In the next six years, every member of the Baby Boom generation will be aged more than 65. A demographic shift that often is referred to as the “gray wave” signifies a milestone for the aging population of America, with more than 76 million baby boomers entering the traditional age of retirement.
For senior living community leaders, this shift will mean a potentially large influx of community occupants and a change in overall payment behaviors and preferences.
Here are three tips to help finance managers prioritize guest experience and cost savings when navigating payment processing for senior living communities.
Tip No 1: Accept cards and digital payments
The Baby Boom generation is far more tech-savvy than some may realize, and even more so are their children, typically millennials or members of Generation X. Whether older adults are paying for their own rent or having a child make it on their behalf, the “silver wave” will mark a major shift away from traditional payment methods such as paper checks, toward demand for card and digital payment options such as mobile wallets and PayPal. According to the 2020 NMHC Renter Preferences Report, 81% of surveyed renters prefer to pay their rent online.
“As newer development projects penetrate the market and try to take advantage of this growing demand, resident and payment experience will become a key differentiator for senior living communities,” said Allegro Senior Living Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Robert Karn. “Ease of use and convenience for users should be top of mind as we welcome baby boomers by giving them options for how they want to pay.”
Credit cards and digital payment methods also can help maximize cash flow for senior living communities. Although traditional checks can take several days to process and show up as funds, many digital payment transactions will appear on the same day.
Tip No. 2: Reduce fees and prevent fraud with artificial intelligence
Although adopting credit cards and digital payment methods can increase profitability, a big concern for senior living communities is high fees. With high payment amounts and a large volume of transactions occurring daily, finance managers need to account for and evaluate the payment processing and merchant fees that often accompany electronic payment methods.
New artificial intelligence tools such as Staitment can accurately analyze any payment processing statement and create digital cost-comparison sales proposals within minutes. With the help of a payments expert, those proposals can provide valuable tools for negotiating rates and identifying efficient and cost-effective providers.
Lastly, although credit card and digital payment methods can improve payment and information security compared with mailed paper checks with data encryption, a potential for fraud still exists. With artificial intelligence, senior living community finance managers can identify patterns or anomalies in large quantities of transactional data to prevent fraud at the start.
Tip No. 3 Automate vendor payments and rent collection
With electronic payment methods, residents can set up rent payments to occur automatically on a recurring basis. Doing so allows for easier and more seamless personal accounting that eliminates the stress of paper checks arriving on time.
Automatic payments also can reduce manual labor time and bank runs completed by community staff members by streamlining the collection and processing of rent payments and vendor payments. An experienced payment expert can set up software that integrates all payment activity completed by the community for quicker and more accurate accounting and auditing processes.
Electronic payments add convenience for residents and increase cash flow and efficiency for senior living community leaders. As the number of resident prospects for senior living communities grows, property managers must take proactive measures to optimize their payment-processing strategy to incorporate digital payment options that are in demand by incoming generations.
Michael Seaman is CEO of Swipesum.
The opinions expressed in each McKnight’s Senior Living marketplace column are those of the author and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Senior Living.
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