The Move In Day Experience: Let's Get It Right - Day 6

What if the reason you're not getting more referrals or better retention isn’t your marketing… but your move-in process?

In this episode, I’m going all in on something that doesn’t get talked about enough.  It is how your staff sets the tone for every new resident’s experience and why the first 24 hours can either reinforce trust or break it completely.

If you've ever:

• Felt like your caregivers “just don’t get it”
• Lost a move-in after everything looked perfect on paper
• Struggled to create consistent culture across your team
• Wondered how to make new residents feel at home without a big budget...

…this episode is for you.

I'm sharing the exact method I used to train teams, build trust myself, and turn move-ins into a true moment of connection. I am giving all the goodies to you...with practical tips, real stories, and the one powerful mindset shift you may be missing.

Because when your staff becomes the heartbeat of your community, retention isn’t a struggle, it’s a natural outcome.

What You’ll Learn:

• The “4 Ps” to create unforgettable first impressions (even in small homes)
• How to avoid the service failures that cost you more than you realize
• What your team really needs to hear before move-in day
• How towel animals, cheesecake, and training can help you to build a 98% occupied community too...wink...wink

🎁 Bonus Resource Coming Soon:
Stay tuned!

📲 Let’s Stay Connected:
Loved this episode? Take a screenshot and DM me on Instagram with your community name—I’d love to shout you out!

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For more insights, check out the blog, Turning The Tide.

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Together, we can Inspire Change, Impact Lives, and Improve Outcomes!

