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Home Care Marketing & Sales Mastery by Approved Senior Network®
Dawn Fiala, Lisa Marsolais, Annette Ziegler, and Valerie VanBooven RN BSN provide insight into home care marketing strategies. They cover in-person, in-field sales and online marketing every other week. These podcast episodes are part of the Home Care Marketing Mastermind, sponsored by Approved Senior Network®. Find more information at https://ASNHomeCareMarketing.com
Home Care Marketing & Sales Mastery by Approved Senior Network®
"Ask ASN Anything" About Home Care Marketing
Trust is the foundation of successful home care marketing, but brand recall seals the deal. When discharge planners face walls lined with identical brochures from countless agencies, what makes yours the one they remember and call?
Our panel of seasoned home care experts dives into the strategies that convert marketing efforts into actual census growth. From structured territory planning using Medicare.gov's facility directory to perfectly timed Google review requests (hint: the two-week sweet spot matters more than you think), we unpack the mechanics of building referral relationships that actually produce results.
Perhaps most valuable is the panel's candid discussion about increasing revenue from current clients—a growth opportunity many agencies overlook. The systematic approach to reassessments after facility stays, training caregivers to spot changing needs, and framing conversations around enhanced safety rather than "upselling" provides a blueprint for ethical census building without requiring new client acquisition.
The conversation doesn't shy away from difficult questions either. How do you maintain caregiver interest when immediate work isn't available? When is it appropriate to walk away from a potential client who isn't a good fit? What's the real value (and conversion rate) of paid lead services like A Place for Mom?
Whether you're launching a new marketing program or refining established strategies, this episode offers both fundamental principles and tactical specifics designed to help your agency stand out in competitive markets. The recurring theme throughout: consistent, authentic relationship building trumps transactional marketing every time.
Continuum Mastery Circle Intro
Visit our website at https://asnhomecaremarketing.com
Get Your 11 Free Home Care Marketing Guides: https://bit.ly/homecarerev
All right, so let's do introductions. I think there are some people here that maybe aren't here all the time. That's really brought in some different people, which is exciting. So I guess I'll start since I'm here. I'm Dawn Fiella. I've been with ASN for about three years. I have come with a strong background in home care and the trenches of home care. I love all of it. It's very hard and I know, lisa, I'm going to steal your line. Lisa, it's hard to stay in your lane and I don't care, you get involved in all the pieces. It's just everything overlaps, it seems like. So I think my favorite part has been in the sales and marketing side of it and growing the private pay side of the business. Welcome, thank you for being here today.
Speaker 2:Annette youler and I've been with ASN over a year. I have 20 plus years home care experience, home marketing experience. Just like Dawn said, we've done it all and I loved it all. And I teach the sales training classes here at ASN and I really enjoy. I see a lot of people that are in my classes now, so welcome everybody.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I see a lot of people, a lot of people, I think. Am I next or is Valerie next? Whatever you want, go ahead, lisa. I'm Lisa Marcella Hi Gosh, a little over two years now and it seems like I've been here for a really long time. But two years isn't that long. But I've been in home care forever as well. I love all the pieces of home care. I'm going to still back my line, and in home care it's hard to stay in your own lane. You just kind of help and do all the things. You wear all the hats and I love that and I love being a part of it with you guys, but on this side. So thanks for letting me be a part of it. I love being here, as always.
Speaker 1:Great, oh, valerie, you're up. Oh, I'm not. You can. No, you weren't on my window. I just opened it up and there you were.
Speaker 4:Is there another slide that has all of us on it, or is it not, I guess?
Speaker 1:it's not here. No, I think, oh no.
Speaker 4:Hey, what's that? Hey, we have a commercial. I'm Valerie Van Boeven. I am a registered nurse and the founder, originally, and the co-owner of Approved Senior Network, and my experience is I tell people I'm too old in nurse years. It's like dog years Once you are a nurse, you age quickly in the brain. Having said that, all these ladies are amazing at what they do and they are the experts in home care, sales and marketing in person and a lot of other things I like the digital part of marketing.
Speaker 4:That's my jam and I'm glad you all are here and I'm glad you're a part of Approved Senior Network and that's it Okay.
Speaker 1:So today it is Ask ASN Anything. So all of us are here to answer your questions. We'll probably bounce around a lot for who's going to answer which questions, because we all have different specialties. Valerie's here too. She can help with all the online. So if you've got some online questions, that's good as well. And then we have some questions already that were submitted, so we're going to get to those first, and then we'll have a live Q&A. If you want to put your question in the chat, it looks like there's a question there already, and so go ahead and you can start throwing some questions in there. We'll go through the ones that were submitted first. Some of those might be questions you have as well, so we thought it would be good to have a starting point, so we'll go ahead and get started. After that, lisa would be good to have a starting point, so we'll go ahead and get started. After that, lisa will go, we'll have a live Q&A, and then Lisa will go through the leave behinds for July, august, september and October. So we've got a new month here, so are we doing the free giveaway too? Yes, we are, okay. Let's.
Speaker 1:Before the questions. There is one question there. I want to make sure we don't miss it, but at some point during this meeting, if you would like to be entered into a drawing to get a free month of leave behinds, we put your logo, your colors, your contact information on there and then we email them to you. They're editable, so you're able to change them up if you want to, but we get them all ready for you. If you want to do that and you're willing to send us pictures of how you use the leave behind, please type yes in the chat and then we will keep track of questions and the yeses and then we will do the drawing and let you know if you won.
Speaker 1:All right, let's go ahead and get started. Oh, we do have an announcement, though. This is exciting stuff If you live in Florida or if you happen to be in Florida next week. Valerie and I have been invited again by the Home Care to go to Home Care Con. It's the 36th annual conference we will be presenting two days this time. Last time we spoke at Pre-Con. We are speaking for three hours. Holy cow, at Pre-Con. That last time too, actually, it flew by, didn't it? Valerie?
Speaker 4:I can't believe how fast it flew by we ran out of time and we had three hours.
Speaker 1:They didn't want us to go. They kept going, let them keep going, let them talk. And then, main con, we're talking for an hour. So we're talking about building your brand. The whole exhibit is like outer space, and so that's why the plan works. So your brand's orbit is a home care galaxy. That's the three hour presentation. And then the hour presentation is on sales training and the impact of tailor training for your salesperson, your marketer. So if you happen to be in the area next week, come and see us. We'll see you in person. So that's happening next week.
Speaker 1:All right, it's time for questions and I will go ahead and list them here. So the first question I felt like this was a hard one right out the gate, but we kept it slide one. So here we go. How can I encourage our team to be more open to new marketing ideas? Each person on staff has a different opinion on how things should be done, whether in-person marketing or online marketing. They're not interested in the concept of leave behind ideas or participating in small networking meetings. Any recommendations? I even have a question because we want you guys. You get the slide, so the answers are also going to be listed. So we talked about this as a group and we came up with referrals are based on trust and brand recall and while the leave behinds are a little cheesy and quirky and funny and all of that, they do help with brand recall.
