The Missing Link Between Move-Ins and Retention - Day 10

Resident matching isn’t “extra.” It’s a move-in multiplier. 💥

In Day 10 of the 21 Days All Things Senior Living Sales series, we’re talking about resident matching, the process I used to connect a prospective resident with the right people before they move in, during onboarding, and especially when they’re moving into a shared room/suite.

Because here’s the truth: people don’t just move for care.  Sometimes, they move for connection and social interaction. And when someone walks in and meets a familiar face, the decision feels less scary and a whole lot more certain.

The Discussion:

• Why friendships are a conversion tool (and a culture builder)
• The 3 moments resident matching matters most:
  1. before the resident ever visits
  2. when they decide to move in
  3. when they’re moving into a shared room/suite
• What families are really worried about with shared rooms (privacy, dignity, “what if they don’t get along?”)
• The “small details” that make shared living actually work (sleep habits, noise, temperature, TV, routines)
• How to involve staff in matching so they feel ownership in the move-in

Free Resource:

COMING SOON: Buddy System Implementation Guide
Want it early? Email: tiffany@startwithoccupancy.com

What’s Next:

I’m gearing up for two big programs going into January 2026:

• Momentum Marketing Bootcamp (10 weeks program) 
• Compass Rose XL cohort (12 months) for new owners or under 50% occupied

If you’re loving this series:

Share this episode with another operator, we’re all in this together!

Subscribe so you don’t miss the next part of the 21-Day All Things Senior Living Sales journey.

And if you're ready to increase your move-ins in 2026, join the Momentum Marketing Bootcamp. Founding cohort launches in December  29th with special charter pricing.

Take what you need. Share what helps. Come back for more. 🎧

Transcript

Tiffany: 0:00

Uh huh. Welcome to Start With Occupancy, the podcast for senior living owners, operators, and sales professionals./Hi, I'm Tiffany, marketing strategist and former corporate baddie who got tired of producing results for wall street and wanted to make a change on main street./I provide quick tips, idea nuggets, and case studies to help you with proven sales, marketing, and business development strategies along with leadership concepts so that you can inspire change, impact lives, and improve outcomes for the aging, their families and your teams./I'm committed to equipping you with the tools, the knowledge and resources that you need to excel in your business./With over/12 years of experience working inside senior living companies, large and small, I've developed a deep passion for advocating for the aging adult and those who care for them, all while driving business growth./So whether you're already in the senior care industry or maybe you would like to be, if your mission is to serve them, my mission is to serve you./Join me as we unravel the strategies and tactics that drive success in your business while making a difference in someone's life./The goal is to touch, guide, and impact the lives of 10 families per month!/Are you with me? It's time to be inspired, gain practical tips and own your future.