Transcript

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[Music] [Applause] Welcome to Start with Occupancy, the podcast for senior living owners,
0:08
operators, and sales professionals. Hi, I'm Tiffany, marketing strategist, and
0:14
former corporate BDY who got tired of producing results for Wall Street and wanted to make a change on Main Street.
0:20
I provide quick tips, idea nuggets, and case studies to help you with proven
0:26
sales, marketing, and business development strategies along with leadership concepts so that you can
0:34
inspire change, impact lives, and improve outcomes for the aging, their families, and your teams. I'm committed
0:41
to equipping you with the tools, the knowledge, and resources that you need to excel in your business. With over 12
0:49
years of experience working inside senior living companies, large and small, I've developed a deep passion for
0:56
advocating for the aging adult and those who care for them all while driving
1:01
business growth. So whether you're already in the senior care industry or maybe you would like to be, if your
1:07
mission is to serve them, my mission is to serve you. Join me as we unravel the
1:13
strategies and tactics that drive success in your business while making a difference in someone's life. The goal
1:20
is to touch, guide, and impact the lives of 10 families per month. Are you with
1:26
me? It's time to be inspired, gain practical tips, and own your
1:33
[Music] future. Well, hello, hello, hello. I am
1:40
so glad to be here with you. It has been a moment and yes, I do realize that. But
1:46
what I am most excited about is getting back on track. And you know, we've had a
1:52
lot of things go on in the last oh 6 months with our nation. There's just so
1:59
much going on. I really wanted to go into finishing the
2:06
21day everything sales in terms of walking you through the sales process
2:11
and what does that look like and how to do it effectively. If you remember, we did
2:18
days 1 through 5 on the podcast of the 21 days all things sales and creating that
2:26
move in experience. And so today we're going to focus on day six. And then I'm
2:31
going to keep putting it out, putting it together, even if it's late. But I'm going to make sure I finish this up for
2:38
you. And then I have so much more to say. When I tell you content is not an
2:43
issue with me is getting it out to you in the format that I'm happy with. It's most my mostly my issues. But if you
2:50
love to hear it, I love to give it. And I do it oneon-one with so many people day in and day out. And it can be family
2:58
members, it can be other owners, it could be people in ancillary services in
3:03
the senior care industry, whether it's home health or home care or Medicaid specialist or all these different client
3:11
bases that I have. Your growth and success in this business or for family
3:16
members is finding a successful solution for their loved ones aging care needs is
3:23
of most important to me. That is my thing. That is what I love to do and if I could do it for free I would and I do
3:32
a lot. So the way I am doing this for
3:37
nonfree is I have the marketing boot camp that is coming up. So if you're interested in that there will be a link
3:44
in the show notes for you to sign up for the 10e marketing boot camp so that you
3:50
can learn all things marketing. and it's basically three of my main courses that
3:56
that I'm doing as a live boot camp for you. So, if you are interested in marketing your senior care or assisted
4:03
living, independent living, memory care community, this boot camp is for you, especially if you're the beginner. With
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that being said, I want to thank you for joining the Start with Occupancy podcast. I am, if you don't already
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know, I am Tiffany Hill Allen and this is again day six of the 21day everything
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senior living marketing series. So when it comes to marketing and tips and strategies, we are here for you and
4:29
helping you to become a success. A success in our business is impacting
4:35
lives every single day and having a fully occupied, thriving and profitable
4:42
business. So stay tuned for the whole series because we're going to walk through everything from the beginning to
4:48
the end of the sales process. It is going to be very much high level. It's not going to be the dayto-day nuts and
4:54
bolts. Even though you will be able to take some actionable steps that I'm going to give you through this process,
5:01
okay? You will learn tips along the way and you'll be able to roll with it. What I'm most excited about is hearing the
5:07
stories and feedback from you on the things in the experiences and what you
5:13
have learned in the series and what you have implemented. So what I'm going to ask you is to leave a review for the
5:19
series on the things that you have learned or what was impactful because every time you leave a review is very
5:25
helpful for the Apple algorithm to get this out to people who's really looking
5:30
for this information as well as for YouTube. So definitely please leave a
5:35
review. I would so appreciate that. So are you ready to get started with all of that? I hope so. Today we are talking
5:42
about setting the tone for success and how you can prepare your staff for your
5:48
new residents. So last episode we talked about how you want the movein process to go without a hitch as much as possible.
5:55
There will be some hiccups sometimes because of the complexities and the moving parts that's involved in moving a
6:03
resident in, but your move in process and how smooth it goes in the beginning
6:10
is how it can impact your retention in the end. Your brand reputation as well as your ability to get new referrals.
6:18
When somebody has an easy process of moving in and they feel happy, satisfied, they're like, "Wow, this was
6:25
a great experience, you have a better opportunity to get more referrals to increase your reputation in terms of a
6:32
quality brand as well as keep that resident for a longer period of time.
6:37
And it can affect the goodwill you establish with families and your residents. Are they not the whole reason
6:42
why we exist?" They absolutely are. You are committed to taking care of your residents, the aging adults, and to
6:49
support family caregivers, right? That's the reason we're all in this. And it is
6:55
most important that we do all the things that's necessary to make this as smooth as possible for them. There's nothing
7:01
quite like a hurting family and a family who's in crisis. And I get it from
7:07
people who have been in the industry and now looking for their own personal loved ones. and they say as much as I've
7:14
worked in this, it's so hard when emotions are involved. And that is so
7:20
very true. So we have to always remember the emotional side of this whole process
7:27
because that will help us to become more successful. What we have to do in preparation for this is to ensure that
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our staff members are well trained, that they are prepared and they are equipped to help with this whole transition
7:39
period. A lot of times what we have seen and this is by personal experience is
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what we have what we call in the industry as service failures. These are when things don't go as smooth as
7:52
possible. Most often these service failures happen inside of the move in
7:58
