Day 5:Master the Move-In Experience: Create Raving Fans And Close the Back Door

Transcript

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Hey there. Welcome again, back to the 21 days, all things senior living, and this is day number five. So if you're going along with me in the series, you know, that we have been really trying to. Um, really. Double down on things that matter when it comes to marketing and sales and the process of increasing your, um, moving conversions at the end of the day, the goal, the golden. Grill. I used to tell my team is to be at a hundred percent with a wait-list a hundred percent. A lot of times people think that's the golden grail. But I still, my team, a hundred percent with a wait list and no loss revenue days is the golden grail. So if you're in corporate, um, there is nothing better than having a hundred percent fully occupied community with a waitlist and create it as such a situation that when the person moves out one day, you have somebody else moving in the very next day. And that means that turnover of the room needs to be, or apartment needs to be like scheduled. Like there's so much. It has to happen to make that, to make that a reality. But it can be done. I've had it done with a few of my communities. Um, one in particular had, oh, let me get it right. I believe she had nine months with no lost revenue days. That meant when a move out happened, she had somebody lined up to move in the very next day. So that is how you do it. All of a sudden Montell Jordan just came rushing to my head. I don't know whatever, but. That's how I think, I think in songs and hopefully you do too, because that makes life fun. So any way. Today, we are talking about that. So day five is actually the move in process and I, um, And supporting the smooth transition, right. That's what we're doing. Um, and I don't have necessarily. Rhyme or reason on how every day was selected. I just selected different topics. All of this is going to support. Marketing tips and sales tips. At least on the podcast. Um, for you guys. Um, in Facebook, it is actually stories of residents. Um, in, um, Or case studies, I think I'm doing on Facebook. I'm sorry. Um, and then in Instagram, this is stories of residents. And LinkedIn, it is the stories and lessons learned from my team members. And that is how we do it. So. When do I start at all? I don't know, but we're starting today and thank you for joining me. I appreciate you and your time and less hop right into it. So let's talk about move-ins and we call move-ins basically. That is when we have a family who has already either deposited or paid their. Um, The community fee, they have either done their paperwork or in the process of doing their paperwork. Um, have the actual assessment and paperwork from a physician. If they are in memory care or assisted living, obviously independent living, they don't need to have that, but maybe they have put in their notice of wherever they were living before. If it was an apartment or sold their condo, like there's so many different things, depending on the scenario. I'm going to give you a high level. Look at. Making sure you have a smooth move in. So when we go into my group, Programs, we go and dive a lot deeper. Um, and so, and I say my group programs, but it's really the accelerator program. I have one. Program that is the accelerator. Program, um, that we dive deep into all of this. Every single thing that we're talking about, I'm giving you guys pretty much a. Uh, list like what it is, how it is, steps that you can use things that you can use and start today. But if you want to go much more deeper than our accelerator program will probably be the best thing for you because you get one whole year of support. Can you imagine that a whole year of support? So we'll talk about that later, but right now the question is. Y. Is a. Move transition vital to your community. When someone is coming from home. And they're moving into your community. Whether it's by way of going through the hospital or whether it's by way of going through skilled nursing or directly from home. The reason why this transition is so vital is because your highest risk. For an actual move out from, um, the resident or family dissatisfaction customer service, failures and issues happen within the first 30 days. And typically it can be within the first 90. So in the big box communities, We measure and look at what is the move-out rate within the first. 30 and for sure, the first 90 days of moving in, because it tells different stories. And depending on what that number is and what percentage of move-ins are moving out within that period of time. It is now a trigger for further deep dive investigation. Are we moving in and assessing the rights? Um, match, you know, are the residents. More care than when they first move in. Are we not doing enough discovery? And we're not finding out there's deeper situations going on and we're not doing full assessments correctly. There's so many narratives that can happen. And that's where we dig deep and dive in. But the first thing we need to do. Is to look at. W what is the state of the family caregiver? When they're moving it. And so. One of the things we have to keep in mind when we're looking at family caregivers. Is what are they feeling at this time? And, and what is the resident feeling at this time? And we need to then