Tiffany Updated voice: 1:34

/Welcome to day 10 of the 21 Days All Things Sales Senior Living. Yes. This is, a journey I must admit, with so many different priorities. But the cool part about this is that once this is all complete, it will be packaged together like a guide, for people. And so hopefully you're enjoying the series. and again, I welcome you. So today we're going to jump right into it, if you're listening while on the road or in a plane or at the gym. Um, just stay tuned. This is gonna be good. So let's talk about, resident matching. When I say resident matching, I'm talking about when you have either a resident that is coming to look at your community. or you're talking about a resident who's moving into your community, or you're talking about a resident who's moving into a shared room in your community. In these three different instances, resident matching is super important. The more people that you can invite to get to know the prospective new resident and that they can find commonality with, the better chances you have of having that resident move in. In corporate world, we call conversion, but in plain English is you have someone who feels good about the decision that they're making to move into your community because now they have something that is tying them to what it would be like to live in your community or help them acclimate to your community very well. We are social creatures and friendships, even at that age is so very important and it is one of the main reasons why people move into a community-based environment after being home for so long and isolated by themselves. It's one of the top reasons. When you have a variety of friendships inside of your home, it can help transform the house in and of itself. And I say house, it could be a bigger community, but the friendships and the activities and the excitement, all of that, can help shape what the culture of your community is like, because that interaction then also spills down to your staff and your staff knows, oh, these are two peas in a pod. You can't break them up. They tend to know who gets along and who. It may not be best of friends, let's just say that, and it helps with the community environment and the culture of your community. There has been many a times when there was something going on with a resident that it was their quote unquote buddy that gave us the clue in that something's going on because the resident themselves never mentioned it. So if they're at night not feeling well or something that's happening, a lot of times that roommate will come to the side when they will, when their buddy wasn't around and says, Hey, at night I've been noticing X, Y, and Z. Just wanted to let you guys know, and can I tell you how invaluable that is? So again, friendships are important in life, especially at this stage in life. There are some specific statistics about loneliness and aging, that really can be jarring let me go over some of that with you. So the statistics tells us this, that loneliness is significant for seniors. is its recent data between 23 and 24, showing about one and three older adults between the ages of 50 and 80. Experience loneliness or social isolation. The key stats is saying that 24 to 25% of seniors over 65 are socially isolated, and about 37% feel a lack of companionship. The risk of this loneliness, epidemic and isolation leads to poor health, disabilities, factors like the loss of loved ones and mobility issues and chronic illness heighten their vulnerability, and this can impact their mental as well as their physical health. This is a very vulnerable group when it comes to loneliness and social isolation. And a lot of times this loneliness happens to those who are more at a disadvantage who don't have their activities of daily living, meaning that they can't drive anymore or because of their disability, they're limited in their socialization in church and, in groups that they used to be, very active in, and obviously the loss of a child and the loss of a spouse heightens and increases that loneliness/COVID was the world's experience of what many aging adults feel daily for years. And with them there is no end in sight. at least the world knew that COVID wouldn't last forever. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many older adults. For them, this is their forever. And the one thing I did appreciate about COVID is that it really gave people a deeper understanding of what I knew older adults was experiencing every day. And one of the things that I had hoped would happen is that people would then understand some of the challenges of growing older in isolation and loneliness is like, and that they would give more grace to aging adults, especially the children, who may not understand what mom and dad is going through.'cause they're going about their lives. They're out while mom, dad, older brother, uncle, grandma is sitting at home for hours at end doing television. so this is the thing, that many older adults go through. This is where resident matching and moving into a community environment can be very critical for some people. If you understand and if you remember with, even with COVID, people who are more extroverted really didn't do well with that isolation. And there's so many other things that went on with that whole debacle, of life that, we all had to go through. But one of the things I thought about in creating our notes for today is those three areas of resident matching. And so one of them we talked about is the shared suites.'cause so many of you have homes where residents have to share together. And sometimes one of the concerns of the family is how does that work? What happens if they don't get along? Or they may ask you, how are they matched together? How do you decide? What is the other person going to be like? And, are they going to be kind to my mother or my father? How does mom or dad maintain their dignity and their privacy if they're sharing a room? These are real questions that families have. And, how do I know this? It is because my first community, when I first came into the industry, being that it was majority Medicaid, Medicaid only paid for a shared apartment in the state of Florida at that time, and still does. So I had to, initially, I didn't know, I have to be honest, I was like new to the whole thing, but I quickly became astute to it. And, I will say it this way./In college, I had so many roommates I. I am