Speaker 1:They help build trust and they help to change your relationship with that referral source. They see lots and lots of agencies. When you do get in front of a referral source, especially in the skilled nursing facilities, a lot of times there's a wall behind them with 50 home care agency brochures right, or a table with all the brochures. So they're talking to many agencies. You have to stand out, there has to be something. So that's why the leave-behinds are so important. You're going back every eight to 10 days, you're reminding them.
Speaker 1:So the power of the leave-behinds it reinforces your visit, it changes your relationship, it keeps you front of mind. Sometimes, hopefully, you have a great relationship and they're thinking about you anyway. But I know even for myself, when I would go on vacation for a week and I would come back, that next week would be so slow. I was gone one week and I had great relationships. It's that front of mind it's so important. It also sets your agency apart from other agencies. It gives them something tangible to look at when they're ready to make a referral and it helps them recall your agency quickly during discharge planning. A lot of times they're just like oh Lisa, lisa, what company is she with? Wait a minute, what was that again? And they're digging for the brochure, maybe, but if Lisa's coming every eight to 10 days, there's bound to be something near her desk, on her desk, from Lisa, so they can get to her quickly. So Lisa and Annette jump in. You have anything to add?
Speaker 3:Valerie, you too, this is all marketing stuff. Yeah, I would just say, especially if they have the cell phone.
Speaker 2:That's the best thing, yeah, and I just everything you said, dawn. You want to be different and you can't. They have tons of brochures. Everywhere you go into these social work offices, hospitals, you'll see the 20 brochure racks, leaving these cute little things and leave behinds and leaving something tangible for them and standing out. I think definitely does make a difference for them to remember you.
Speaker 1:Yep, absolutely. And then they also asked about networking events. So networking is the action or process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional and social contacts, so people are going to refer to people they know, people they like, people, they trust. Trust is everything in this industry. Discharge planners, case managers, senior serving professionals want to refer to people they personally feel connected to. So the one thing networking events don't do like.
Speaker 1:I didn't spend a ton of time doing those. I found maybe two a month that I felt were the most had the most ROI for me, and that's those were the two that I went to, and you could spend every day of your life at a networking event. I'm not saying that's what you should be doing. You should be going, though, because it helps you understand the industry, it helps you understand your competitors, because they're all going to be there. The people, the discharge planners, aren't typically at these events, unless it's hosted at a skilled nursing facility, so, again, you have to really think about where am I getting the biggest bang for my buck? What the networking events do, though, is they create face-to-face familiarity. You meet other reps from home, care agencies, hospice. You get to tour the communities. It allows you to show your genuine passion for helping seniors, like people need to see you out there and about to understand that you're a part of this community and but you're going to see more people like yourself or hospice reps or home health reps. It's not going to be those social workers typically that are out there, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go. I'm just saying you don't need to spend your entire life at these things. It can open the door for future one-on-one connections.
Speaker 1:So I found several home health agencies that we would refer back and forth. I networked with a few hospice agencies that we referred back and forth and I was able to get up and talk about my agency. You get that 10-minute spiel too, to be able to stand up for five minutes and just give an introduction. You need to be seen out there as someone in the industry and that's another piece of the networking. So the referrals don't always happen at the event, but they've happened after you've made that personal impression. And sometimes I'd meet a hospice rep and like I just I meet all these people from home care, but you really do seem like you're passionate about it. So then we would have this relationship from that point moving forward. So that's what I have. Anything to add, guys.
Speaker 3:Just that. I would use that too, If you're stepping into a new market, which I've done in the past. So to learn who everyone is really and to learn what you need to be a part of, it's a great way to get in there, so that's what I use them for too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, all right. As a new home care marketer, what should be my first priority? That's such a great question. So in our sales training we deep dive into this. We're just going to do a little snippet today, but you do need to start identifying and mapping out your referral sources.
Speaker 1:This website here is a great place to go to look for anybody. Any company that's getting paid by Medicare will be here. It's the medicaregov website and you can go in and you can look at nursing homes, rehabs, hospitals, all in your area. You just put in your zip code and click on it and it'll pull up all of the skilled nursing facilities, nursing homes in my area. I can go in a little bit further and I can find out lots of information about them their rating, how many beds they have, how are they paid. This one's Medicare and Medicaid. If it's a straight Medicare building, you're going to get a lot more private pay out of there instead of one that's straight Medicaid. There's a lot of information in here. You can also look up home health hospice.
Speaker 1:You want to connect yourself with companies that are doing well, so you can look them up as well and see what their rating is like, if you're going to be marketing, you want to attach yourself to someone, a good company, right? So this has always been a great source for me to look at that. You want to get your whole like where are you going? Your route sheet put together. All of that's going to be really important. These are the top places to go. Hospitals, of course, would be up there. They're just very difficult to get into and they have a whole vetting process now. But skilled nursing facilities, rehabs, independent living, assisted living and memory care those are the places top places that I would go. That's not to say you can't get referrals from senior centers, adult daycare, there's other places, but this is where I would start Discharge planners, case managers and social workers in referral first organizations, elder law attorneys, fiduciaries, placement agents, senior centers.
Speaker 1:Create a spreadsheet with the names, facilities, contact persons and master your message. You need an elevator speech. You need a 30 seconds that rolls off your tongue. It just needs to roll off your tongue. Of course, it changes based on who your audience is right, if you're going to talk to skilled nursing, that elevator speech is going to be a little bit different than if you're talking to an elder law attorney. Get mastered. That's going to be really important to master that and you're able to let that just roll off your tongue. You should also have a CRM keeping track of all of these things. We have a great CRM here at our company that we use and many of our clients use as well. So this is how I would start. You've got to figure out where you're going and then what is your message to each different type of referral source? You need help with that. We have a self-training class and Annette does an awesome job. This is week one, right? Annette, the timepiece of week one. Yeah, sure, yeah, anything to add?
Speaker 3:ladies, yeah, I'd like to add too that once you've discovered all these places that you might want to add to your route, you could even go a step further and then add those into LinkedIn in the search and maybe look for people that might work at that facility as well, or that community. Just type into the search, the city, the name of the community and then maybe like social worker, for example, and hopefully if those people have added themselves to you know that on their LinkedIn it's going to pop up and at least you could have maybe an intro. I'm not saying do this and not go out, because you really want to go out and meet them, but this is a way to get to know them first, maybe get know what they look like. You might have walked past them before, not even known it. It's a great way to try to connect as well.
Speaker 1:Agreed, that's true. And if you haven't done this yet and you're not new, you got to do this. I know sometimes it's just I'm just gonna go everywhere I can go, and it's there's different ways to go out and do that. Business development or marketing. You can just, if you think of a farmer, just throw seeds everywhere and just hope for the best. Wow, you will get a little things popping up here and there. But when you go at it like a farmer and you're watering and you're adding vitamins and fertilizing and you keep going back, that's when you're gonna get the return on investment. That's when you're going to get those referrals. You need to be strategic about it. So this is a great starting point, but if you haven't done this yet, I would highly recommend you do.