process. We call it service failures because when things don't happen, we're not providing the appropriate level of
8:04
customer service. And when that happens, we have failed the family caregiver. We have failed the resident and depending
8:11
on the situation we have even failed our team. What we want to make sure of is that we are preparing our team and
8:18
equipping them so that there is less confusion, less chaos, less hard
8:23
feelings and less doubts. We want families to move in with confidence that
8:28
they have made the right choice by choosing our community. That's choosing your community. We want families to be
8:36
able to tell their neighbors, their colleagues, their church congregants, hey, I had this wonderful experience
8:42
because that word of mouth is another form of marketing. When we do not prepare our teams, we are adding and
8:49
possibly reinforcing the confusion that families have. How are we doing this? By
8:55
contributing to the unmet expectations from the family and from the residents. We are also impacting our first
9:01
impressions from the get-go. setting the tone for the future communication that
9:06
we're going to have with that family and their experiences with us. If there is a service failure, we have to rebuild that
9:14
trust. And I will tell you, it is typically never the same because when
9:19
the family first comes into comes in to see you, they're already hesitant. They're already stressed. They're
9:25
already having these mixed emotions and feelings about what is happening. There is guilt. There's so many things that's
9:31
going on. And so when you work to build up that trust and then that trust is
9:38
broken just like in any other relationship, there's forgiveness, but
9:44
there's always in the back of their mind a memory. And so we want to make sure that we smooth over any of these service
9:51
failures and that we prepare our teams so that there will not be any service failures at the time of move in. The one
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thing you don't want to do is break that trust from the family at the very beginning of the whole process. A
10:05
well-prepared team will create a warm, supportive, cohesive onboarding
10:10
experience for that resident as well as for the family. Remember, there are two customers that you're serving. You have
10:17
the resident who you will be caring for, but you also have the family who love
10:23
and support that resident that is moving into your community. Not every senior
10:28
has family, but usually they have someone that is advocating for them. And
10:33
if they don't, I have always believed that it is our job to advocate for them.
10:40
Even if it's to their own physician or to the hospital or to the skilled nursing facility, we want to always do
10:46
the right thing. And that means that we have to advocate for other people. I just believe in karma and doing good
10:53
things and sewing seeds in the ground. And we want to be able to do that for for residents who don't have an advocate
11:00
on their side. I believe in seed type and harvest because when you do write it
11:06
always comes back and even if even if a resident doesn't have an advocate in my
11:11
mind there's always somebody watching. I happen to believe in a higher power. So I always feel like that pressure but I
11:18
will tell you on the outside there's also someone watching how you treat others. People are always observing how
11:24
you do business, how you conduct business. And when you are the person who's helping a resident to move into
11:30
your community, there's so many different moving parts that they're all watching how you are moving in residence
11:37
and there is talk. The one thing about this industry is that as big as it is, it's 100% small and people talk and
11:45
people are watching. They're watching what you're doing. They're watching how you're acting and they're looking at your integrity. And so it is up to you
11:52
to instill that same mindset with your staff that even though I may not be present, your manager may not be
11:58
present, there's always someone watching you as a coworker, is another resident. And believe me, residents tell on stop.
12:07
They will tell you in a nice way when someone was not treated correctly. So
12:13
let's talk about staff since we're on that subject. Your staff is the heartbeat of your community. It is not
12:21
just you as an owner who can build culture unless you are a handson owner
12:28
or a manager which many of you are but a lot of times you have to go and do other
12:34
things. You have to live your life too. And so you have staff that's also helping you and they are the heartbeat
12:39
of that community. They are the ones who reinforces the culture that you want to
12:44
instill in that community and that you want your residents to feel and families to feel when they come visit you.
12:50
They're the ones who reinforces that. And their attitude and their actions
12:55
have to align with your vision. And so it's important that you hire. I always
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say hire for passion, train for skill. That's how I've led my life as a regional and in my past in hiring people
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is hire for passion, train for skill. And in this industry, there's no other
13:16
truth that I have found to be more impactful than to do that. You are setting the tone as the the
13:23
defibrillator, not the actual heartbeat. What I mean by that is that defibrillator jump starts a heart and
13:29
then a heart has to beat on its own even without the defibrillator there. Right? You are the defibrillator. You are to
13:36
jumpst start and set the tone of what your expectations are, what your vision is, how you expect the residents to be
13:42
treated, how you expect small things to be done. And they are the actual heartbeat. That is your staff. And as
13:50
leaders, we want to make sure that we equip them with what they need and to ensure that every resident feels like
13:57
they are transitioning into their own new home. that they're going to be in a
14:02
better situation than what they were leaving from. The whole reason for an aging adult to leave home and to move
14:09
into where you are is that they're either tired of being isolated, that they no longer can manage their own
14:16
activities of daily living, that they can no longer manage their household, that they can no longer sometimes manage
14:22
their finances or even their health. They are leaving what would be considered home for them. And most
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people want to stay home and understandably let's not minimize that. Let's not minimize the importance of
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home in people's hearts. However, sometimes staying at home is not the
14:43
best thing for their mental health, their emotional health, their physical health for sure, or sometimes even their
14:50
financial health. Because sometimes people are in a financial situation, emotional situation where they're being
14:56
taken advantage of or they don't have the cognitive abilities to manage those finances and they are easily susceptible
15:04
to elder abuse and elder financial abuse because let's face it, sometimes people
15:10
move in because they are at greater risk for those type of abuses than they would
15:17
be at staying at home. And so the community is a protective barrier and measure for that particular individual
15:24
due to sometimes their cognitive challenges that they may have or just their trust their trusting. They're just
15:30