create a moving process. That's going to quell and ease those feelings. So what does that look like? I'm going to break it down for you. No worries. Let's start with family caregiver. These are high level things that a family caregiver may be feeling. Guilt. Can you say amen? Yes, guilt. Stress. Because as a caregiver, there's automatic stress in that. The system doesn't make it easy, at least in Florida for people to move in because you have to have, you know, pay depend on a company that you work for too. That also doesn't make it easy. If you are a sales professional. Um, if you are a private owner, Um, the things that you're needing. A lot of this is just the stuff that you need. You can't help it. You need the medication lists, you need the doctors, um, plan of care or, or signature on the, um, the form we call it the emission form. If this is assisted living and memory care. Um, if it is, um, independent living, that's pretty much more straightforward. Um, because it's just basically finding like a rental contract. But if you're not careful, You can still get caught because how many times have I seen where, um, very aggressive, independent living. You know, um, folks have moved in a resident who really, really, really should be in memory care. That happens. Um, because sometimes questions again and the discovery process. And that's why questions are so important. If you need to know more about that, go back to a few episodes. We talk about that. But that's where those questions come in and that's where visiting the people in their homes or having them come see you on the actual visit and visiting your community. Again, that's on a Friday episode, go back a couple, and these are the reasons why that's important. Um, have I had it where someone moved into an independent living community? And had, um, what presented to be. Just regular, early stage dementia, no issues, not a risk of anything. And that first night. Bam sundowning happen. And. And it was like, Independent living. They're not, they're not equipped for that. They're not equipped for that. They don't have, you know, locks on doors. Not locks, but secured areas is what I'm trying to say. Um, you know, so you have these things that happen. If you're an assistant living, there's deeper paperwork, right? So there's a lot of stress. And I know that was a long way of saying there's a lot of stress that goes in with the move in. And there's a lot of emotions that go with the movement with the guilt. Then there is anxiety. What's going to happen. I'm not sure about this. There's the doubts. There's the, um, The doubts and all those things that happen. I'm trying to get my. Ah, my phone off. All of that is a part of it as well. Um, so. We have to remember that this is what families are going through. Some families will experience relief and they're excited about it. Um, other families will be actually happy and resonance. Um, so we have to understand that too. And other times, especially in independent living residents are typically happy about moving in. And so they're like excited about this new chapter in their lives. So it just really depends. A lot of times people think. You know, retirement home. Quote unquote or senior living is what we really now call it as it's called senior living. Has to be all need-based or is the assisted living, but there's so many other types of living arrangements. Um, and so depending on what's happening, Um, people have a different range of emotions. So one thing is to acknowledge that and understand that, and then to create your systems and your processes around that, making sure that we are reducing or minimizing the amount of anxiety, anxiety. Um, uncertainty. Guilt, um, stress. Like, I feel like that is our. Our duty is to do those things. So, so that is what it is like for a family. Um, If we have a very well supported. Process throughout the whole process. Um, and then drop the ball at, move in it. Can you road and do a way all the Goodwill that we did in the beginning? Right. Um, and so again, having that well-supported move in. Process, um, leading up to and including the day of, and following after the move in is how we can ensure long-term satisfaction with the clients and provide an amazing customer experience. So I just want you guys to think about what. Or where have you gone? That you had this amazing customer experience that she could not stop talking about. Some companies really focusing on that. Thinking like the Ritz Carlton. Everybody knows that. Right. Or if you go to let's say our Mercedes or Lexus dealer, like they have certain things when you're getting your car fixed there or, you know, maintain, um, there's certain levels. And a lot of times that has to do with luxury. What I have found is, and this is should encourage some of you who are residential assisted livings. Um, and smaller. Independently owned communities that in senior living, just because it is the highest priced location. Who. Advertise luxury and resort like. Does not have systems in place to support. The claims and or the cost. Do I need to say that again? I want to say that because I think it's really important. You as an independent business owner. Understand. That in this arena. You being smaller. Can be the Ritz Carlton. Inside this niche. Because you would be surprised. At. The level of not being prepared. A lot of these larger