Speaker 1:How can I get more Google reviews? How do I ask the client that gave us rave verbal reviews to give us the Google review? And then, what is the benefit of having a lot of Google reviews? So to ask for a review, it's all about timing. You want to ask for that review after a successful shift or after a glowing phone call or a follow-up call from a happy client or an adult child. So we're so glad you're happy.
Speaker 1:Would you be open to sharing your experience in a quick Google review so you can email them the link to your Google business profile? That's the easiest way to do it. Don't leave it up to them to go hunt and look for it. Email it to them, text it to them you know that and then mention it that it's going to help them, help other families. If they love you so much and you're doing such a great job, it'll help them. If they do a review, it'll help other families that are out there that are looking for a good company. And I would say timing is the most important. We used to have a thing because it was like in home care after the two week mark, something found to go wrong.
Speaker 4:It's just the way it is.
Speaker 1:Caregiver's going to call out, caregiver's going to know so something. Client services doesn't return the phone call for three days. I don't know. It just seems like at the two week mark there's going to be something, not drastic, but just something. So we would always say get that review before the two weeks hits, get it like after the first shift, get it before anything goes sideways. So it's just something to think about. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Annette and Lisa. You guys have that kind of thing at your where you work. Yeah, I'm going to say I definitely agree. No-transcript, it can be a referral source. It can be a social worker. I do want to add the test. Did add in the notes that people have to have a Gmail or Google account to leave a Google review. Yeah, tess, that is true. If they don't have a Google account, a Gmail, they can't leave a Google review, but they so. Unfortunately, you know that they're not able to leave you one with if they don't have that account.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, the caregiver too can oh sorry, the caregiver too or like a client care person can help them create one. That's what I would encourage to do. A lot of the times it's going to be about how happy they are with the caregiver anyway, so the caregiver is going to be super happy to get them to say that, so they can definitely help with that. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've done that to help them just create a Gmail quickly too, if they really want to do it, cause I've had had them. I want them to know how good Mary is. I really want them to know. I'm like okay, let's do it. It doesn't take that long. I'll help you set it up real quick. So, yeah, you have to sit there with them and help them get through it.
Speaker 3:But that sweet spot is like that one to two weeks, because anything can go haywire yes, after you've perfected it for them just make sure that you get that review so the benefit.
Speaker 1:Sorry.
Speaker 3:Go ahead. I was just saying it doesn't stop there. A lot of the time when you ask for a review, people are doing things right, they're busy, and so you've got to ask them probably a couple more times. So we do have an automated system that does that. It goes back and asks the person to come back. And because a lot of the time you ask for a review yeah, I don't know what I'm going to say yet I've got to think about it so I might've clicked on the link, but I need to come back, so it's really good to have kind of a chase to that and ask them again. If you don't have some sort of automated system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good point. So the benefits of having Google reviews? Obviously the obvious benefit is it builds trust with families searching for care. They are reading those reviews. I'd have to say you, you have a 4.8 star. I was glad to see, just like a couple, that weren't perfect. I know you're real, they do read through all of them.
Speaker 1:It acts as a digital word of mouth referral. It improves local SEO and search rankings. I wasn't aware of that until recently, but that in and of itself is a big deal. It increases visibility on Google Maps and near me searches. It helps your agency stand out from competitors. It reinforces your credibility and professionalism and encourages more inquiries for potential clients. So it's really where it's at, and if you are one of our clients and you're in our home care sales and marketing program, you get reviews. You get to be part of our review program. Please do it. And if you need help with that, get with Lisa, because it is automated and it does remind them three times, I think to leave a review. So, yes, please take advantage of that if you're in that program.
Speaker 1:That if you're in that program yeah, oh, go ahead, I was going to say just one more.
Speaker 3:One more point to that is that it really does matter that you reply to those reviews and thank the person for taking the time out of their very busy day to say something nice about you. It really does make a difference. You got to think that a lot of the time in a search that your very first impression, the first place that people might see you sometimes, is that Google business page. Taking care of that is really important.
Speaker 1:Good or bad reviews? You have to reply to both. Yeah, all right. What is a good framework to follow up for building more hours for current clients? How can you come across as an expert and not seem too pushy? We seem to struggle with getting more hours from current clients.
Speaker 1:And this is a big deal this can increase your revenue by a lot, and these are people that are already happy with you. So this is an excellent question. So you want to position your agency as a trusted expert, not a pushy salesperson, while increasing your client hours, you need a clear framework that combines relationship building, assessment and education, and educate your caregivers what to look out for when clients' needs are increasing. So how do you do so? Reassessing regularly, implement scheduled care assessments, monthly or quarterly, to revisit each client's condition and identify emerging needs.
Speaker 1:We had people in the field that would go, do you know, at least every 30 day visits. It was called a supervisory visit because they're also checking on the caregiver and they were usually a surprise. We wanted to see if the care was dressed appropriately. We wanted to make sure the house was clean. So we didn't. We let the client know when we signed them up that this would be happening, but we didn't let anybody know the day off because we wanted it to be a surprise visit happening. But we didn't let anybody know the day of because we wanted it to be a surprise visit. But that supervisory visit they're also reassessing the client that you need to take a look and see what's going on. Are they better, are they worse. Do they need more Talk to the caregiver privately as well to find out, especially if somebody discharges from skilled nursing or a hospital?
Speaker 1:it could be a totally different situation now that they're home and absolutely somebody should come out and reassess them when they discharge. We have had times when we didn't do that because the adult child oh mom, fine, no, she's fine, like it's exactly the same, nothing's changed, she's fine, and we've trusted that. And then the caregiver gets in there and the care is she is not buying this, this is nothing the same there. And the care is she is not buying this, this is nothing the same, this, no. She can't live on three hours a day anymore. No. So if there's been a hospital or sniff stay, somebody's got to go in and reassess when service starts up again. Look for gaps. Are there missed medications, nutrition issues, safety risks in the home, memory concerns, mobility? Are we doing overnights five days a week and two days a week we don't, or doing overnights every other night? And when the caregiver comes in the next day when there wasn't overnight, the place is a shamble the week that they have overnight, saying how is she getting by the other nights? So it's going to be really important that the caregivers are watching also, especially if we're not doing day-to-day care and the caregivers noticing things that aren't good, or when they're with them, they're so needy. How are they getting by when we're not here? Talk to family members about what they are seeing and what additional help they may think they need as well.
Speaker 1:Training your caregivers are going to be the biggest piece of this. I think, getting them to identify and report needs. Caregivers are the agency's eyes and ears. Encourage them to document any signs of deterioration, confusion, loneliness, safety issues and report to the office immediately. If you can make this an easy way for them to do this, I know in Sky there was a way at the end of the shift do you have any concerns? And then they would type in their concerns.