almost ashamed to say it, but it's not because of me, so I don't want you to get the wrong idea. But it's because in college, people are transient. They come in for a semester and leave, or I stayed for the summer, so every track, there was a different roommate because people would only stay for half the summer or whatever have you. But I lived during those four and a half years in college, five years, because I took off a semester and still had roommates with 12 different people in that time. And so I had a certain sensitivity to what it's like to live with people and being able to learn how to adapt. And so I was able to pull that experience into what I was doing with aging adults in a community where shared apartments or shared rooms, it was 337 square feet, so it wasn't even apartment, it was a large room with a bathroom. That's all it was. And being able to match people up together so that. They could get along, become friends, if not, great roommates. and there were certain things that I did. For instance, I'll give you an example. If there was someone I matched as a roommate situation. I purposely didn't have them sit at the same table in the dining room because that would be too much. That means they eat sleep like it was too much. So when someone moved in, I found a table again, resident matching that would also match that person's experiences and their background, all the things that I learned from discovery, and that's why such a good discovery is important. If you don't already or have not already heard the, um, episode about discovery, that's day number two in the series. So go back and listen to that. But understanding who your resident is before they move in, and by me making sure that I understood who they were down to were they hot or cold natured down to, are they night sleepers? go to bed? I'm sorry. early. Early sleepers or did they stay up late at night? Did they like to watch TV when they went to sleep? Or were they someone who liked quiet? All these little things matter because if I'm telling people that it's just like home or they're going to be, living in home-like environment or that this is going to be an extension of what they've already done at home. It was my job I felt to ensure that I created that as close to that environment as possible for them so that everything isn't changed, even down to what time of day do they normally take a shower or to take their bath? Are they early risers and want to get freshened up? Or, are they the ones who want to take one at night? These are all the little things that's going to set you apart that's going to make you different, than anything else. The popular question from families when I talked to them about Medicaid and being shared was, how does that work?/And so these are just some of the little bit of things that I did with the understanding and with that hyper sensitivity to roommate and shared living, that made the matches that I made work really well. Like I said, there's three different resident matching that you may do in your community, depending on how your community is set up. so the first one is when the person is coming in. A lot of times families will come and look at your community before the actual resident, when we would create that second visit, I would ensure there's a resident that had something similar or that they could connect to because that one resident. When they move in, I wanted them to see a familiar face. So let's talk about what that looks like. So think about you walking into a new school, a new office, a new church. You don't know anyone. And until recently, maybe you didn't even know that you would be there. Maybe somebody dragged you in the church and you didn't know that you know you was even going or. It was a new church and all the different things that happen in life where you're put into a new environment. Maybe it is a networking group or things like that, and you don't know how long you're going to be there. And like I said, maybe you was a reluctant, participant and even being there. and so when you walk into that new room and you don't know anyone, there's no familiar faces. It can be a little intimidating for most people. You have your extroverts out there, you guys can walk into a room and light it up. It doesn't matter. But there is a majority of people out there who feels a little uneasiness in that. when you have somebody who's coming into a community and moving in, and you're pretty sure that might be the situation, or it even could be a possibility of one. Having a person that they meet during their visit is going to help them, to walk into at least one familiar face. So when somebody comes in for that first time visit, meaning a resident, and this is the resident's first time coming in, then I like to make sure that they meet at least one other resident, and that they see me saying hello to the residents and that they see familiar faces, and I actually, as I'm walking or showing them around, I'm introducing them to residents. The second type of matching is that when they finally say, okay, I'm moving in. Who is that resident that they're going to, meet up with, oh, let me go back. When they also have that, person in the very beginning it might be what we call a lunch visit. Some people call it a lunch tour. You know how I feel about tours and visits, so I'm gonna stick with my word visit./But, it might be a lunch visit where they're visiting the community and they're going to have lunch. That is another time where matching can happen. If it's in the same initial visit, then it's the same person. I try and make sure that resident is free, and I ask the resident for permission, are you going to be free this day? We have somebody who's new who might be coming in, and do you mind having lunch with them? And then the resident usually feel a sense of purpose and legacy by living there with you. It's a win-win situation because they feel like they're important to what is going on in your community. And then they sit together and they talk. And so I just usually serve the lunch like a first class waiter and have them enjoy themselves. The second type of matching is when they're actually onboarding and coming in, and that could be the same person or sometimes it's a different person. And that is where there's like a, we call it in the bigger communities, a resident ambassador. This person, quote unquote, is in charge of, welcoming new residents. Back