communities. Are, um, they don't have, if they have the processes in place. Is the local management following them. And do they have the right staffing training to make sure that happens? If that makes sense. And so I'm saying that because this is where you can really shine. This is where. The reviews that go out to Google and the, um, the shareable things on social media from families can really kick in for you when you deliver this white glove service to families, because they're not going to get it typically. More. So in the much more corporate. Even the larger communities and what you would think. Um, if you've worked in corporate before, um, or worked for really good companies, Um, you would think that they would have in place. So I see that. To encourage you. That you got this, you guys, you got this. You can make a huge impact just in this one area. And so what I'm going to do is kind of walk you through really quick. On how I got my little readers, because guess what? I'm over 40 heck I'm over 50, but whatever. So I'm going to talk to you guys about this. So, um, prep. Number one, the number one thing. Is prep. With each team. And this is my own notes, so I can't even read them sometimes prep with your team. You want. Your team to know ahead of time when a move-in is scheduled to take place from the time that that family says yes, what I used to do, and I can give you a template, but there was an email that I sent out. Um, and for those who work in a larger community, this is might be more for you. But I would say in a smaller community, You know, you can do this as well, but I sent an email out to this. My executive director or manager ministry. Um, to the business office director and to the clinical director, if you have a residential assisted living, of course you don't have all those different, um, Uh, positions. And it's a lot easier because you're in a home. But if your staff member is not working that day and you have somebody who moved in and they don't know anything about them or know anything, it can cause an awkward. Um, thing, if it's over a weekend, like timing, you just want everybody to be on the same page. So how do you do that? What I used to do. Is I used to do a cute little flyer. And I would put the residents. Yeah. You know, the incoming residents name, what room they would be. N. And I would then put the top five things or seven things. That I thought was important for the staff to know about that person. She was, you know, The first builder in our city. Um, she raised five boys. Um, she traveled the world or whatever, and I'm saying she, because I'm thinking of a specific red resident. Um, but. But those are the things. And I would make sure that every staff member had that and it was hung up also in the employee. Break room. Okay. Um, I actually created a bulletin board in the employee area where the, um, the clinical area that they all went to to have their meetings and copy, or was there and all that stuff. And I put it in there. I always had this flyer and I put it everywhere on every med cart. I just made sure everyone knew this person was coming in and what they needed to know about that person. The email that went to those other three people had the. Detailed information about the move in meaning, um, what room they were going to be in the date that they were going to move in physically with date, they were going to take possession financially. I also had, um, um, who was the POA, um, who was the healthcare surrogate? Any incentives that I offered, it was a whole email template, but what it did, it reduced the friction of, and the, the annoying thing. When you're in your meetings to say, I told everybody, and then somebody would inevitably inevitably say, well, I didn't know it was going to be today. And then they would have an attitude. You know, if you worked in senior living and you are in sales, you know what I'm talking about? You know what I'm talking about. And so, yes, it's on the white board though. And yes, we talked about it all this week and. Yes, we did. And then some people would be like, oh, well, I didn't know I was out that day or whatever. Stop it. So the way I did it is by putting it all, putting everything into an email and I outlined it and I have a template. I will. Click. Somewhere down here, I will put a link to what that email template look like for you or in the show notes. If you are listening to the podcasts, audio versus on YouTube. So. I will have that for you guys, because I. I gave after I did it. This is how I did it. I did it for my team. I did it for all of, you know, so as long as they were using us, They had leveraged to say, no, no, everybody knew this lady or this man was moving in on this day. So. Prep with your team. Second is. Can you tell him I'm very passionate about that. Oh, the stories I can tell when it comes to that. Um, Uh, rival coordination. You want to make sure that. You give your families the window. Sometimes you have to be the driver of this because. I'll tell you a story. Um, I learned early. The importance of giving the families the window of time to move in because I wanted the residents who have the best experience. If a resident moves in at six o'clock at night when nobody's there. And it's just not going to provide for a really good experience for the families. So I would tell a family, okay. On move-in day visa, the hours of moving, these