Speaker 1:The problem we had with that is that it would just be in the profile. It wouldn't alert anybody. So we had to create a report that would be sent from those messages, because it was like they were reporting it but nobody was seeing it for a while. So make sure, if they are reporting it at the end of their shift, that it goes somewhere, that somebody sees that right away so that we can take action. So if a caregiver notices the client is skipping meals, this could be a reason to add meal preparation or grocery assistance. So I would say one have somebody going out there doing supervisory visit. And two, train your caregivers to alert you. Anything to add, guys?
Speaker 2:I would just say that we did all this in our agency. These are your clients. There's opportunity to get more hours and you're not going in there just saying, hey, we want to do it 24-7. You're seeing that their needs are increasing. Maybe you're there Monday through Friday and not on the weekends, so I think it's important you really. It's a great opportunity for you to get more hours to, but you have to regularly do regular check ins and make sure your caregivers are reporting to the office Anything that they see where they might need more services.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I like to see a supervisor come out. They like someone else coming to check in on them too. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I was one of the people that was in charge of that CIC or change in condition in WellSky for us, so I would look for those. I would go in and look for them daily to make sure they were clear and to help route my day. To who do I need to go in and visit? And we call them pop-ins visit, reassess, is there, what type of change is there? And then go from there, just hang out to watch, because it doesn't always just surface. You got to snoop around a little.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that was a big thing for training the supervisors was that you got to dig in. You can't just come into the living room and sit on the couch and have a little conversation, like you need to go check out the bathroom, the refrigerator, look at everything when you're in there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've uncovered so much. Sometimes I'm like I almost wish I hadn't, because then it just leads to a road of just a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker 1:You uncover a can of worms sometimes. Yes, exactly, it's a lot of work. Okay, when I post a job post online job ads for caregivers, I received many initial responses. However, most applicants lose interest once they learn the positions aren't for immediate hire. As I'm currently building a pool of qualified candidates in preparation for new clients as a new agency owner, how can I effectively communicate this in a way that keeps caregivers motivated to complete the application and interview process, even if work isn't available right away? Yeah, this is a hard one because those caregivers want to get to work. It's a tough one. So simple ad language so join our caregiving team, get first access to future shifts. So if you do this in the ad, it can help set the stage. And the other thing is, many caregivers work for several agencies to get their hours. They're not typically working just at one home care agent, at least in my experience. I guess, lisa, and I don't know if you agree with that, I do. Yeah, they work everywhere.
Speaker 1:They do, and so you know if they can get into your pool of caregivers when your floodgates start to open, you'll be able to get them jobs. So letting them know that too. Some caregivers don't know that they may need to work at a couple of different. Obviously we don't want them working anywhere, but with us, but they need to pay their rent right. We have to be realistic about this. Set expectations honestly and clearly. Use transparent but positive language during interviews. We are in growth mode.
Speaker 1:While we do not have shifts available today, we are interviewing, so we're ready the minute a new potential client calls. Stay in touch regularly. Don't let that relationship go cold. Send a light, consistent follow-up. Excited to have you on the team. We just signed up a new client. We'll be calling soon. So keeping them in the loop is going to be really important, and that relationship can go cold quickly. I would say you need to reach out to them at least once a week. If you want to do that via text. A lot of them like to text. They're better with texting. But don't let that relationship go cold for sure, and I just think you have to be transparent and honest with them. We're new, we're building, and because you're here now and you stay with me, you'll get the first shift that comes on board, the first client.
Speaker 1:All right, how do you feel about referrals from A Place for Mom, caringcom and agingcarecom? So these are leads that you pay for. Probably all of you are familiar with them already. You pay 50 bucks, 80 bucks, 100 bucks a week. Some of them have contracts that are you have to be with us a month, like they all have different things going on. Some of them I've heard take a percentage of the signed client for a little bit. There's all different ways that these work. The downside of these leads is that they're giving this lead to five, six, maybe 10 other companies. I don't know how many. It seems like a lot usually, but I've been pretty successful with some of them and getting them to turn into clients. So the benefit is you have immediate lead volume delivers families who are actively looking for care. So it helps newer agencies build that pipeline faster.
Speaker 1:The challenges you are one to five to seven agencies receiving the same referral Feed matters. You have to be fast about this. You need to be the first company to call them. If it's Sunday 4 pm, they just put this in. So call them. Just don't wait till Monday, don't? I'll get to it later. You paid for this lead. The company paid for the lead.
Speaker 1:Act on it immediately. The thing that I found to work the most for me is acting on it immediately and responding in three forms of communication I call. If they don't answer, I leave a voicemail, I email and I text. I leave a voicemail, I email and I text. And while that may seem as annoying, they will usually respond to the text. That's what I found. I'm in a meeting. I'm so glad you texted me. Can I call you in a half an hour? That's what I get typically. That's typically the answer that I get. So call if you don't get them.
Speaker 1:Live voicemail email text so important I think that's a big piece of it In your email voicemail text. You have to get them to see you as an expert in home care and trust. You have to build trust, so you need to leave that kind of message. Usually you get a mom fell and broke her hip. You get a mom just moved here from Minnesota. She's going to need help now.
Speaker 1:I can't do all of it. You know the story usually. So add to that when people fall and break their hips. It can be so challenging. I've helped others in this situation. You're building trust and you're letting them know you're an expert. So speed expert in this trust and three modes of communication if you have to, if you don't reach them live. Some are motivated and ready while others, so there's a variable lead quality. I have found that most of them are looking for care now when it's a lead like this versus other types of stuff that comes in. But there are some that are just browsing and fresh shopping. So many families don't fully understand the cost of home care so they're just trying to gather, like what that looks like. Cost leads cost can range between 50 and a hundred dollars per lead depending on the platform, not always ideal for agencies with limiting marketing budgets.
Speaker 2:Do you guys have anything to add? The only thing I would add is it's true, You're getting. You have to answer them quickly. Sometimes we would get leads that they were out of our scope. They were really not for us and we didn't want to have to pay for that lead because they sent us something that we weren't capable of helping them with. So you can send them back to them and retract them and send it back to the place for mom and say this lead really wasn't for us and sometimes they'll credit you, so I just wanted to throw that out there. That's good.
Speaker 3:I didn't know that credit you, so I just wanted to throw that out there. That's good, I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, every once in a while, if it's like a super random just got through somehow that, yeah, experience that same thing. If they were doing like a mom aging care, was doing like the warm call transfer for a little while, I remember when they started that. I don't know if they're still doing that, I can tell you that I can tell you caringcom does that I.
Speaker 4:you probably have to pay for it, but I get I'm copied on some of our clients leads from these and they email you the lead with a summary of what their needs are and call them right away or whatever. So yes, some of them do that. Probably cost extra.
