by Diane Masson | Sep 1, 2013
I can’t stop thinking about my surprise visit with my mom yesterday. I arrived Sunday afternoon about 2:30 PM to Freedom Village Healthcare Center in California. She was not in her usual places – where was she? A caregiver said, “Oh, your mom is down in the activity room.” I said to my husband Chris, “We really need to pay more attention to the activity calendar, so we don’t visit during those times. I want her to enjoy all the social times and I can visit her when nothing else is going on.”
We happened upon the activity calendar and all the activities were done for the day. So what was she doing? As we turned the corner, we saw my mom’s beaming face. She was playing bingo. The caregiver smiled at me and said, “Oh, do you want to take your mom?” I said, “Absolutely not, let her enjoy herself.” It was great to see pure joy – when she said, “Bingo!”
What was interesting to me was her interacting with the other residents and helping them play too. My mom has severe vascular dementia. When she speaks it is about 70% non-reality. What a great activity to really stimulate her brain. The caregiver said to me, “We decided to put on a bingo game for them, they like it and it gives them something to do.”
Well, bless those two caregivers who created an unscheduled resident activity to help with the resident’s quality of life. This was a huge “Wow” for me and I can’t stop thinking about how happy my mom was. For those of you who follow my blog, I moved my mom 1000 miles to be near me about three months ago. This was the best day of my mom’s life here in California.
After each resident said bingo, the caregiver would call the resident by name and say, “You won a cookie.” No cookies appeared. I thought to myself, well the residents have dementia – they won’t remember the cookie promise. To my utter surprise – cookies appeared at the end of the last game. One cookie for each resident. When the caregiver was handing out the last cookie, the resident said, “I don’t get one – I didn’t win.” The caregiver said, “That’s okay, you are a winner for even being here.” There are tears in my eyes writing this, because these staff went above and beyond!
As the afternoon progressed – my mom continued being animated and talking nonstop. It did not matter that 60% was non-reality. She was having a great time and I loved spending quality time with her. Some people think people with dementia have nothing to offer in life, well, they are 100% wrong.
Please share your success, failures or comment below to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Most recently Masson was recruited to consult for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Aug 25, 2013
Please share in the comment section below – how your residents either support or sabotage the marketing efforts of your senior living community.
Are you embarrassed to introduce some of your residents on a tour? Why?
Do you fear what some of your residents might tell prospective senior residents? Why?
Here is a 5-Step Program to on-board your residents through communication:
- Dine with key residents to gain their buy-in for marketing.
- Listen to their stories and build relationships with residents.
- Create goodwill that will spread through the rest of the community.
- Speak at the next resident council meeting.
- Share how important residents are to the marketing effort.
- Explain how they can help encourage guests to become residents.
- Teach them the right language to use – such as “community,” not “facility.” Please don’t say, “Do you want to become an inmate in this institution.” (This has seriously happened to me.)
- Write an article for the next resident newsletter.
- Have a different theme every month – such as refer your friends and receive $500 on your next monthly bill or thanking them for dining with new residents.
- Praise supportive residents and how they helped marketing.
- Create a memo about your next event and post it through your in-house mail system.
- Residents like to know who and why someone is coming to their home.
- Invite them to attend the event, if they bring a prospective resident.
- Apologize to them, if there is not enough room for residents to participate.
- Start a resident contest for a testimonial – on why they enjoy living at the community.
- Generate positive energy.
- Share the top five answers at the next resident council meeting or in your next monthly article.
Communicate with your current residents. They love to be in the know. Hopefully you are blessed with great residents who support all the marketing efforts, programs and events. I love the residents that I work with – they are the best – how about yours?
Please share your success, failures or comment below to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Most recently Masson was recruited to consult for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Aug 18, 2013
Are you juggling these 10 things all at the same time in your assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing care or Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC)?
- The phone is ringing with a new inquiry
- There is a new walk-in in the lobby
- Scheduled tours are arriving
- Going to a meeting requested by your Executive Director or Director of Marketing
- Working with maintenance to make sure the apartment is renovated properly
- Finishing the paperwork for a new move-in
- Calling the doctor to have them send back a medical report for a new move in
- Touring a family member of an upcoming move-in
- Residents coming in the office to ask questions
- Preparing for the next event
What is not on this list? What about calling or following-up with anyone in your database? I know…you don’t have time. But you do have time…
Did you know it takes 25 to 40 percent longer to get a job done when you are multitasking? Yes!! So how do you become more efficient? Work on one task at a time. Shut the door to your office for one hour and just make calls in the morning. If you do this everyday, you can make about 15 calls a day.
Two things will happen if you take the time to increase your calls:
- Your sales will increase, because you will be proactively marketing versus reactively waiting for every customer to call you back.
