How to create a great first impression for your care home

The first impression that a prospective resident and their loved ones get of your care home can be make or break for whether they choose to go with your service. Siobhan Stirling, Managing Director of award-winning marketing and PR agency Sharp Minds Communications, sets out some of the key steps to creating a great first impression that converts visitors into residents – and ultimately increase your commercials.

Why first impressions of your care home count

We all know that house buyers can fall in love with a new home – or not – on the doorstep. The same is true for care homes. A decision to purchase can be influenced by lots of practical considerations, such as the location, whether you can provide the right type of care and the service cost. Choosing a care facility is also a highly emotional purchase, so initial gut reaction is just as important as what you can provide on paper.

You can have the slickest, best-financed marketing machine of all the care homes in your area — but, if the outside of your care home looks shabby or your receptionist isn’t welcoming, you’re likely to find that prospective residents and their families will vote with their feet. This means opting for somewhere that they have instant confidence will look after them or their loved one as they would expect in their own home environment.

Five easy ways to create a great first impression of your care home

Regardless of whether your care home has a ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ CQC rating, there are likely many contenders who can offer similar levels of care and facilities locally. This means that choosing a care home can often boil down to the finer details. To counter this, your customer journey needs to anticipate for the ‘small things’ that – when put together – create an exceptional, welcoming experience.

There are several different ways to create a better first impression of your care service. Here’s five to get you started:

·         Ensure 5* telephone service: Your reception staff may be excellent, but they may have difficulty giving priority calls the proper attention and care needed. Setting up dedicated phone lines for new resident and recruitment enquiries could be a solution that is cost effective and help towards overcoming this.

·         Accommodate for mobility needs: Some potential occupants may have mobility issues. If the walk across a car park from a remote parking space does not supply any disability access, this could be the deciding factor against going for your care home before they even set foot inside reception, so a quick fix could be reserving the closest space for them ahead of their arrival.

·         Be there to greet them: By being there to greet new arrivals, it creates a greater sense of care for the individual and a much better impression if staff are waiting to open the front door to your visitors.

·         Make the exterior as important as the interior: Much the same as selling a house, how a care home is presented is crucial. Potential residents’ families will want to assess the area and see if it is fit for their loved ones. This makes it vital to show off your care home at its best to create a warm and inviting experience. This includes keeping the garden, car park and walkway to the home neat and tidy with no dead trees, plants, or debris such as skips. Or try adding a splash of colour by having a few seasonal planters along the route to add a homely touch to the environment and show it is well looked after. Preparing a few ‘show rooms’ also helps to create a clearer picture of where potential residents will stay, with neatly folded towels, bright flowers and pictures that give an idea of what they can expect — and how they can imagine themselves in your care.

·         Provide VIP treatment, whatever the weather: If a visitor is soaked through before they reach the front door, they’re not likely to be in the best spirits for the rest of their tour. One solution is to keep branded umbrellas in reception and going out to greet them when they arrive. You can even consider letting them keep an umbrella to take home at the end of their visit, so that your care service remains in their mind — helping to secure a new resident for a small investment.

Creating a great first impression can be the deciding factor as to whether a prospective new resident sees themselves living in your care home or not. Paying attention to small details such as these can sometimes be all it takes to improve occupancy rates and increase your care home commercials.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how we support care homes with their marketing strategy and customer experience, contact us at communications@sharpminds.agency or call us on 01892 570863.

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