What’s the best use of your time when it comes to marketing your home care agency?
Three days ago I attended a local senior care providers’ network meeting. I happened to sit next to a social worker who was head of the home care department of a local hospital.
One of her jobs was to refer home care agencies to patients who needed them.
“Do you have a steady stream of salespeople from home care agencies coming to your door?” I asked.
“No,” she said.
“How do you determine who to recommend when it comes to a home care agency?”
“On the feedback I get from patients – who they recommend,” she said.
Happy home care clients are proof
Seems obvious to me. I was surprised that there were not a lot of home care agencies coming to her door. Seems like that would be a good thing to do. What would be the best way for these marketing people to succeed? Maintain a presence with her over the months, show that they were there to stay, and prove to her that their agency provided top-quality service.
The proof of the pudding, of course, comes when she refers her first patient to the agency, and that patient reports back to her that the service was super. Then you would expect more referrals to come.
So, reaching out to new clients is a necessity. But where should you also spend time?
With current and past clients, of course.
As is true with nearly all businesses and services, your current clients and their referrals are the best source of ongoing revenue. The graph on this page, that of the 2017 Home Care Benchmarking Study, put out by Home Care Pulse, shows that past and current clients and their loved ones provide 21% of their client base (first column).
Thus, it pays to reach out to your current client base. That can be done with email marketing, printed mailings, SEO, and of course effective website design.
Would you like to increase your home care agency’s marketing efforts, now that you know these advantages? Give us a call at the number on the top of this page, or contact us.
If you liked this article, why not read “Home care client retention – one print idea that works.”