too trusting. So it's up to you to ensure that your staff is prepared to make that entire experience a better
15:38
situation for them. What do we need to do? Number one, families are looking to you. They're looking to your staff to
15:45
confirm that their decision that they have made about choosing your community was the right one. And the way you do
15:52
that is by backing up what you said at the beginning of your journey of their
15:57
journey rather, the promises that you made of what your community could fulfill for them. The picture that you
16:04
painted of who you are needs to show through the move in process and that
16:10
transition from home, skilled nursing, hospital, wherever they're coming from
16:15
and into your community. They need to see those promises being fulfilled. You
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want them to feel good about their decision that they made and not walk in doubt. Every time there's a service
16:26
failure, something that didn't go through as stated before, you're casting doubt. And this could be as simple
16:32
statement as we have friendly staff here. Okay. When they moved in, is your staff being friendly? Do they even know
16:38
the resident's name before they come? Like these are all the things. Do you know one of the other things is we make
16:45
your loved one feel like family and that this is home. Well, how do you do that? You know, a lot of times I see senior
16:52
living websites or I see the collateral that they have and the brochures and
16:58
they're making these broad sweeping statements, but then when I say, "How do you do that?" Well, what are you doing
17:03
differently to make that happen? And a lot of times people are stunned. They're like, "Well, we say hello." Oh, okay.
17:10
So, saying a basic hello is making them feel like they're home. Like, what are you doing to make somebody feel like
17:16
family or to make this feel like home? Oh, they have to come in a chandelier dining room and they come only in at
17:23
9:00, noon, and 4 and that feels like home to them. How, and I'm being very
17:29
facitious because we know people have to eat and we have to operate in operational efficiency, but how do we do
17:35
that and make them feel like home? If that is our broad sweeping statement. Now, if you're saying it's resort style
17:42
living and you come into the dining room and have restaurant dining, then that is in essence, yes, you're backing up what
17:48
you're saying cuz in a resort, yes, you don't just come in anytime. You can, but I mean, it's they have times for
17:54
different things or whatever have you. It's scheduled. They have scheduled of this. But if you're saying this is where
18:00
you can feel like home where your family then that should be a different feeling and that should have different actions
18:06
and processes that is attached to that. When they come in on move in day and
18:12
this like I was talking about before being friendly and the staff is not friendly that means that they weren't
18:17
prepared right and so you want to make sure that you're preparing them with each step of the way every little small
18:24
step. And have you thought of all these small steps? What your staff does is either confirming the promises or
18:30
planting a seed of doubts, right? And it is ongoing. This is why preparing your staff is so very important. It also
18:36
helps build the gap between families and the community. And what do I mean by that? The more goodwill that is made,
18:43
the more you're creating the culture of support, love, advocacy, making people
18:48
feel warm and welcome and it solidifies the decision and the statement I want to stay here and this was a great idea. You
18:56
are in essence shortening that that gap between families and the communities. So
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my question to you is do you have staff that makes a new resident or family feel
19:07
good and what does that staff member do? I had a beautiful staff member and every
19:12
time somebody would visit, she was like, "You need to come move in here with me cuz I like to have fun." And she was
19:18
like loud but a funny loud but she was so funny and so cute. And so when people
19:24
came in, she still gave that same energy. Hey, I was waiting for you.
19:30
Remember when you came in and toured and and she would just talk to them and they would be like, "Yes." and it would make
19:36
them smile because she recognized them from even when they came in and visited
19:41
the community. Another one I think of which I've talked about so many times before is Maria. She would talk to the
19:49
residents when they were coming in to visit or future residents and when they moved in she's, "Oh, you're so and so. I
19:54
remember you and I'm the person I'm going to be the one taking care of you in terms of cleaning your apartment."
20:00
She was a housekeeper and I'm going to do this and I would and she would do that. If it was my activities director,
20:08
if there was somebody who was not very active and wouldn't be in activities, her name was Lana, she would actually
20:15
schedule time to sit with the resident and do one-on-one activities in their own apartment. And so that way they
20:22
still got some type of some form of engagement even if they was more of an introvert or was not interested in the
20:28
activities. So these are just some of the things that that again your promises do they match the fulfillment. So when I
20:35
say staff members who am I talking about? I'm talking about your housekeeper. I'm talking about the staff
20:41
caregiver. You're a medtech. I'm talking about the office professional. Who's your business office person? Who's your
20:48
dining services person? Who's the server in the dining room? If you have a small home, who is that caregiver who's on
20:55
during the day? Who's going to be the caregiver that's on at night? I'm talking about anyone who touches the resident. How are they making that
21:02
resident feel and what are you doing to help them on board? And so how do we do that? We help them by creating that
21:09
culture and that environment at the onset, right? So how um are we going to
21:15
do that? There's a way and I call it the four Ps of preparation. The first P is plan. When you plan a move in, how do
21:22
you do this in a community? In the big box, we used to call it standup meetings. And I say used to, we still
21:28
do. But in a smaller community, I suggest you call it a huddle because it is when you get together with your team,
21:35
your staff. And it can be through a group chat. It could be through a Slack
21:41
channel. It could be something that you have that is your internal communication that you can get all the information out
21:48
about a resident. And so when you plan to move in, how do we do this? Typically, these meetings are held once
21:54
a day in a big community. And a big community could be, I would say, 25
22:00
residents considered pretty big in that you should have some type of meeting on
22:06
a daily basis. But if you have a smaller community, you might do it on a weekly basis. And it is where you're talking
22:13
about a resident. You're talking about any changes, concerns, feedback, what is
22:19
going well in the community, what processes need might need improvement,
22:24
what situations may need to be addressed, non-urgent obviously, and what can you change? Because any urgent
22:31
things they should tell you right away, right? All this happens in standup or should I should say that because a lot
22:37
of times stand up in the big boxes it can go off the rails to something but
22:43
it's the core thing is what is the plan for the day who do we need to check on