Speaker 3:Yeah, age aging care. When we did that way back, this was probably three or four years ago, they actually had the caller on the phone and they would call you and say, hey, we have XYZ on the phone, this is what they want. Are you able to take the call? And, of course, yes, of course, send them out my way. Yeah, but I think it was just still more of an intake call and they were probably shopping. It could go either way.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think these are more of getting the information from the potential so that caringcom can qualify them before they send them on to you or whichever service is doing this, and that way, at least some human has talked to them, talked to the person, and they know it's a viable lead. I think that's what I, and it's not a soft, it's not a warm transfer. It's definitely here's the information we have call them back right away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think Place for Mom they do have. It's called Hot Transfer, Hot Transfer, sorry. Yeah, I have a couple of people in my sales training class that are new owners for agencies and just got a couple hot transfers and were able to turn them into clients, so it could be beneficial.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a beta testing still when we had started it and it seemed OK.
Speaker 1:How do you set yourself apart from competitors in a saturated market? And I think that, saturated or not, you have to do this and it's all different things that you're doing. You must have a strong differentiator in this marketplace and home care to stand out, and you can do it with leave behinds too. If you're the only one doing the leave behinds, that helps you stand out. But the strong differentiator is going to be really important in a market where most agencies offer the same core services. What sets you apart from the others? So you really do need to spend some time. And whatever that strong differentiator is, it needs to be on your website. It needs to be on your social media or LinkedIn. It needs to be your leave behind. It needs to be everywhere so that they see you as that home care agency. Offer a signature package. A discharge to home recovery package is a really great way. That's when you're working with skilled nursing facilities. You call it a discharge package, but you could even have go to assisted living and tell them while your residents are coming home from a hospital or skilled nursing facility, we can help out. You probably need more help at that point than assisted living might be able to provide.
Speaker 1:Be a local expert, not just a provider. Host lunch and learns on educational topics. Build emotional credibility through storytelling. Share stories of caregivers and client testimonials. Offer superior client and family experience. Good communication, transparency, responsiveness. Build strong referral relationships. Build relationships with key partners. Become their go-to agency by showing reliability in speed and good communication. You do need to think about what your differentiator is, and sometimes you have a nurse on staff. Sometimes you focus a lot on Alzheimer's care. There's lots of different things that you can do. That sets your agency apart. Anything to add?
Speaker 3:No, All right, Just being present, being sure that they know who you are and where you are on all channels, everywhere you can in person.
Speaker 1:Even just the fact that you respond and you're super communicative can be enough to have you make a differentiator. Because when Annette and I were interviewing social workers across the country, their biggest complaint was home care agencies just don't go back to me. I send them a referral. I never hear back from them, which I can't even imagine, but that's what their biggest complaint was. And then they don't know what to do. Do I give it to somebody else or are they working? I'm like they heard nothing back, so that's so terrible it doesn't even sound correct.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine anybody doing that, because that's what all the work's gone into the website, the paying for Lee, like all the things you've done. You're waiting for that phone to ring and it finally rings and then we don't respond. I just can't imagine. But that was the biggest complaint.
Speaker 3:So I feel like that has to go, sorry.
Speaker 4:No, that's okay Go ahead.
Speaker 3:I was just going to say it feels like that has to be like a have you updated our contact information type of thing, Because we're just like standing, we're waiting for those.
Speaker 1:I know I always wait for that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sorry. So I just want to say it's two or else 240 my time and I'm going to have to go with there. Is there any online questions I could maybe quickly answer before I have to run out of here?
Speaker 3:Oh, I look through the questions really fast.
Speaker 4:I don't see any in the chat. Yeah, I know there's a branding question at the very beginning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was a branding question. Why don't you take that one? Because I was going to ask you to do that one.
Speaker 4:Yeah, gina asks if you're starting an agency, what's the minimum branding activity you would conduct? The couple of things that come to mind. There's a whole lot that goes into branding. We're going to do a three-hour presentation on it. Mission, vision, values, all those things go into your branding and there's a whole. There's just so much that needs to be considered.
Speaker 4:However, if you're talking about colors, logo, services, name of your company, if I were starting a home care agency from scratch, first of all I wouldn't. I okay, if it's going to be local, only regionally, you have no aspirations of expanding then I would make sure my name of my business had a regional flair, or, like a lot of people in Massachusetts on the North Shore say, or there's, I know, there's a company called North Shore Home Care or something that resonates with the local community. If I know that, this is pretty much it for me, I'm not going to be a national brand in the next 10 years and you can always rebrand Anyway. So that's one thing. The other thing is consider your name versus your website address. People jump on buying website addresses that are never going to serve them well, so you want to make sure, if you can, when you buy a website address to go with your home care agency that it has the words home care in it, but it's also fairly short so that you're not having to write out approve seniornetworkmarketingcom Like we were approveseniornetworkcom. But but it's just keep it short and simple. Try to get a keyword in there. Consider your region that you're serving. Try to get a keyword in there. Consider your region that you're serving.
Speaker 4:Colors, I want to say we had another home care agency that we worked with that paid $10,000 for a branding consultation or whatever, which I don't think is necessary, but then again, that's not exactly my forte. They went with a lot of blue, deep blues, and blue and green colors, deep green colors, and then I think they added in some pastels as needed. But very true colors, very trustworthy colors, tend to be those blues and greens, and you see a lot of home care websites like that. So, anyway, that's my biggest thing about branding and logo wise, don't hire somebody from fiber to do your logo. Have somebody professional do your logo and keep all the files they send you. That's one thing we find is that people forget 10 years later where all the files are for their logo they originally had. So make sure you keep all of that somewhere safe.
Speaker 1:Valerie, there's a quick one. I'm currently doing short form videos.
Speaker 4:Should I explore some long form videos as well? Absolutely. If you can do a 15 minute, 20 minute video and then chop it up into smaller, bite-sized pieces, that would be great, and there's lots of software online that will do that for you. We use Descript, so every time we do a long form video like these, we let Descript chop it up into shorter, digestible pieces and we just keep with the same branding, and so we have lots of different quotes from different ones of us. So yes, I would say, throw in a long form, because if you do a long form and then you chop it up into little, bite-sized pieces, then you have a bunch of content for the next couple months. You don't have to continuously do long form all the time, but it does help Definitely.
Speaker 1:Okay, how do you start services with a new client quickly and efficiently? You need to be able to balance speed with professionalism. So it's not just about getting a caregiver in the door or a warm body right, we used to say don't just throw a warm body in there. It's about launching a well-matched, well-supported care experience and so you earn that trust from day one. So you can streamline your intake process. Have an intake coordinator or someone from the team ready to respond to inquiries within minutes, not hours. I would go so far as every inquire should be answered live. There should be no reason that someone who's calling about services goes to voicemail or so-and-so will call you right back. Try to find a way to transfer that call live to someone that can take the call, because, again, all of what you're doing is to get that phone ringing and when it rings it needs to be answered live. So streamlining that could be big. And the person who might go out and do the signing if that's the person you transfer that call to live, they can get some of the assessment done while they're on the phone even so that they can tell the scheduling team hey, this is coming, I'm headed over there now. This is what they're going to need. I'll give you more detail when I get there. Please start looking for a caregiver. That way things are moving.
