Showing prospective residents the value of moving into a senior living community sooner rather than waiting can have a tremendous effect on a community’s length of stay statistics, according to a sales and marketing expert.
In an analysis of more than 50 senior living communities in the first quarter, Bild & Co. focused on move-ins and their sources, move-outs and their reasons, and average length of stay.
The good news, according to Bild & Co. CEO Jennifer Saxman, is that the industry is seeing move-ins continue to increase, but move-outs remain an ongoing “massive” area of opportunity in terms of operations management and communication between sales and operations.
The most common move-out reason reported in all of 2023 (excluding death and unknown reasons) was residents needing a higher level of care. Professional referrals sources encompassed the majority (46.2%) of all first-quarter 2024 move-ins.
In many communities, according to Bild, the sales role can fall to the wayside because, operationally, the people, the building and the residents take precedence on a daily basis. And although a combined operations/sales role is not typical, Saxman said that she is seeing it more with the growth of 55-plus and independent living — settings that typically don’t provide care services. And not providing care services, she said, can harm resident satisfaction and retention.
“Just because you don’t have a nurse doesn’t mean you might not have other services that need to be executed,” Saxman said, adding that a high volume of move-outs in independent living rarely is due to death or the need for higher levels of care, but more likely dissatisfaction. “They are feeling like their dollar isn’t getting them far,” she said.
If an operator has a high level of move-outs in 55-plus and independent living, it needs to focus on what it is doing to not only retain residents but also to keep them satisfied.
Increasing length of stay
The COVID-19 pandemic had a major effect on senior living length of stay statistics, according to Bild. In the past, many assisted living communities, Saxman said, might have admitted new residents who only needed medication management services. Today, however, those same residents not only may need help with their medications; they also probably have at least one other activity of daily living with which they need assistance.
“Individuals who needed to inquire years ago are inquiring today,” Saxman said. “We see the average age go up, we see the acuity go up.”
Residents’ increased health needs, she said, drives shorter length of stays. Bild’s analysis found that the average length of stay for a resident in 2023 was 682 days, and it fell to 547 days in the first quarter of this year.
Saxman said that sales teams must educate prospective residents sooner that they need the services of senior living.
“If we’re more concise with our sales process and not dragging it out six months to a year, then we are solving our length-of-stay issues ourselves,” Saxman said. “We will give that individual so much buying power to dictate the decision of when the decision will be made rather than showing and highlighting to them that they pursued this community.”
A move to senior living is an emotional purchase, Saxman said. Therefore, it’s important for sales personnel to capture the “why” when a consumer is in contact.
“If someone is picking up the phone and calling, they at least have some inkling the grass could be greener on the other side,” she said. “We are very quick to be OK with, ‘They’re just starting their search.’ Someone totally fine is not going to pick up the phone and call. We don’t call until we have some type of need.”
Driving the right leads
Saxman said that operators need to think about whether their marketing efforts are strategic and whether those efforts are resulting in the leads they want. She recommended thinking about what a community’s marketing says about the community as well as what the sales process says about the community.
“A lot of times, we want to be something we’re not,” she said. “We’ve really got to own who we are, who our residents are, who we serve and who we serve well. So often in marketing, we are focused and fixated on who we want to attract versus who we actually attract in the community field we’ve built.”
To help frame marketing and sales efforts, Saxman recommended resident satisfaction surveys, which she said are an often-underused resource. The more open lines of communication owners and other leaders can have with residents and families, the better a community can target its message, she said.
“They are a treasure chest of knowledge, information and wisdom,” Saxman said of residents and families. “They can help you with our marketing efforts and help you with your operational efforts and your sales efforts.”
