By: Scott McCorvie | CEO Vita Senior Living | Founder Generational Movement | Senior Living Investments | Senior Living Growth Advisors
In this segment, I’m going to discuss one of the most useful pieces of technology to quickly increase your occupancy, lower your monthly operating expenses, and improve the overall health and performance of your senior living community.
This technology is the CRM, or Customer Relationship Management system. Now, there’s ton’s of CRMs out there, but if you’re not using a senior living specific CRM, you’re really wasting your money. But, it’s only half the battle having the CRM in your community, to really get the maximum benefit, you need to incorporate it into your entire operational strategy – really linking the marketing and engagement departments.
The CRM is so important because it’s the fuel keeping your engine running. Each lead is gold, and if you’re not properly working the lead using multiple communication and marketing channels, you will lose them to the competition.
The CRM tracks every lead from initial contact to move-in, to even post move-in satisfaction surveys. It’s your central database to continually tracking the progress, interest, questions, and follow-up strategy for each potential resident. It should also be integrated into your engagement platform to continually update potential residents and families all the fun things happening at your community. Last, it provides leadership an ability to track occupancy and move-in trends to create the most efficient staffing on an ongoing basis.
And, if your community is still relying on placement agents to fill your buildings, you’re in a world of hurt. With the current operating margin in senior living, it takes 7-8 months of residency just to “break even” from that new resident’s placement fee. So, with the shortened length of stay right now, you’re likely losing money on each placement agent move-in. Organic leads are the only way to go.
But, the most important part of the CRM is not just having it, but integrating it into your entire marketing and engagement platform. Making sure the appropriate team members understand it, and are accountable to keep it current. Many CRMs have incredible features and automation, but they only work if the team enters the data and works the system. And, with so many automation and leadership oversight features, the CRM cuts down on unnecessary payroll that could be used for better
So, overall, the CRM is a critical technology piece that tracks each lead, monitors move-in and occupancy trends, potentially eliminates the costly placement agent fees, and reduces payroll hours from automation and efficiency. It’s a home run.
Scott McCorvie | CEO Vita Senior Living | Founder Generational Movement | Senior Living Investments | Senior Living Growth Advisors