Speaker 1:While you're in the assessment, conduct a timely in-facility, in-home or virtual assessment. If somebody is in a skilled nursing facility and they're going to be discharging, you should always do the assessment in the skilled nursing facility before they go home. Care should be set in place before they leave. That also gives you time to look for a caregiver. Finalize paperwork electronically. I've never really left an assessment without having a signed agreement. I don't like to leave an agreement sitting there because I just feel like nothing's going to happen. So if you can do it electronically in those situations, that's even better. If you can just sit there and tell them hey, here's the link. I still try to get them signed before I leave. Sometimes the person the signer is just not available, so electronic signing fixes that. It helps with that.
Speaker 1:Having lead caregivers or on-call caregivers ready to go we used to have lead caregivers. We paid them. We're going to pay you 15 hours a week, whether you work it or not, and they were ready. They would handle call-offs, they would go, do fill-ins and then they would be that caregiver, that would start services. I'm going a little quick because we're getting close on time already. Match the right caregiver fast, so try to have those caregivers. There is software in your scheduling software. There are ways to match caregivers to clients. Use all that technology that you can, and launching services within a day to three is good. You should be able to do that. I would say within 48 hours. Very latest is what we tried to do If it was a quick and it seems that the social workers are going to test you.
Speaker 1:Oh, I've got someone discharging tonight. Can you start? Sometimes you get this test. You keep saying you can do this, let's see you do, and so being able to do that sometimes can get you some of the good. You don't, of course, want to always be the emergency company, but if you come through for them, sometimes their home care agency falls through but they were going to use. And if you can be a person and save the day, they're going to trust you and use you in the future.
Speaker 1:How can I attract high quality caregivers in a competitive labor market? Competitive wages, bonus, pto perks. Offer flexible schedules that fit their lives. Free training goes a long way. Recognize them, make them feel that they really long to be a part of something bigger. They want to be a part of a community. So if you talk about your office in that way and that our caregivers come in, we have all the caregivers in quarterly for training or for a party or whatever the case may be. Letting them know that you're really taking care of your caregivers and there's monthly rewards and shout outs and things like that.
Speaker 1:Fast, friendly hiring apply in minutes. Start as soon as possible. If you can keep them from having to jump through all these hoops to just have an interview, that can be very helpful. I never made them fill out an application until they came to orientation. I would ask all the questions over the phone in a phone interview, all the things that I needed to know if I wanted to hire this person, and then when they came in for training, they weren't hired until they got through training, but when they came in for training, that's when they would fill out the application. Anything you can do to make it easy for them to apply. That'll be good.
Speaker 1:The other thing I found that's very effective is to have something lined up for them a client, when they leave, before they leave training. So even if it's just a fill-in, giving them some kind of work. You went through training, here's your client. It may not be all the hours they want right away, but it's something they feel like they didn't waste their day. Win referrals so bonuses for both the caregiver and the person that referred them. Target social media ads show off the team and the benefits of working for your company all over social media. Hire on the spot events. You can do job fairs with instant offers, video testimonials from current caregivers, real stories, real connections. They love that. I think that goes a really long way.
Speaker 1:Boy, lisa, I don't have time for your leave. I'm trying to get through these as fast as possible. How do you handle difficult families or clients who aren't a good fit? So I would say, being very transparent and really, when you're on that assessment, really watching and looking, like Lisa said, at everything. If it smells like a cat box somewhere, ask them. You have cats, like some of them won't come into a home if there's cats. They don't want to be around the cats or they're allergic to cats. Feel right or sit right. Ask about it, because it's only going to get worse if you start services. I used to think when I'm in the very oh, they won't notice that or I'm probably just overthinking. No, the caregiver would come in and start at exactly what I thought could happen. Happened, and that is so much worse than trying to get on the front end of it.
Speaker 1:So define as a company, what is not a good fit for your agency. Decide what that is ahead of time. That way, everybody's on the same page. That's going to be really important. There's verbal abuse, disrespected caregivers, unsanitary conditions. You need to decide as a company so that when the person goes out to sign the job, they know this is a no, there's no way we're doing this one right, and that nobody's going to be upset with them. Or they don't go and sign something that nobody wants to do. That's the other side of it. So address issues early on with a calm, direct communication.
Speaker 1:I've also let things fester through my 20 years thinking, oh, it'll resolve itself or that caregiver is just being too sensitive. No, address issues early on. Set clear boundaries, know when to exit and how to do it professionally and protect your caregivers and the agency culture. Those are all going to be really important. We've all dealt with those clients that I don't know. They just expect red carpet service and they're not nice. They say nasty things and you have to some of them. It's hard when there's dementia involved. That makes it a little bit more difficult because they're not really aware of what they're doing. But you do need to protect the agency culture because they'll get on there and on Google and talk about how you let this client treat them horrible. So just take care of those things right on the front end. Okay, do we have questions? In our little chat, we do we do One?
Speaker 3:I'm going back here. I took them down and put them in a Word doc, just in case. Okay, First one how can we determine if a potential referral source is already referring exclusively to another company and if they're taking bribes and if we should engage in that to get the referrals?
Speaker 1:So we'd never engage in bribes. I'm not sure if that's what you're saying. First of all, because that's going to always backfire and if a company is doing that, it's going to backfire. You don't have to worry, especially if they're going to get caught. It's going to backfire and they will never be allowed in the building again. They might even get reported to the ombudsman or something in your school.
Speaker 1:I would never participate in that. I do ask are you using any other agencies right now, or who's your favorite agency, or are you having any issues with the? Agencies that you're using right now Tell me what they are. So I do. I'm transparent about that. I want to know if they're using someone else and why. What is it that you like about them? Something like that. So I think that's a fair question to ask yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3:Can you share a menu of service, of services price, service price listing? Sorry, I read it wrong. Can you share a menu of services and then give prices? And then grocery shopping for us falls in the basic service range. I feel like this was almost replying to one of the slides, but we missed it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so basically for us we just had price ranges and pricing went with less If you had more hours, not a lot less, but we had price ranges, and so it might be from 30 to 34 an hour and that's what. And I would always give a range over the phone and they say how much will it be? I need to assess to let you know, but it'll be between 30 and 34. I always gave a range because I don't want to say 34 and my competitor told them 32 or my competitor gave them. So the range is really a good idea and it included all the services, always unless there was another person we were caring for. I don't know, annette and Lisa, anything to add?
Speaker 3:It's best to go and do the assessment. Sorry, annette, it's best to go in and do the assessment. I agree with everything you just said. Yeah, definitely, yeah, there you go, for the sake of time. Yes, agreed, yes, okay, and one more, two more questions actually. Oh, how do I gain access to leave-behinds and the flyers to edit in the forum? And we also will send a replay to you after the Zoom, so look for that. Also, you can go to the forum, which I think we'll mention here and you'll get the slide deck.
Speaker 1:So the links to the leave-behinds are in the slide deck. Lisa will show you that here in a minute.
