try it ─ search ‘retirement communities’ and then ‘retirement communities in Kansas City’ (or, wherever you’re located). In both cases, you should see a map like the one above.

Senior living communities with a presence in these local listings are getting 20-25% of their website traffic from these links. Frequently, more than 60% of those visits are derived from non-branded searches (meaning: a community’s name is not part of the search query). AND ─ of the visits from non-branded searches, more than 80% are by first-time visitors to the website. The local business results can play a big role in your community’s ability to reach new prospective residents. Oh, and they’re free.