Etiquette/Customer Service/Hospitality Coaching for Senior Communities

Retirement Community Current Trends

Remember the days of facilities, units, beds and (maybe even) patients? Those days are no more. As senior living has matured, the marketplace and the consumers have changed — and so have the current language and culture of the senior living housing marketplace.

So what is the “politically correct” or prospect-friendly language of today? What do older adults want when choosing their homes, their amenities and their service package? It is certainly more than the minimal living space and meals of the Greatest Generation or the multiple residential options and “cruise ship mentality” of the Silent Generation. As the Before-Boomers, Boomers and their adult children begin to decide how they want to spend the rest of their retirement years, they consider not only residential living options, but amenities, services, health options, and the strong instinct for autonomy and individualism.

Bobby Sumner Consulting

As a consulting firm having worked with over 400 senior living communities, BSC has had the opportunity to work with all of these generations — and listen and learn from these consumers of senior living. Community-wide Customer Service/Hospitality/Etiquette Coaching provides an opportunity for the BSC Consultant to share information with management about industry changes and the emerging market, while providing a more general education about culture and language to all of the organizational employees.

It’s important to remember that EVERYONE at your community works in marketing. Elon University, known for its successful marketing across the country, trains its entire staff in customer service and marketing. If you stop and ask a landscaper to describe his job at the university, the response is quotable, “I am recruiting the best students for Elon.” Every member of your team has a direct and indirect influence on a potential resident and his or her family — from the way they conduct their job to whether or not they greet a visitor, there is an impact on the resident and the prospect. Every employee needs customer service coaching because every employee is recruiting the best residents for your community.

Customer Service/Hospitality/Etiquette Coaching for your staff will include:

• What’s the difference?
• Customer Service: Sense of joy and welcoming.
• Customer – defined as: “a person who buys; a prospect; a person one has to deal with;”
• Service – defined as: “helpful act or acts; being useful to others;”
• Hospitality: “What” you do.
• Etiquette: “How” you do it. Is your Team trained in the nuances of proper way to meet, greet and serve prospects and residents?
• Information about Objectionable Words
• Say this-not that
• Easy tasks to improve your community’s hospitality

The training also provides an overview of prospects and their characteristics and desires, including the Silent Generation. Before-Boomers, Boomers and adult children (who preview the community with different eyes than their parents).

ALL of your staff members can be superior marketers for your organization with appropriate coaching. Let them know their importance and their roles in promoting your senior community, and empower them with the tools, attitude and language to be an avid ambassador.