Speaker 3:Yes. And then, lauren, the question. You are in my new sales training class tomorrow, so I'll go over all that with you tomorrow. Documents when it comes to a spouse signing an agreement for their wife who has dementia, do we need POA docs for the husband to sign on her behalf to hire our care services?
Speaker 1:I've had POA sign. I've never gotten the documentation that they're actually the POA. I guess maybe you should. I've never done that and I've never had it backfire. I've had them sign. One thing that I did one time was person who seemed completely lucid to me signed the agreement. And then the family is like she has dementia, what do you? She can't sign for herself and I'm like, oh, I'm sorry, she seemed, and she seemed totally she was in a SNF discharging. People are a little loopy. Anyway, she definitely didn't seem like she had. So anyway, met with the daughter, she signed the agreement and it all worked out. But I've never actually asked for the POA. You probably should. I guess that would make more sense. But I've never had it backfire either.
Speaker 2:That's been my experience Same with me. We really didn't. I just took their word for it and let them sign it.
Speaker 1:we weren't like lawyers either way that person who signed it is responsible to pay.
Speaker 3:So you're gonna whether the poa or not, they're putting their name on the line, yeah I don't think it's a bad thing to have that exact paperwork, though I think that, and probably as home care changes, that may be something that you want to have, just in case but, yeah, I know that we did maybe have a few of those here and there where we had the paperwork, but, like you guys, it's not really required or it wasn't at the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then I think, the last one question what's considered a bribe? I think that's like monetary, I think it's money pretty much. Yeah, things like.
Speaker 2:Louis Vu've heard in california purses, taking them to get pedicures big stuff and you really should not be doing that and I just read hot candy for trey and he'll just get that it's an inside joke. He has a gatekeeper that wants red hot candy.
Speaker 3:That's not a bride yeah, that's different, that's a little leave behind. How much do you pay on call caregivers?
Speaker 1:is it a flat fee, and then I think that's a lot so we paid them a little bit more hourly because they were always a cna we would, because they needed to be able to pop into any situation and be able to handle it. They need to be able to do transfers and lawyer lifts and all the things. So we paid them at our top. And again, our pay range our pay was always at a range as well, and I always did that with the caregivers would give them a range, and it wasn't based on their skillset necessarily, it was based on the client that they were serving and so they always got the top pay. And it wasn't always CNA pay either, because they're not doing medical duties for when they're in a non-medical home care agency and so that can be a little touchy, but we paid them at the top of the range okay, if there's anyone else can I follow up on that I was actually that question.
Speaker 4:So if there's no call, let's say for the week, do you pay your on-call caregivers?
Speaker 1:how much I think that was so we agreed they all were at different things, but we had some at 15 hours a week, somewhere at 20, somewhere at 30, and so the deal was you're going to get paid your 15 hours, whether you work or not. You're going to get paid, but you have to be available between this time and this time on these days, and that doesn't mean, oh, I have to go drop my daughter off at my mom's. That's not how this works. You're available and I can tell you they always got paid and they always worked. They never didn't. There was always a call off or something to send them to.
Speaker 3:Thank you, that's how. Yeah, yeah, you're welcome, all right, is that it? That's all of the questions. We have two minutes we might go over a little bit.
Speaker 1:We do, though, guys. We do have some home care, marketing and sales training openings still. The classes are same time, same day of the week, for one hour. These are the classes that are still, that are open right now. We have some availability, I think, in all of them. Yes, annette.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do so.
Speaker 1:If you want more information about that, you can click here on the slide deck when you get it, and so we will keep going. Here's our July leave behind winner Trey. Great job, it's cool to care. He's got his ice pops here. They're not supposed to be frozen. You did a great job. These look really good. Thank you for sharing this with us loves those.
Speaker 3:So really good, yep, yep, I bet they do, I bet they do. That's awesome Good.
Speaker 1:Great job. We do have a marketing store. At the bottom of every slide that Lisa is going to show you. With the leave behinds, there is a link to the store. When you click on it, it takes you to the things that you can buy to go with the leave behind. So I the Otter Pops, right, it's the same kind of thing. We don't make any money off the store. We were asked to organize it better, and so that's what we did. All right, lisa you are up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's designed so you guys don't have to do the legwork. July should we skip through July, since this is it's social wellness month? So take this and do it, do it, just do it. Just get it out there and you can take these little cute things too and just have a little summer party. Okay, sizzling summer, leave behinds. We've got get patients home in a snap. So we do want our social workers to know that last minute discharges are not a problem for us. We can get their patients home in a snap and there's it's cool to care. So you still have time to use this. You can even use it outside of July through.
Speaker 3:August, okay, and you're going to pair them with what's here and that here. So you saw this last time, so I think we can keep going. August is wellness month, so we want people to know how home care supports wellness in lots of different ways. Caregivers promote comfort, dignity, better health with, and then we talk about routines nutritious meals, exercise, fresh air and just the daily routines that help reduce stress and support your balance just wellness, balance and general. So I wanted to pair this with something that I know is healthy.
Speaker 3:So honey is on the next slide and I just love the little wood dippers. I just think they're cute, but you get the idea. You put this together, take that, leave behind out, customize it with your logo and all your stuff and you're good. Okay. Next, okay, yeah, let me touch on that really fast, I believe behind yeah, so you get all of this right. You get these in the forum as well as the replay that we'll send out after today. You go into the links at the very bottom of the page. I would go to the Google doc link and click on where you want to change. Really, yeah, there we go. You go to file, you make a copy because you want it to be your copy. You won't get access to ours, yep. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:And you can name it whatever you want. You could say my sandcastle day or whatever you want to call it, but then you save that and then that's where you can make the changes to your logo and your contact info. Okay, yeah, very, very easy. So there was a question, so I answered it Sorry.
Speaker 3:I wanted to pair that. The foundation of the sandcastle is important. I wanted to pair it with I was like, okay, what's hard Candy's hard? So there we go. Any other tchotchkes you have laying around the office or in your marketer's car you can put in this little bucket too. I think that'd be really cute.
Speaker 3:Okay, it is senior citizens day on August 21st and I wanted to put together something cute that would also bring the social worker out. So, extra read, all about it. This is all about seniors. They were seniors when they came up with inventions that we use today or have been modified for today's use. So I encourage you to read through this. And then, when you go in to talk to the social worker, I think the language needs to be have something to share with you, your staff, and something special for families and patients in celebration of National Senior Citizen Day, august 21st. And then you can go into transition from home to hospital to home or rehab to home and all of that. And then, if you go to the next slide, I wanted to pair these with some custom word searches, just all about. I think I looked up 19,. I think it was 20s to 50s, I don't remember, but take this out. Make sure your logo's on there you can add all this information in and it's a cute little little done for you guys.
Speaker 1:They will love these. The facilities will love these. Just put on and you're ready to go. They're all done for you.