22:49
what family members are going to be contacted all these different things is covered in standup. So, you specifically
22:56
want to have one before a resident move in because then this particular meeting, you want to ensure the staff knows at a
23:03
minimum the person's name, the date they're moving in, and the time that they're planning on being there with
23:09
their family member. Please, please, please, we want to make sure that they understand the plan of care. Go over it
23:16
with them. What is the date the family and their loved one is coming actually into the community and time frame or
23:22
time window. What is the name of the family members? What is their relationship to the future resident?
23:29
Those are the things that's going to help with the planning. The second P is one of my favorite is to personalize it.
23:36
I used to do something called look who's moving in flyer. I would put out the top five things I learned in the discovery
23:43
process about a person. I would put their apartment number or the room that they would be going in, their name, and
23:50
the five things I knew about them from that whole discovery process. When you first start learning about the family
23:57
and the president, the idea is to paint the picture of who this person is. Was she a career professional or a
24:03
homemaker? How many children did they have? What did they do for a majority of their life of their living? What was
24:09
their hobbies? What's their favorite TV shows? What are they most proud of in their life? anything that could be a
24:15
talking point for my caregivers to that person. Especially when they're doing something as intimate as giving them a
24:22
shower, giving them a bath, giving them their meds, helping them get dressed for bed. You want them
24:29
to have something to talk about that they could relate to that particular
24:35
resident. And then you can also brainstorm on how to personalize that movement experience with the staff. That
24:43
is some of the key things because you're one person, but when you have five people or two people or three people
24:49
saying, "Okay, we have a new move in. These are the things we know about her. How can we personalize this move in to
24:54
be that much more special?" Oh, we found out that her favorite cake is cheesecake
24:59
from the Cheesecake Factory. Let's have her favorite cheesecake here. So, on her first night and her first dinner eating
25:05
here, she's getting a cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. or she loves homemade cookies from the little
25:12
Pillsbury Doughboy thing. Let's do that for her. Like little things. Oh, he is a
25:18
big Florida State Avid fan. Let's get a little throw that says Florida State so
25:23
that he can have that as his welcome gift. That is how you personalize a move in experience and give them a warm
25:29
welcome at moving in. Have your team give you suggestions so they feel like they're a part of the bigger picture
25:36
that they are a part of the whole team and that their suggestion some point in
25:42
time maybe not this particular movie maybe the next one but whatever it is that they can be a contributing factor
25:49
into that success and when it is a success celebrate them that is so key
25:55
that's something that we and I say we the industry have a hard time doing or
26:01
forget to do is to celebrate your staff when they do something or have a good suggestion or a good idea that is
26:09
implemented and there's success behind it. It also helps identify what your staff have in common like I said earlier
26:15
with the resident. The third P is practice. Train your staff on your
26:22
expectations. Can I say that again? Train your staff on your expectations of
26:28
what their key interactions and touch points will look like. So if you have an
26:34
expectation that every morning there's to say good morning to your resident because you think everybody knows that,
26:40
don't assume that everybody knows that. You train your staff on the expectation.
26:46
What is the one thing you know that people at Chick-fil-A is going to say after you do the hand exchange of money
26:54
and they give you your food? What's the one phrase? If you ever go to
27:00
Chick-fil-A, you know, my pleasure, right? They always say it's my pleasure. You think that it's a coincidence that
27:07
it happens every single time? No. is trained on the expectations of what
27:14
their key interaction would be with the customer and you can do the same thing.
27:19
Great companies, a solid companies, companies known for their customer service do not leave anything up for
27:25
chance or interpretation. They have guidelines and parameters that are clear
27:30
yet also give the person the autonomy to inject interject their own personality
27:36
as well. So you don't want people to be robots, but you do want them to have clear guidelines. And if there's
27:42
something that's important to you in their key touch point with residents, families, then you want to make sure
27:48
that you train on those things. What companies do is they empower their employees and their people while giving
27:55
them boundaries and expectations. And that bar will be set before them. The key is to practice what that looks like,
28:02
too. Don't just tell it and bark it. Don't bark. Please don't bark. But make it inclusive, make it warm,
28:10
give them their guidelines, but then empower them to be free and be who they
28:15
are as well and encourage that. It's a delicate balance, but it can be done and
28:22
it's done effectively with many companies. But that means also practicing roleplaying. What does that
28:28
look like? You don't want to wait till you're on stage to per se and the play
28:34
is happening before you understand that they have a clear understanding of what those expectations are. So this is
28:41
called training guys. You want to train your staff and practice with them but also practice what you preach. You can't
28:47
tell them to do one thing and then you're not doing that as well. I used to do a training called the Calvary team
28:54
because they would always swoop in and help and they would be the backup where the sales manager was not present. So
29:00
they would be the ones who would do the visits with families and prospective residents when the salesperson was not
29:06
there. And a part of that training was to help them to describe their role, their responsibilities and most
29:13
importantly their why. Because when people everybody can do a task,
29:19
everybody can give meds, everybody can give a shower, you know what I'm saying, with proper training. Of course,
29:24
everybody can change a bed sheet. But when you help that person who's
29:32
doing that job be able to articulate their why and they're doing that on a consistent basis with every visit or
29:39
every family or when residents are there, it reinforces into something inside of them that makes them proud of
29:44
what they're doing. Understanding their why. Why do you like your job? What part of your job do you like the most? And so
29:51
I used to have this thing for the Calvary team. So at the end of it, and these are non-sales people inside of a
29:58
community because we all are a part of that process of taking care of residents. And so basically when I would
30:05
put together this questionnaire, it would basically go over the who, the what, what's most important, the how,
30:12
the why, and the summary. So by the end of the day, they would have based on my
30:18
questionnaire and their answers, they could easily roll off their tongue, what it is that they did, what
30:26