are hours that you can move into furniture. If you don't have furniture already. Um, and, and so tell me around about what time the one thing that you don't want to do is have people move in, especially if you're in assisted living or memory care. Um, in the evening when you're not able to get all the medications or your clinical person or your med tech is not there to organize the meds and pass the meds to them for their six o'clock or their evening med. Med pass. So. I usually had the cutoff time between two and three o'clock. Um, closer to the two o'clock so that we could make sure that every staff member who was vital in their care could say, hello. But they had a good welcome that, um, we could get, make sure all the meds are in-house. Um, if we are managed well, Whether your management is or not that mean you still want to make sure the meds are in-house. Um, and that our clinical director can do the, all of the assessments that need, that need to happen when they move in. Every state is different on how they do that. But one thing we used to do, or we have to do in Florida is a skin integrity test. Um, and why is that important? Because, you know, while yes, you go and do the assessment between the time of the assessment and time of moving. Do they have a pressure wound? You know, Um, or, and some, one resident we did. Um, she actually had physical marks on her body when her husband. Tri, you know, it was moving her in and there was a concern that there was, um, More sinister stuff going on. Um, because of where the marks were located. Like there's so much when it comes to this that I don't think. Just plain investors really understand that these are like, again, I've told you on many of the other episodes, this is people's lives and these are real life things that happen. And you get to see a lot in senior care. Um, so you want that arrival coordination telling the FA you know, I'm telling, but coordinating with the families on the timing. Timing for moving the furniture, which, which door do they move in? If you have multiple entry locations, if you have a certain location for where furniture comes in, all of that is a part of the move in process. Um, Then you have the idea. Okay. If people are moving in furniture and things like that, especially if you're in a bigger community, independently owned. Um, community. Then we would get with the, or I would get with the family. To find out what time they were coming in to move the furniture, what time they were bringing the resident, because I would have something different for that time compared to the furniture time. I would also have. Um, and find out if they have any allergies, anything that's going on and is the family not the resident? Um, um, and if they liked certain items, because I would have a lunch bag ready for them, they're in the process of moving. They're doing this a lot of times, they're not taking a break to eat. Um, they're stressed. I am here to help reduce their stress and anxiety. So I would get with our dining services director and our kitchen staff, and I'm like, I need to have a lunch. You know, made for such and such family. And I would find out how many people is going to help them with the move and be in the transition and be involved there to be with mom or dad. And then we would make that all that happen. Sometimes the move, what happened over to lunch? So then I would have the residents. While the family's doing the furniture, the resident come in, have lunch, and I would do the buddy system, which we're going to talk about later. Um, and have them sit with their new buddy at lunch and get to know some of the other residents while the family was doing all this stuff on the back end. There's so many ways to do it depending. And when you go with me more on our, you know, group, you know, Program, you'll find out a lot more detailed, but that is how that works. Um, then the team introductions, when the resident come in, team introductions is the other portion of that is, um, How do, how do we get the teams to, um, to introduce themselves and they need to introduce themselves to the residents, but then. Um, and also to the families, obviously. Uh, hopefully the team has already introduced themselves to the family throughout this whole jury. So the family knows who to maintenance director is or who this person is and things like that throughout the process. And this is, of course, if you're in the larger community, if you're in a residential, you know, Having to know the rest of your staff is what you want them to do. But at the end of the day, Um, Doing those introductions, those welcomes things like that is really, really neat. Um, I said here is helping to teach the essentials. So the essentials is. Making sure. The resident, no. Um, and this is what you do on that day. And there's a whole packet. I, we, I used to give. The residence, a whole welcome packet. Um, and so in that packet was who do you call. R, how do you call if you need help, if you fall, um, if you have a light bulb that's out, how do you get in contact with that person? If you, um, uh, I just got, sorry. Um, did your television getting the TV set up? With the remote control. That was always something, you know, so if they brought their own television, um, connecting their remote control with the, you know, the streaming service and all that other stuff. Um, that was