Choosing a care home for a loved one can be a difficult choice. Coronavirus has made the usual ways of demonstrating the fantastic care and facilities, challenging. We have gathered a few ideas to help care home managers to market and highlight your homes from the crowd.
A) Connecting with Families and communities over occupancy vacancies
This is a very difficult time for residential homes to manage new occupancies. Below are some measures you may find helpful to support you filling occupancies where there are no restrictions.
B) Create a small piece for a local Postcode newspaper
Like many things in life, when people do not see the personal side of things, they do not connect. Writing a simple piece on how you care for residents in the local area is a positive step to addressing this.
Cover areas such as;
- Who and where you are
- How long you have supported residents and what got you started
- What you can offer in these challenging times – major on companionship, monitoring and supporting independence.
- Don’t be afraid to mention how you keep people safe and with permission you could even
- introduce them to a resident through your writing.
C) Refresh your website making sure you;
- Use a banner advising you are taking new residents.
- Separately – add another banner advising you are adhering to strict government hygiene measures in respect of Covid-19
- Use up-to-date residents and families’ messages as to their experience of the home.
- Use a ‘virtual tour’ gallery to show how the home is appointed.
- Create an FAQ of questions relating to COVID-19 and how you will keep families connected
D) What do I do if I receive an enquiry?
The first thing is to make sure the person receiving calls is confident and feels sufficiently trained to answer questions through the pandemic.
we can reflect this in our tone and responses, make sure this is addressed in any training for administrative staff.
It is important not to pre-empt what the caller may ask, making sure you are led by their query, but having the information regarding how your home keeps people safe available if/when needed.
Things important to have to hand are;
- The rate of infection in the demographic. If you have had no outbreaks and your area has been low –this is a good point to alleviate fears
- The benefit of interaction for those that have found themselves particularly isolated due to this situation.
- How you are maintaining the highest infection control standards whilst ensuring residents independence – including how residents can stay in touch with their loved ones.
- Recent feedback from residents and their relatives
E) Virtual tours
As many people are connecting using zoom/Microsoft Teams, you could schedule a meeting via such method, and show potential families/residents the suites that you have available. If you are going to use this method, it is important to follow protocols regarding people’s privacy and also to ensure a secure connection.
F) Follow up questions
Encourage potential residents and their relatives to contact you with any further enquiries – the more dialogue and easy access support they have the better
G) Trust Pilot
Think about using a service such as Trust Pilot – the more potential occupants can access up-to-date reviews from peers and their families the more confident they will feel in your service.