is their role, how it will impact that future residents, why is their role is important to the success of that
30:32
resident's day, and what makes them want to do this type of job. And people loved
30:40
it. The Calvary team felt more empowered because now they understood how to
30:45
communicate their role, not only just to others, but even to their own selves.
30:51
Cuz you'll hear people say, "I'm just a caregiver. I'm just a server. I'm just a
30:56
business office person." And I'm like, "No, you're important. I'm just a concierge." No, wait. You are the
31:03
director of first impressions, ma'am. People don't get through this front desk without coming through you. No, you're
31:09
the person who answers the phone at night. You're not just a caregiver. At night, when people are answering their
31:15
phones, when families are asking questions, you're the one who has to interpret the nurse's notes or what
31:21
happened throughout the day. Like I help people to see the value of what they're
31:26
doing and how it impacts that resident and the community at large and the care
31:34
and how they are a crucial part of the care of a resident. One of the things that this little questionnaire did was
31:41
it also was very effective in giving the staff confidence and connecting them with the future and existing residents
31:47
on a continual basis. I have the whole framework. I'm more than happy to put it together for you guys in a worksheet or
31:53
do a mini training on it and have that available as well. So, if you're interested in something like that, let
31:59
me know that you're interested in a mini training on that and I'll put it together for you guys cuz I've done it
32:05
dozens of times and so it's a lot of fun and maybe if I do it, you can just
32:12
download it and then have that type of interaction with your team and give them the training. So make that a part of
32:18
their onboarding process because training is important. The fourth P that
32:23
we have is to provide. So if you remember the other three, it was to plan, personalize, practice. The last
32:29
one is to provide. And what we do um as leaders is we provide the materials, we
32:36
provide the resources, we provide all the things that our staff needs to ensure that they are set up for success.
32:43
We don't want to set people up for failure. And a lot of times, not intentionally, we are setting them up
32:50
for failures. We do not give them the resources necessary to be successful in
32:56
their role or their job. And I say we cuz I'm talking about the broader industry. I'm not talking about me
33:01
personally or you personally, but as an industry and as a people and humans,
33:08
sometimes we don't think about that next person. And so we set people up for
33:14
failure most times unintentionally but we do. And so what I have seen in the
33:21
industry and working with people not just in senior living but in general of the corporate jobs that people have a
33:27
bad habit of pointing out other people's mistakes, shortcomings, their weaknesses or what someone did wrong. Quick to do
33:34
that. And some people have a bad habit of pointing out what someone did wrong without taking
33:40
accountability for not teaching them how to do it right. And this is where I tell
33:48
or I used to tell my team is okay if your people don't know how to do visits, don't know how to talk to a family, it's
33:55
up to you to show them how. And as a leader, I just always felt like I needed
34:02
to show my people how to do their job. We needed to brainstorm. If they're failing, then I need to look at myself
34:09
and see where is my hand in their failure and how can I help them not to
34:15
fail. I see this a lot in senior living. And it breaks my heart because I really
34:21
see this because we have some people who are really young, bright, newcomers in
34:26
the field and they want to do a good job, but what I have found is that a lot
34:32
of times people point out what they're not doing and they're not learning it quick enough. Sir, ma'am, just saying 30
34:40
days of onboarding is not enough in this industry to teach people how to do their
34:46
job effectively. I just had to put that out there. I just want to make sure people understand that. But people want
34:53
to point out, oh, this is wrong or oh that is wrong or why'd you do this or
34:58
this should have been done this way or you should have done it that way. They have a lot of opinions, right? But they
35:03
don't look inward and take accountability for their own failure to teach or their own failure to train,
35:10
their own failure to model what that behavior or task should look like. And
35:15
that's what I would challenge my executive director team. My salesperson is not doing this. They're not pulling
35:22
the reports or they're not coming to to the meetings that we have our 101 ones with all their stuff. And my question
35:29
is, well, did you show them how to pull the reports? Did you go over the reports and help them to interpret it? Did
35:37
you show them what a modeled room should look like? Did you go over with your
35:45
housekeeper how you want that bed to be made? Did you go over with your medte
35:54
how they should deliver the meds with a smile and a joke of the day? I don't know. Just whatever it is, right? We
36:01
can't just assume people know everything. And we cannot point
36:07
fingers without taking accountability of our inadequate leadership. I see if a
36:15
team is failing, I'm asking the leader, where's your accountability of
36:21
that? Was you not watching the house? And I've seen it with VPs. I've seen it
36:28
with regionals where they're go into a community and they're like, "Oh my god, this has been going on." D. And my thing
36:35
is, have you been checking the house? Have you been just listening to what one
36:41
person's been saying and not doing an investigation, not being observant, not watching, not listening to the codes and
36:48
any windows that's going on underneath all of that. So, you want somebody to have a good attitude and smile at the
36:54
residents. That's what you want. But when you walk in, you're with a scowl and you have the weight of the world on
37:00
your shoulders, right? Again, that's expectations of modeling behaviors and beliefs. We have to be very mindful how
37:06
we show up as leaders because that is what's going to trickle down on our staff and how our staff will show up as
37:14
caregivers for our residents. Blame without accountability is the foundation of bad leadership. It just is. And I
37:22
don't know if anybody's ever said that, but it came to my mind this morning and I wrote it down. So placing blame
37:29
without self-reflection or accountability is the foundation of bad leadership. When I'm looking at my staff
37:35
and have done so in the past or the teams that I have had and they did not
37:41
perform well, I'm looking at myself. I'm asking myself a lot of questions. What
37:46
did I miss in training this person? What did I miss in modeling something for
37:51
this person to see? Whether it was roleplaying with them, whether it was going to the community more often,
37:57
whether it was observing, spending more time with them, whether it was having one-on ones with them, what did I miss
38:04
as a leader that caused them to fail in this area of their job? And did I do
38:09
everything possible to help them succeed? If I can do a checklist and I says, "Oh, I did this. I also did this.
38:15
I did this." then I went to bed pretty much good sleeping well because I know I
38:22
have done everything but I do ask myself those questions and if there's anything that was left open I would go back and
