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What is the one thing that potential new recipients and their families are looking for in a Residential Aged Care Facility?

They simply want to know that care and services that your organisation offers are going to meet their individual needs, requirements and wants.

So why is it then that when inquiries are made to providers, that there is just such a focus on how challenging their ‘behaviours’ may be and can you afford the fees that we charge?

This is certainly been an overwhelming theme to the customer experience calls we are making. No one is asking ‘How can WE help you?’ It sounds simple, but in most instances, it just does not happen.

If you would like to have a chat about how we can measure your potential customer experience, please call me on 0438 748 846 or email rhonda@thehdrgroup.com.au

Worth the wait?

Some things can’t be unseen.

On a recent mystery shopping visit, we waited 20 minutes past our scheduled appointment time for the customer liaison officer to greet us.

During this time, we observed a lack of responsiveness to the residents by facility staff.

The tour was generic and transactional and it only provided information about the facility. It did not focus on what we were actually looking for.

When potential care recipients are looking for a RAC facility, they are not just looking for information about the facility and a friendly tour guide. They are wondering if this is the right facility for their loved one.

Our team of experienced industry professionals are skilled at capturing information and facility insights and providing detailed reports that highlight relevant information for the client rather than an opinion of a generalist mystery shopper based on their interaction with facility staff.

If you want to find out what your potential customers are experiencing when they arrive at your facility, please head to http://www.thehdrgroup.com

#marketing #customerexperience #branding #mysteryshopping

Let’s talk Recruitment Agency Experiences

I have spoken with many candidates & colleagues in the Aged Care Sector over the past 15 years about their recruitment ‘Stories’.

I recently spoke with a highly experienced Professional that had applied for a Senior position with a well known Aged Care Organisation through a large recruitment agency.

Her story, though not uncommon, is disappointing.

3 weeks after applying for the role, she was contacted by the agency & they only divulged the name of the organisation.No other detail. No PD. The recruiter didn’t know what AHPRA registration was (I kid you not).

2 weeks later, she was contacted again by the agency & they advised her that she had been presented to the organisation & she had been shortlisted. My colleague had not given her permission to be represented by this agency & she hadn’t been interviewed by them.

My colleague contacted the organisation & advised them of her experience. They were shocked. They were shocked because they knew that the fee that they would paying for this appointment was over $20K.

Do you know how recruitment agencies are representing your brand in the marketplace?

Would you place your loved one behind Barbed Wire?

The Aged Care Sector is becoming increasingly competitive and consumers know what they want. It comes as no surprise that consumer-directed care is propelling all providers to transform their business operation to adopt a customer-focused approach in order to thrive and grow in what now is a very market-driven environment.

During some recent Customer Experience Audits, I saw things that can’t be unseen. During one visit, I noted overgrown gardens, residents dressed in summer clothing in the middle of winter, rubbish bags in the corridors creating a foul odour and large groups of residents unattended in dirty activities rooms. I was overwhelmed by the smell of used incontinence aids and just wanted to grab a bottle of disinfectant and start cleaning.

Oh and wait for it… ….one facility, that I visited recently, had barbed wire fencing. When I asked a staff member about it, they replied “they hadn’t noticed it before”.  It begs the question: What else goes unnoticed?

Would you place your loved one behind Barbed Wire?

It can take a tenth of a second for someone to judge what they see and form a first impression.

Knowing your Customer Experience will be your competitive differentiator if you want to succeed in the ‘Age of the Customer’.

Our Services will help…

• You see your business through your customer’s eyes
• Raise the level of service on offer at your organisation through detailed service reports, identifying areas of improvement
• Help maximise the sales potential of every customer
• Boost your bottom line
• Increase your team’s product knowledge
• Identify areas for further training and development
• You evaluate & compare your service offerings with your key competitors

Our Services include:

• Mystery Site Visits:
• Phone Enquiry Monitoring:
• Inquiry Responsiveness:
• Post Arrival Customer Experience Interviews:
• Customer Experience Interviews:
• Local Competitor Analysis

We look forward to speaking with you further about customising a “Customer Expectation Audit Package” for your organisation.

There are currently 12 Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACF) in Australia with sanctions & 160 with notices of non-compliance. One of these homes only meets 10 out of the required 44 standards.  The majority of these homes are in NSW.

The major reasons for sanctions & non-compliances being imposed are HR, Clinical Care, Behaviour & Skin. I also noticed that there is a significant number of RACF’s with non-compliances in standard 3.6 Privacy & Dignity.

I read these reports to see why facilities are not meeting this fundamental basic human rights. The results were quite shocking.

Consistently homes were found not to respect & recognise the care recipient’s privacy, dignity & confidentiality. Care recipients & representatives are not satisfied with the mechanisms in place to adequately address & resolve concerns. Call bell times impact on the dignity of care recipients & there are no systems to ensure privacy are dignity is respected in accordance with the individuals needs.

Don’t get me started about the visible faeces on linen and clothes.

I would love to hear your thoughts on what measures you to take to ensure the privacy, dignity & confidentiality of all residents is recognised and respected.

#humanrights #dignity #agedcare #residentialcare

Let’s talk about Fridges.

Yes, that’s right…I am curious to hear your thoughts on this!

Through my customer experience auditing (mystery shopping), I have received very conflicting information from residential aged care facilities about residents ‘right’ to have bar fridge in their own room.

The conflicting advice consists of:

• Bar Fridges are provided by the facility for all residents in their own room

• Residents are welcome to bring in their own bar fridge for their room

• No Fridges are allowed in the resident rooms – Accreditation dictates that the resident fridges will require temperature monitoring and recording 3 times a day.

Really???

If the fridge has been checked (tested and tagged), is it fair to say that residents are able to have a small bar fridge in their room (their home) if they desire?

Or do fridges in resident rooms bring an unacceptable level of risk to the facility?

#customerexperience #agedcare #residentialagedcare #consumerchoice #consumerdirectedcare #cdc #accreditation

First Impressions.

During a recent on-site audit, an admissions officer responsible only for filling beds, advised me that residents are ‘selected’ and deemed acceptable (through their own rigorous process).

I would have to wait to be advised if the new resident application had been successful.

There were no questions about what the resident was looking for.

This ‘sales’ approach was very cold & to be honest ‘a bit rich’ as the facility resembled an old school institution. Barbed wire on the fencing made the facility feel more like a prison than someone’s home.

A tour of the facility highlighted that it was in desperate need of general maintenance, a good clean and refurbishment.

The facility was also noisy & none of the staff said hello to me throughout the tour.

The corridors were cluttered with equipment & rubbish bags. Large groups of residents were noted to be unattended in the various activity areas.

The garden & courtyard maintenance were appalling. Would you like to know what a customer’s first impression of your facility is?

Let’s have a chat about a customised customer experience audit for your organisation to see what your potential customers first impression of your facility is.

#customerexperience #agedcare #residentialagedcare

Let’s talk about barbed wire

I visited an aged care facility recently and it was heavily gated and had barbed wire across the top of the fencing.

I found it confronting.

Would you consider placing your loved one in a facility with barbed wire?

I would love to hear your thoughts!