Speaker 3:I think there's a little. Did you know that has to do with that era as well, and with the era as well and with the with the topic. So really cute, I love those. Also, last week of August is National Safe at Home Week. You're offering free home safety assessments before discharge. I think that's a really good message to give to folks. So use that.
Speaker 3:And we have these cool little lights that we wanted to pair. So this first one Valerie has and she says she really loves it. It doesn't take up much space and I actually have the keyboard light and I love it and it's really bright and I don't have to put on a whole bunch of lights If I'm like working late. It works really well. So you really love that one. Welcome back to school. We've got what you need to succeed. Call or text Valerie to discuss a successful care plan for all your home care needs. I wanted to pair this with something that just it's everything a student would need, maybe for school. So maybe your social worker has kids or they could donate it to a local school. That might be something that they'd want to do, but just thought this was a really cute idea and it's pretty much got everything you need for your first day of school.
Speaker 1:So you get 30 packs of all these things in there.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:That's a great 30 bucks yeah.
Speaker 3:I love that Super cool. Okay, fall prevention tips. So here's another bring the social worker out to talk to you. The message would be something like I have something to share with you, your staff, and something special for families and patients to take home to help prevent falls in the home with these 10 practical tips. And then there's a lot of different tips that you guys all know very well but people might not have even thought of, like clearing the pathways of clutter, cords and loose carpets. So you can look through that more, you can go in and customize it with your logo. And we were going to pair this for the social workers with these cool socks that we do every year because everybody loves these. You still have time to send these off to some local place to get your logo put on them if you wanted to, if that's something that you'd like to do. But I was thinking of just wrapping it with this little cute fall theme tags and fall and fall, bringing it all together. Okay, I'm tired.
Speaker 3:Okay, for September, national Assisted Living Week is the 7th to the 13th, and their theme this year is Ageless Adventure. So I wanted to really tie in that the adventure continues. It's not over just because we're aging or because we're in an assisted living, because it's not, there's still so much to do and how home care can help. So for those adventurous residents needing extra, one-on-one care will be their guide. So you can imagine. You guys know all the different things that can happen with someone who's a little more adventurous and doesn't want to need that one-on-one or like a sitter service type of situation. So we want them to know that. We understand that.
Speaker 3:And I love the little gifts, the giveaways, the key chain I was like whatever, but I love the little box. It's so cute, it's just like a little suitcase. And then I thought of what do I have to have if I was going somewhere? So sunscreen, mini hand sanitizer, wise, and one of those toothpicks I would go crazy with that one Super inexpensive, to pair all this into this little box. And I think they will totally remember you we're fans of the grands. So Grandparents Day, September 8th, we're your grand's biggest fans. Peace of mind for you and an extra hand for them to themselves with. And the next slide, it's just these really cute handheld fans. I could imagine you maybe printing out your logo on a sticker and sticking it on this bad boy. And it comes with the organza bags too, so you can do that or add some more stuff to it if you wanted to. But there you go.
Speaker 3:October 1st you guys may this looks familiar to you. I'm sure this is like a text to schedule or text to set a date. This is a great way to get the social worker's cell phone number. But October 1st is the International Coffee Day, so I wanted to repurpose this and use it for that, and so you just want to take this out. You don't need anything with it, but I did give an idea on the next slide. But you just want them to text you for coffee. You could bring coffee in for them and maybe a group or just have some one-on-one time. But really what it's all about is getting that cell phone. I did see some mugs that were like a dollar each that you could do, or you could do these disposable coffee cups. Add a little and I stole this idea from someone last year.
Speaker 1:I know she did such a good job. I remember.
Speaker 3:She printed out a leave behind on some stickers, stuck them to the coffee cup and then got some like coffee cakes and put it inside the cup.
Speaker 3:And so I thought it was a cute idea really inexpensive and tell them to come fill their cup when they're ready. All right, this is what everyone is waiting for. I know it. So brew up excitement now. Get communities carved into your calendar before you were all booked up. So this is the pumpkin decorating, and now is the time to start thinking about getting your pumpkins and the decorations and who you're going to take this out to.
Speaker 3:You can change this flyer here. It's a full page flyer, that where the black is and the colorful text. That's where you can make the changes. All you have to change is your phone number and maybe what you want to give away or leave it like that and, of course, at the top, your logo. But it's really simple. You just basically get the stuff you decorate. They send pictures to you, you choose a winner and give them a due date and stick with that due date October 31st. Next slide how it works. You just want to get in front of them.
Speaker 3:The time is now to start planning and you're going to want to make sure to check in on progress of the decorating. You can take this out to assisted livings, your SNFs, anywhere that you market to. Again, this is all. I think I already said all this, it's all, and you can fill out all the where the black is, you'll get in front of them, they'll respond to you they have to and you're getting their cell number again. So you have two for October, that you're getting that cell phone number and they will see you in action if you decide to.
Speaker 3:There's kind of two ways you can do this. You're going to want to pick up those Jack B Little or Wee B Little pumpkins. They're three to four inches, farmers markets. Who has them? I think it's oh gosh, sprouts has them all the time. Start to drop them off the first of October with maybe the flyer so they remember what's going on, and the decorations, participation ideas. You can drop them off one to two of the community or make it an event Partner with the activities director and make it a thing, make it a couple of hours, make it a day, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I've done this personally. It goes over really well. In fact, starting in August, september, they would ask me are you doing the pumpkin decorating? Make sure to include us. They love it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's so fun. Here's last year's, a couple of ideas from last year on the left and then all a lot of different years combined here on the right. But you can see just so creative if you look at the detail in some of these, like, wow, these are so cool they really are lots and lots of great participation through the years yeah, definitely all right.
Speaker 3:This is a triple threat, you guys, this one here. There is World Smile Day, which is 10-7. Emotional Wellness Month is October and Positive Attitude Month is October. So smile.
Speaker 3:Having a home care routine in place helps with all of those things. That's why I was like so excited triple threat. Emotional stability reduces feelings of loneliness and you can read the rest but with care in place, it also helps families worry less and enjoy more quality time. Yeah, and you know what's better than a whole bunch of bright yellow smiles? So all of these you can piece together, use with any other things that you have as well. Is that it? Oh, one more Halloween, how could we? We forget.
Speaker 3:So I changed up a little bit last year's, but we're ready to give you a hand this halloween call or text, valerie, when you need a hand in home care. And then I wanted to do the same. I think everybody really loved the idea with the gloves with filler and candy, so I wanted to do that again. I just thought it was a great thing and that could be like a theme for you. They, they're like expecting that Halloween hand. Right there it is. And oh, I wanted to mention at the bottom left on each of these pages it says marketing store that little cute store. And you just click there and you will get to the store right to October or whatever month it is you pick your month and all the things that we just went through will be in there and there it is.
Speaker 1:There it is, that's it. Thank you everyone. We've got you guys broke down all the yeses, the people that are wanting to be a part of our drawing. Let's get it. We are good to go. Thank you so much, everyone, for coming. We'll see you in a couple weeks. Thanks, everybody.
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