38:30
with sometimes apologize and say hey listen let me sit down with you and show you how to do this or let me come and
38:37
sit with you let me let's go through how are you doing your calendar how are you spending your time or I see you're
38:44
falling behind in your CRM M let me take some of that from you. So that's what I
38:50
always did. And did I do everything possible to help them succeed is another question. Like I said, did I give them
38:57
checklist? Did I give them worksheets? Did I give them support material or scripts? The ultimate question for me
39:02
was always what did I do or what didn't I do? And as a leader, I think we should
39:09
ask ourselves that on a continual basis. And if I could identify better opportunities or ideas to support them,
39:16
I usually did. Then I would set up a one-on-one with that team member and we
39:21
would go over opportunities. We would do something or I would go over something and I would say, "Hey, I put this
39:27
together cuz I thought it would help you." Or, "Hey, I did this cuz I thought this would support you in this way." In
39:33
my first role as regional sales leader, I would try to do something better every month in our district. The one thing I
39:40
did was I pulled our team away from the chaos of the community and we would have a training day. And I did this purposely
39:46
because I felt like people needed to reset again that mental health thing that we talked about at the beginning to
39:52
reset their mind so that they can come together and really take a sit down
39:57
approach and analyze what was going on in the community the last month. Look at
40:06
their numbers. Learn how to interpret what those numbers mean and find out areas that they need to focus on for the
40:12
new month. So we would go over them. we would really dig deep and be like, okay,
40:17
there's stories behind the numbers. I'm not looking at these numbers and pointing fingers at you. I'm saying if
40:24
this is the number here, for instance, you're had a lot of visits come to your
40:29
community, but they didn't convert over to moveins or or you had a lot of calls,
40:36
but they didn't convert over to visits. So, you had all this call volume. So,
40:42
what happened here? And so I'm looking and I'm asking them questions and we're interpreting that data. And I would give
40:48
them three different scenarios of why these things are happen. So as a whole district, we would review their
40:54
performance as a district, not indiv individually. I gave them their individual numbers so that they can
40:59
interpret for themselves. Again, that's the empowerment portion. That's the accountability on their side. But as a
41:04
district, I would say, okay, this is how we did as a team because I always wanted to reinforce that with my team.
41:11
However, I would give them their contribution to that so that they can look at it. I would reinforce what they
41:18
did well as a team, but also what we could do better. And then I would provide the training that day. Not just
41:25
pointing the finger, but making the training fun. One of the fun things my people loved is the the bull in the pen
41:31
where I would put some two people together. One would say a form of an objection and the other one would have
41:37
to answer that objection and we would all be around and then they would pick out the next person and it was just very
41:44
interactive, very fun games with little prizes and candy throwing and stuff like
41:50
that. But it made the learning experience memorable for everybody and people always left the meetings with an
41:56
aha and a takeaway and we would go over what was the takeaway for the day. So that is just some of the things that I
42:03
would do as a leader, not just point a finger, like I said, making it one-way conversation or using a bully stick. And
42:09
some people manage this way. They manage with a bully stick by manipulating people, manipulating their emotions and
42:16
manipulating their passion for seniors and making them feel like they're not doing enough. And I feel like that
42:23
degrades their that it degrades who they are as a person, but also tears into
42:28
their spirit. and I was never into doing that. I found that what I did was really
42:34
effective for my team and this is why we were able to increase our district occupancy by more than 40 units in less
42:42
than 9 months and we were like I think five of our district team members won
42:47
the national presidential award meaning that they had the top 10 of all people
42:52
out of,200 moveins. They were in the top 10 of their class for each one. So they
42:58
had a class depending on the size of the community. But it was because I think we worked together as a team. It was
43:05
because of the intense training that we had, the fund that we had. I would have people who would go to the hilt to help
43:12
a family and sometimes it resulted in a move in sometimes it resulted in other things but meaning that they didn't move
43:19
in but the things that they knew that they reached out to a family and solved or helped to solve a family's problem.
43:26
And these are the reasons I do believe in training. I do believe in cultivating coaching and doing the things that
43:31
matter to ensure the success of people and you should too. You really should.
43:38
And I have been able to help independent business owners and operators grow their occupancy and achieve 100% as well with
43:45
a weight list. So again, the strategies I use, it's not rocket science or a
43:51
secret. It's a process. And so I teach that process through the marketing boot
43:57
camp. I teach that process through the incubator program because this is not a
44:02
one-time hit, one-time wonder type of situation. So let's just go over some of the practical tips today that may help
44:09
you. Make sure that you assign your staff roles to avoid any missteps. So if
44:14
this person is supposed to be the person who helped with the welcome gift, let that person do that. If it's another
44:19
person who's supposed to show them around the community and help them to get familiar that first night, letting
44:26
them do that. Please make sure you have somebody to do that, though. What's horrible is when somebody comes to
44:32
community and nobody shows them around and they don't know how to get to the the dining or they don't know how to
44:38
what the rules are, the TV or the cable and all that other stuff. You want to make sure that they know. assign someone
44:44
also number two to lead the transition for that resident from home to the community aka on boarding. Right?
44:52
Remember everybody will be actively involved but giving ownership to some of
44:58
the tasks that's involved is a great way of developing their skills and and
45:04
cultivating new leaders. I'm going to give you an example of a great team member I had who excelled at this. I
45:10
have so many that I could think of, but this particular person sticks out in my mind. When a family moved in, we had a maintenance director who knew how to
45:17
make towel animals and like the ones on the cruise ships. And so he also knew
45:23
how to make a flower out of the toilet paper roll. And so when somebody would move in, he would put a towel animal on
45:30
their bed. And I remember visiting community for the first time to model apartmenting apartments and it had a
45:36
towel animal. And I'm like, "Oh my god, you should do this for every move in. Just put in a towel animal so they could
45:43
be like they're welcome." And how awesome is that to go in your first day and you see this great towel animal like
