How do you increase your senior living occupancy? Is this question keeping you up at night?
Demand for senior housing is high and rising. However, recent data from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care shows that in certain markets, supply is currently outstripping demand. Here are five things you can do to boost your numbers.
1. Keep the residents you have
New residents are great, but don’t forget about the ones you already have. First, you don’t want to lose them to competing communities, and second, referrals account for a large percentage of inquiries and tours. So it’s important to keep your current residents happy. Check out five ways you can improve your customer satisfaction so you avoid losing residents.
2. Draw leads from multiple channels
Call ins and referrals may be your largest sources of leads, but they aren’t the only ones. Both seniors and their adult children are using search engines to find information about housing options. If you don’t at least have a form on your website for people to leave their name and email address, you are probably missing out on some valuable opportunities.
Social media is another channel you should think about tapping — more than half of U.S. adults over the age of 65 are now on Facebook.
3. Put your pricing information online
Many senior living providers aren’t forthcoming with their prices. But as people use the Internet more and more to find information about housing, not making your prices available could be negatively affecting the number of inquiries you receive. According to Lead InSite co-founder April LaMon, putting your prices online leads to more qualified leads, shorter decision-making times, and an improved customer experience. All good things!
4. Don’t let preconceived notions cause you to ignore qualified leads
A recent Senior Living SMART study found that providers that use call centers get more move-ins than those that don’t. This is because call centers don’t let any leads fall through the cracks — they follow up on all of them. Senior Living SMART CEO Deborah Howard noted that call centers were able to provide more qualified leads because they didn’t have any preconceived ideas about the prospects to get in the way.
5. Improve your tour process
More than 80% of prospects tour more than one facility, and more than half tour three or more. Thus, your tour needs to demonstrate clearly why your facility is best. If you find you are doing a lot of tours, but not closing as many deals as you’d like, it may be time to revamp your tour process.
Growing supply, more competition, the Internet — all of these things are changing the decision-making process surrounding senior living. These five strategies will help you keep up with the times and keep your units full.
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