- Your occupancy will rise, because the percentage of senior prospects who select an apartment on the first tour are low. The average person touring assisted living needs to see it three times and CCRC sales can take three to six visits.
Focus on one task at a time and become more effective and efficient – EVERYTIME.
Please share your success, failures or comment below to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the best-selling author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Most recently Masson was recruited to consult for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
by Diane Masson | Aug 11, 2013
Disney’s “Monsters University” movie really struck a cord with me.
The “Monsters University” movie was about a team who perseveres through a “Scary Competition” together. As a newly formed team, they didn’t believe in each other. As the experience grew they started to believe. When Mike (the small green one-eyed monster with the heart of a lion) took the the monsters on a field trip, the entire team saw that each of them could be a scary winner individually and really trusted each other. The scary team became invested in supporting one another and helping weak players grow stronger.
Even the mean lady who was the dean of “Monsters University” was surprised by the perseverance of Mike and Sulley (the big furry blue and purple monster). NO ONE believed in this team of misfits. Yet they proved to go above and beyond what anyone in the school had ever done before. When the dean locked Mike and Sully in the human world, Mike figured out a way to get out with the help of Sulley TRUSTING Mike. Mike was the brain and Sulley was the brawn. Individually they would not have made it, as a team of two who TRUSTED each other, they were successful.
When senior living sales people are new – they don’t know whom to trust on the operations team. Will their co-worker have his or her back or throw them under the bus? It’s important to have a good on-boarding system that creates experiences to build team trust.
Here are several ideas to help develop trust on your senior living team:
- If several of your key staff interview the candidate, they will believe in the newbie’s talents from the initial interview meeting. Their belief needs to be shared with the rest of the long-term leadership.
- Ask each department head to welcome the new employee to your senior living team and share their role and how it interacts with the newbie.
- Depending on the newbie’s position create a plan for them to understand their role within your organization’s mission.
- Create mentoring moments between the new employee and several long-term staff.
- Have a staff person with longevity introduce the new person to residents, possibly at the resident council meeting.
- If you have a click of core leaders, ask them to welcome the newbie at lunch.
- Develop a team experience where the newbie can learn AND share their own talents – maybe it’s an event for the residents, a weekly book review, special project or morning stand up meeting.
What are you doing to build trust between a newbie and your existing senior living team? What on-boarding best practices have worked for you?
Please share your success, failures or comment to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.
Diane Twohy Masson is the best-selling author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Most recently Masson was recruited to consult for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
by Diane Masson | Aug 4, 2013
As a daughter with a mom in skilled nursing care, the PBS documentary entitled “Life and Death in Assisted Living” really upset me. My mom has vascular dementia and I have been her advocate for the last 7 years in assisted living. Those of you who follow my blog know that I moved my mom 1000 miles into a skilled nursing care near me – about 10 weeks ago. This transition happened because I was 100% in tune with my mom’s needs.
We all know someone who had a horror story during a hospital stay. Last week one of my colleagues was shocked to walk in and find her dad in soft restraints after heart surgery. He was 82 and not coming out of the anesthesia well. The nurse said that she did not have enough staff to help him, so she had to use soft arm restraints. My colleague asked if they could please remove the restraints. She and her mom each took one arm of her dad and literally held him thrashing around all night with no sleep.
Every senior or human being needs an advocate to make sure that the care they are paying thousands of dollar per month in any level of care is being provided. Trying to be a good advocate for my mom and living two states away – just about killed me. You have to have eyes on your loved one or pay someone to come in and be your eyes – particularly when they have dementia.
When a senior has dementia, like my mom, they get to the point where they cannot communicate all their needs, pains or desires to either caregivers or family members. There needs to be an advocate who truly knows that person and can look for and understand his or her unspoken needs on a regular basis.
If my colleague had not shown up to be an advocate for her dad, he would have been in soft restraints all night. If I had not flown in every few months to see my mom with my own eyes, areas of concern would not have been addressed. My mom had good care in assisted living with a caring staff, but she is my mom and I know her best.
It always makes me sad when a future senior resident considering senior housing has no family or only distant relatives. They may ask a lawyer or a niece in Canada to become their advocate or power of attorney. Will this remote person advocate properly on his or her behalf – if the senior can no longer communicate verbally?
There are great senior housing options available with loving caring staff, but it is always wise to have an advocate that knows your unspoken needs when you can no longer speak on your own behalf.
Tip: Future residents and their family members need to do their homework as they explore all senior housing options including assisted living. Always ask what the longevity of staff is at each retirement community, assisted living, memory care or skilled care nursing that you are considering for yourself or a loved one. Staff turnover is an indicator of an underlying management or ownership problem in all levels of senior care. Look for communities with longevity of staff.
Diane Twohy Masson is the best-selling author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum. Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy. Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets. She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states. Most recently Masson was recruited to consult for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California. Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.