45:48
on a cruise ship. What an amazing first impression, right? Those are the little things that you can do and give that
45:55
person that ownership. And he was very pride prideful in his ability to do that and put a smile on residents faces.
46:02
Another example of how I would create a culture of care was to give immediate feedback to the staff about the comments
46:08
from visiting families to the caregivers, right? We would discuss what
46:14
was noticed by families during their visit or move in process and that always
46:19
made that caregiver or that staff member feel like what they did matter and that
46:25
they were seen. Just by doing this, it built up their confidence. It encouraged them to show up even more for future
46:32
visits or for other moveins. More importantly, by giving staff that feedback loop, the positive
46:39
reinforcement illustrated how integral part of the community they really are
46:45
and to the success of the community by sharing that client's experience, especially if they were named as a part
46:52
of that client's experience. I always made sure that particular caregivers could feel good about what
47:00
they did, what they said, their actions, that it was something that was noticed by families, and that their work that
47:06
they were doing was good and noticed. Like I said, a lot of CNAs don't feel seen or resident assistants or
47:14
caregivers, professional caregivers in our communities. So it was my job I felt
47:19
in my sales role but even as a regional to help them to feel seen and it also
47:24
made them more interactive with families. Another great practice is highlighting your staff with the
47:30
introduction of their roles and the care of the future resident and reinforcing
47:35
that. Another great practice is highlighting your staff with introductions at the onboarding process.
47:42
I had a friend that happened with and the day that he signed his agreement, the executive director told him that it
47:49
would be 90 minutes to two hours. And he was like, "Oh my god, for what?" And he was surprised when he got there what it
47:56
actually it entailed. First, when he got there to sign the paperwork for his mom, the concierge welcomed him by name, made
48:03
mention of him by name that she was looking forward to meeting his mom. She said this the concurge which she
48:09
addressed his mom by her name and he was like what? The concierge knows my mom and he was offered water or anything
48:17
anything else that he wanted to eat like little snacks or whatever. Then he was met by the executive director who led
48:24
him into the room where the signing was to take place. And then several staff members filled the room to say hello and
48:32
they were shaking his hands and welcoming him and he was like, "Oh my god, what is happening around here?" And
48:39
then one by one, each staff member introduced themselves, stated their position and what their role would
48:46
entail for his mom who had dementia. and they all communicated what they
48:53
already knew about her, which was really cool. For instance, we'll just call her
48:58
Miss Smith. I understand Miss Smith is an early riser. Do you think the time
49:04
for us to get her up that she would be more open to be six and seven or do you
49:10
think seven and 8 would be best? So, they asked some of these questions, but this was the person who introduced
49:15
themselves and said, "I'm going to be the morning person for your mom. Do you think six and seven or seven and eight
49:21
would be something that she would like? And he was blown away. My friend was blown away. And after that person
49:26
finished their introduction and what they did, they would leave the room and then the next person would say, "Hello,
49:32
my name is and ask the question about the mom and then would say something
49:38
about what they're doing." When I tell you he was impressed with every member of the team and how the team got
49:44
together, he was just floored. and his mom stayed there for many years until
49:50
she passed away. All the staff gave him reassurances that his mom would be in good hands and they took pride in the
49:57
ownership of the care that they gave him. And none of the staff was the salesperson. It was the actual staff,
50:03
the actual people who was doing the actual work that welcomed him at the time of his signing with the executive
50:09
director. And then after they all left, he was left then with the wellness director who then went over her whole
50:15
care plan and went over everything, had him sign off on what they were going to
50:20
do and she would ask questions also to make sure she had understood and she
50:26
pretty much went over the plan with him. So all the promises of the sales team that said that we are a community that
50:32
cares, we will take care of your mom. It was evident through his onboarding program and it was just amazing and he
50:40
was way impressed. You may be saying this is great for a big box but I'm small. Actually what I'm describing is
50:47
really hard to pull off for a big box because everybody's busy. Everybody has their own thing. There's so much going
50:52
on, a lot of demands. But when you're in a smaller community, you can do this
50:57
even better. And the question I'm asking you is, what processes will you put in
51:04
place to assist families and new residents with the moving process that will set the tone for success in the
51:11
future? I have a few scripted examples of employee introductions, but here's a good one. Hi, I'm Tammy, the caregiver
51:18
who's going to be working with your mom closely. I work on the hall that she's going to be living in. I work the late
51:24
shift. Sometimes residents can experience more confusion at night and may have trouble sleeping. I keep
51:31
residents engaged by doing an activity like folding clothes, discussing trivia, or just walking with them. I understand
51:37
your mom sometimes have trouble sleeping. If you have any suggestions about activities that she likes, feel
51:43
free to let me know and I will incorporate them if possible. I'm excited to support you and to meet your
51:49
mom, Miss Tap Tammy. Let's call her Miss Tammy. That is what an introduction looked like. How did that sound to you?
51:55
This executive director or administrator of this community set the tone and the expectation and a precedent that this is
52:02
what a company of care should look like and the community remained full with a
52:07
cultlike loyalty and following with family members and staff members. I
52:12
would also like to add that even after his mom was gone, do you know that they followed up with him? Isn't that
52:17
amazing? So, I hope all of this helps to give you a picture of what creating a culture of
52:23
care can look like and that you will be able to implement your own
52:29
processes. Hey, can you just do me a favor and subscribe to the YouTube channel if you are listening um there or
52:37
wherever you listen to podcasts, Apple being one of the main ones, if you can just put a review and like it, that
52:44
would be great. That helps us with the algorithm. I'm also focusing on growing the podcast and I would love for you to
52:51
rate the podcast. DM me with the rating of your community name and the city and state that you're in and I will give you
52:59
and your community a shout out on future episodes. So, please let me know how you
53:04
like the podcast. I'm focusing on growing it more and more and um I'm
53:09
looking to serving you more. So, until next time, remember to inspire change, impact lives, and improve outcomes. Hope
53:15
you have a wonderful day. [Music]