in the day, we used to call it the"Welcome Wagon", when you're moving into a brand new community and neighborhood, there was a group of people who was in charge of welcoming that new resident into the neighborhood. It's the same idea. Even if it's nothing but,"Hey, this is your person that if you have questions, you can ask". For the smaller communities, it could be everybody. You could really make it a very personalized experience in a smaller community and knock it out the park and really sell families on the idea that the personalization is real and demonstrate that. Then the third phase of this is when a resident, is moving into a shared department, and I say phase meaning the third type. So if they're moving into a shared department, there are things that you should know so that you can make sure that it is a good fit. Now, when you're smaller, you may not always have the flexibility of people choosing different people and things like that, as I did my 61 when, apartment community, even though they were all studios. but it is basically. Sometimes that means saying, okay, this is who we have for right now. But when there is an availability, your mom could move in with another person or any mitigations that needs to happen so that their mom or dad have a better situation for them. Meaning this, some of the things that I talked about knowing through discovery what is that person like and how would they match with the other person? I had a situation where there was a person who moved in and I asked the family a lot of questions and made sure I had a good match. One of the problems with this particular match was that while the person was lovely, I can't remember if it was a he or she, I can't remember. It was a him, but he was hard of hearing. So at night, one of the things I didn't realize, and it became my go-to every time since then, this was my first time when this particular situation happened, but at night he liked to watch tv. Not a problem. Roommate never had an issue with that. The problem was he was hard of hearing, so it had to be really, really, really loud. And so one of the things that I found out after the first week is this is not gonna work. I gave the family different options. One was a television that, had the reading where they can see closed captions. The other one,'cause their vision was fine, the other one was to have headphones for the TV so that when they wanted to watch tv they can wear the headphones and they can turn it up as loud as they wanted to, but it wouldn't, interrupt the other roommate. And that seemed to work. As a matter of fact. They loved it and the roommates were great together. They still stayed together'cause there was not a problem with the roommate situation as much as it was their style of living. So that is the, things to think about is when you're moving into someone is, I mentioned earlier, is what are their habits like, is one messy and one not? One thing I also did is I always asked the staff asking the staff was key because they know your resident's inside and out. They know who's messy. They know who's up at night. They know who's early in the morning, they know who's restless. And so asking the staff, giving them a profile of who's moving in and asking them which resident would be the best match for this, that also gave the staff a sense of purpose like they were helping with the actual move in. and they were, but it gave them, ah. The, I wanna call it the buy-in, but it gave them that sense of ownership is the best way I could think of it. That this move-in and the decisions I made as a sales manager in that community was because of their input into that move in. And so now, that resident became their people, if that makes sense. And so that ownership into the move in process was so key because now they also were the ones who helped with the first visit, they may have been meaning staff, the first person who helped in with the second visit. And then when it was time, I would say, guess what? Remember the person that talked to and you did this or you said this, they decided to move in. They're going to need to be in a shared apartment or shared room. Which resident do you believe out of these? Would be the best match. Now these are the things about them that you should know. And then I would go through, they're late night sleeper, they're on the cleaner side. They're this or whatever it was. And that staff member would then tell me who is the best resident and we would discuss it. And so when the person moved in, that staffer, the resident assistant, would feel that ownership and, they took pride in it. So again, this is just little ideas for you, whether you're in a bigger community or a smaller one. I want to go through this in the summary. Um, and I put a framework together because you guys know that's what I do. I'm trying to make it so that it's easy for you to remember. But I call it the Match Method. How good is that? So the match method and the first one, or portion of that for the m is to meet schedule, the introductory meeting between the buddies or the future buddies. that is the first step in that is the meeting. And how does that meet and greet, play out, making sure that you also prepare the resident that you already have with information about the new person coming in and how excited you have, they have to see your excitement about this new resident who's gonna be added to the community, and that you think that they're going to be great friends. Second, for the match system is to align, making sure that the resident pairs with shared interests, shared life experiences. I actually had one that they both the, I had a resident in my community that was from England and the person who was coming in was also from England. I found out later was different parts, but I had them sit at lunch together and they had a blast. That was pretty cool. The T portion of that is to train, and I say this loosely because I couldn't figure out anything else that would make sense, but train meaning like giving guidelines to your staff member or to the, prospective buddy, much like I just talked about, and I don't mean train as in telling them what to do, but letting them know much like I just talked about in the England thing. Hey, I have somebody who's from England. I don't know where she's from, but she's gonna come in and that type of stuff. Never train on what they should say. I don't believe in that. I