usually one of the bigger things that happens. Um, making sure that they understand that, you know, they have to have their hangers and just all the little things like, um, that's a part of the prepping, you know, is preparing the family to have all the things that they need. One of the things I used to do and I'll have a link down below. Um, for my Amazon. You know, through Amazon, but his fabric markers having the family, right. You. You know their name inside of the, the, um, the clues, especially if you're in a larger community, you want to make sure that, you know, um, even though the clothes are washed separately and everyone's own load gets done one at a time, you still want to, there's still things that happen. And so you want to make sure that that person's clothes. Are done. This is again, assisted living and memory care and independent. Usually they, um, will have their own. You know, clothes and things of that, and they actually have their own. Uh, washer and dryer and stuff that they use. So sometimes, you know, The community will do that. And they may not want their clothes to be done, but if a fabric marker. The ink won't bleed. Right. So we have that. But knowing and showing that resident and the family, the essentials on how to navigate. That you know, um, fire escape and, you know, um, the times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and all this happens in that welcome packet. Okay. Um, You want, um, that first night frequent check-ins if it's assisted and memory care, if it's independent living they're independent, you don't have to worry about it. So independent living is so much different. So, um, some of the things I'm talking about is going to be more specifically for assisted and memory care, but just understand that you can take some of these same ideas. Like the welcome packet is a must for independent living. Knowing when is lunch? What the event calendar is and making sure that's inside of it for independent living. Um, having them sign up for the bridge club and all that stuff like that is independent living. Like, you know, I'm letting them know maybe a list of the clubs and having them check off what their interest levels are so that they know what is going on in the community based on their interests. And then that way they can get a text alert when that particular activity is about to start. Like there's certain things that you could do an independent. That is very, very similar and provide that same level of service. Um, that we're talking about, even for assisted and memory care. Um, so there's that. And then, um, so it assisted and memory care frequent first night. Check-ins because this is a strange place for that person. We want them to feel comfortable. And so that is why we do that first night. Check-ins and then. The next thing is the next morning support every team. Again, they haven't been there for full 24 hours yet. They never woke up in through this new location. And so sometimes getting them oriented, um, and saying, um, Breakfast is now being served or giving them their morning meds. If you're doing assisted and memory care. Um, for independent living again, they're kind of independent on their own, but, um, having someone to be there to welcome them in at breakfast, if they, even, if you provide breakfast for your aisle. Independent living community. Those are all great things to do. The family coordination. Is making sure the family have proper expectations. Where I see the most. We call them service failures or. Um, I call it. Um, we call it service failures in the industry, but dissatisfaction. Customer complaints, right. When you have the most of that is when there's a breakdown in communication. If there is. No thought process on the front end, that's proactive, then everything you're doing on the back end is going to be reactive. And it's too late in reactive mode, meaning that if a family comes to you and say, mom never got her breakfast. Well, You go and you find out well that's because I didn't tell the breakfast team that she moved in a day early. You know, There are the dining services. I never told them. So now you're in reactive mode because now you have to deal with a really hot family member. And now you have to, you know, react quickly. You have to quell the concerns of the residents and, you know, There's a whole host of things that happen. And so again, these are some of the, and I can tell you story after story, after story about stuff that. You know, people, if you don't address things immediate, It can make something so small. S a minor mistake seem so large. And. This again is where you guys can really shine. There's just so much to think about that. Um, this is, this is. To something. The other thing I talked about earlier as the buddy system is when I am talking to a prospective resident. Um, and we're going through the process of me learning about them throughout the whole journey. I'm always thinking who is in my community, that this person would really have a good time with who's going to be their buddy. Right. Um, and if you're in a smaller community, you have limited number of options, but this is where you can pull people together. And make the new person come in. Feel like they are a part of the family. Right. And I said that in air quotes, you can't see that on a, on a radio. On your, on your iPad or whatever. I pod, oh my God. On your iPhone is what I was trying to say. Um, but you know, who's a part of the family and how are you going to welcome that family? And what is that white glove kit service that you're going to do for them? So that is all a. Uh, part of that is, is having that buddy system. I remember one time I had somebody who came in from a particular city in England, and I remembered we had a resident who grew up in England, even though she. You know, Didn't have a very lot of English mannerisms, but I just kind of remembered. Because it was a large community. So the fact that I remembered this as a miracle. And of itself, but when she came in to even before she decided to move in and, and I invited her for lunch. And she came in and met. Me for the first time. Cause I met with a son the first, the first time. That's what happens a lot of times in visits. Um, family member comes first and then they bring their, their loved one. Who's going to be moving on. So when they brought the lady, I said, great news. I have this lady, her name is, you know, let's say miss Sue or whatever. And she is also from England. And she said she would love to have lunch with you. Are you okay with that? And I would love for the two of you guys, maybe to get to know each other. And she was like, oh my God. Yes. And so I set it up. Had preset it up already. So all she had to do was go in and I introduced the two women. They sat down and the woman moved in. It's like, there's so many different cool things that you could do. Um, but when they move in. Trying to find out that buddy system, it might be even one of your staff members of your smaller, who's going to be the staff member. That's going to be the buddy for all new residents that come into your community. Um, you know, or all of you going to be that new buddy, however you decide to do it. The idea is just to do it. So, what am I going to give you at the end of this? What is going to be. The the. The, uh, the bonus that like the little present for you is a welcome kit. I'm going to give you an example, a template of what a welcome kit looks like. When a new resident moves in. Um, and so if you click on the link down below, if you are on YouTube or in the show notes, if you're listening on the podcast, um, on, um, um, on apple or Spotify, then you will be able to download the template of a welcome kit. So. We did it guys. Um, the one thing I forgot, I apologize. I apologize. Cause I did, I clicked over it and I didn't see it. The welcome present. Ah, Let's roll it back, rule it back. The welcome present. We most definitely. Should do some type of house-warming welcome present for the resident. Well, there's independent living assisted living. Or memory care, something that says welcome to the community. It can be, um, as personalized as their favorite pie or cake. Um, it can be as personalized as their favorite team and it has all the goodies us in their, let's say their Florida state. I'm just saying. They don't know, or Gator, I'm just saying, oh, you know, um, you can put Gator stuff in there. Um, or you can do like the essentials gift basket, which they have like little snacks and treats and things like that for when they wanting to snack on their first week. There there's so many ways to do it, um, to make it where it's very personalized to that person. But having some type of welcome gift inside of their apartment and or room. That says welcome balloons. Something that, just that again, that's a part of that white glove service that is amazing. And that is something most definitely. I'm so sorry. I forgot to mention that. That you should have as a part of your move in process now. We have wrapped it up. And I thank you so very much for listening. I appreciate your time. I am looking forward to hearing from you on how you implemented any of these things to help. With creating a smoother moving process. If you like all of this and you want to go way, way deeper into what we do, we have a 12 month program. That is just for you, if you aren't within your first two years of business or under 50% occupied, my goal is not only have you add a hundred percent, but with the wait list and to have you confident. Lea leading your business. And your staff, meaning that you will know exactly how to maneuver in your business for a whole year. And that is through the compass rose XL accelerated program. So we have that, that is coming out for you. Launching very soon, because guess what? We have a new year coming. So we do have that happening. I appreciate any reviews that you have, please send us a review on apple. Um, um, I. Apple podcasts. Um, that helps other people learn more about me because then it will be pushed out to people who's looking or who's in our niche. And, um, and if you know, other people who can benefit from the information that I am sharing here on the podcast, Or on the YouTube channel, please send it to them. Like there's. So much opportunity. Like, don't be that person. Um, we like to play nice in the sandbox is what I say. And I feel like the more you give, the more things that a great comeback to you. So if you know someone else who is in the industry on who's struggling or not struggling, but they would probably enjoy hearing these little tips. Let being. Let them know. But also send me your feedback because I read each and every review. Thank you so much. And I hope you have a wonderful day.