believe in authenticity. I used to tell my buddies,"You are going to meet with this new person who's thinking about coming in, tell them the good, bad, and the ugly". Like I want them to know. I want them to come in with good expectations. And of course now I'm not gonna give them to the person who has a rife and complaint about every single thing in a community. That never happened. But the person who really enjoyed being there, but who was very, very transparent about some of the whatever things I didn't like. I don't like that we have to eat at a certain time every day, or, because at that time it was very scheduled, the dining times, um, you know, it was, so those things, right.? But I wanted them to know and be comfortable to be themselves. So I never trained on that portion of it, but I did give guidelines so that they knew and understood their role in the whole process as well as staff, by the way. And then check in, follow up with both residents to make sure that it is working. This is whether they're visiting and you just wanna, continue to check in, how's things going, you guys type of situation, or if it's an onboarding and somebody's moving in and the resident ambassador's there to welcome them, you go in, that night maybe they might, they might sit together for that first dinner, right? and seeing how things are going. and then for the shared apartment, definitely move in three days after four days after that. So there's twice, at least in the first week. and then, and this is more for sales managers. Obviously if you're the owner of your community, you're checking in every day, right? But then two weeks after, obviously if you're a sales manager, technically your nurse and your staff should be doing this, but, We all know. and so those are the things, that you should do is definitely do the check-in to make sure that the match is working. And the last but not least is to highlight, celebrate the matches that you have made. And, that could be a highlight with other new people that's coming in inquiring. And sometimes when they come in, meaning the family member for that first visit, they're meeting the two buddies that are together on that first visit. And they're telling their experience of how one moved in, the other one helped move in and how they work together and how it's a great community and and how they became great friends and that really warms up that next person that moves in. Hope this makes sense. But it's like a domino. It's a domino effect. You do one great match, then someone coming in looking for their mom or dad, and then they are walking around your community looking at it and introduce your residents to, hopefully you're doing that to the visits, um, that come into your community. Um, family visits and then, having that person, say, oh this person just moved in and this was their buddy and them talking about how that worked out. That is such a really great opportunity for your community to shine. That is what I have for you guys, practical tips is making sure that you're doing really good discovery so that you know who these people are when they come in to visit your community, and more importantly, when they move into your community and host regular buddy check-ins, like I said, as a part of that onboarding process to make sure that all buddies matches are good. there's a, one big like guidebook from this whole series, but it's gonna be the Buddy system implementation guide, and steps to create, good connections. If you want that early, you're welcome to DM me, at tiffany@startwithoccupancy.com and I will have these things together. So this is what my big project is for this week, is not only finishing the series, but putting out all of the different guides for it and making that into one whole, exhaustive guide for you guys and the marketing kit for going into next year. What I would like to do is to, Let you know that we have two big things happening at the beginning of 2026. One is the Marketing bootcamp that is going to help you start off your new year so that you can have a stronger year. I will let you know in this industry between January, February, March, April is where typically, a big majority of your move-ins happen. It's right after the holidays. It's right after the, I've seen something since end of October going into the holidays. I didn't wanna move mom yet, but now's the time. It is the, I visited mom and now I see things that are not so good and I need to make some decisions. It is the time that, unfortunately things happened over the holidays because of the busyness of life that, now mom, dad, cousin is in rehab or had a, had something that happened that caused them to need more additional care or is the time where people are slowing down and trying to think about their new future, maybe with independent living and saying, you know what, this is the last year I'm going to have this house. I need to start looking for an independent living community because I no longer can maintain this. I want to. I wanna do something different. So you have all these different factors coming at the end of the year. We're gonna go over your value proposition, go over how to create a marketing plan, and then go over how to execute that marketing plan with professional referral sources properly. And then we also have our Compass Rose, which is our 12 month incubator slash accelerator hybrid program where we walk through your first 12 months of your business. and this is pretty much for people who are brand new opening or people who are under 50%, occupancy and really feel like they need more mentorship in their business for the long haul. Both programs are starting in January. one is 10 weeks, which is marketing for Move-In, and obviously the incubator program that we just talked about is 12 months. So I'm excited about what, is being done. and we'll go much more into that, at a later date. But, Just be on the lookout. All right, you guys. I hope this was really good for you and that you gained something from it, and as always, inspire change, impact lives, and improve outcomes. Now, if today's episode gave you value, do me a quick favor, subscribe. Leave a review, and share this episode with someone else in the senior living or assisted living space who needs support and strategy. Your reviews help this podcast reach more people I just wanna thank you for being here. Take what you need, share what helps, and come back for more.