SeniorAdvisor.com 2015 Best of Senior Living Awards — Sneak Peek!
As summer winds down and we head into the fall, it’s a good time to start looking back at the great successes of the year so far. How many families have you and your staff helped this year? What new marketing initiatives have helped you bring in more business?
Last year we announced our inaugural SeniorAdvisor.com Excellence Awards – we will be announcing the 2015 Award Winners this winter, and we wanted to give you a sneak peek at some of the eligibility requirements… this gives you some time to make sure your senior care business wins!
How Being an Award-Winning Provider Helps You
Award-winning providers stand out.
Similar to reviews and testimonials, the SeniorAdvisor.com Excellence Award is a third-party badge of approval signifying that families rate your business as excellent. The award is much more powerful than a single review or testimonial, however, as it’s based on an aggregate of consumer opinions. Most importantly, award winners make up the top 1 percent of care providers nationwide.
Last year’s award winners reported increased brand awareness in their local communities. The awards are a great opportunity to generate PR buzz around your business – a local news article for one community resulted in multiple tours and a same-day deposit, all driven by the press! These awards can lead to real revenue for your business: Having an excellent rating makes your community more than 100% more likely to get a move than a community with no reviews. Additionally, winners of last year’s award enjoyed increased exposure on the SeniorAdvisor.com and A Place For Mom websites.
The award is a fantastic differentiator for senior care businesses, and it’s easy to include it in your marketing, advertising, brochures, website, social media, and more. So how can you make sure your community wins in 2015?
Who Can Win an Award
To be considered eligible for a SeniorAdvisor.com 2015 Excellence Award, providers must…
- Be a senior living or care provider listed on SeniorAdvisor.com located in the United States. This includes in-home care agencies and senior living communities that offer memory care, assisted living, independent living, or skilled nursing.
- Have an average overall star rating of 4.5 stars or above.
- Have a minimum number reviews.
What You Can Do To Win
The answer is simple – get positive reviews for your business. The key is to personalize the message so the customer sees how this can help them as well as other families, in addition to your business. End positive conversations by asking for a review. At the end of a positive phone call or in-person conversation, encourage the customer to leave you a review on SeniorAdvisor.com. Consider having an iPad on hand so happy families and tours can do it right then and there! Here are more tips to help you get started:
Many happy customers will take the initiative to review your business, even without your asking – you just need to make it easy for them. Here’s how:
- Include a link to your review page in your email signature.
- Add a section to your newsletter asking for reviews and include a link.
- Add a link asking for reviews on your website. Even better, add our review widget to your website – once installed, it will continually update with your most positive reviews! See image on the right for an example of how the widget looks.
Email your customers to ask them to review your business.
Make it a part of your routine to regularly follow up with families via email asking for a review. Remember, the key is to personalize this so the customer sees what’s in it for them, and why it’s so helpful for you. Below are some sample approaches you can add to emails you are already sending to current and prospective families.
- Thank you for trusting us with your loved one. We are always open to feedback and hearing from you. Would you please write us an online review and let us know what we can keep doing right, or what we could be doing better? [insert link to your community page on SeniorAdvisor.com]
- I’m so glad to hear that you are happy with our service. Could you please take a few minutes to leave us an online review on SeniorAdvisor.com? Online reviews are a great way for us to help spread the word about our business to other families! [insert link to your community page on SeniorAdvisor.com]
- It was great to see you at our latest event! Did you have a nice time? Would you please take a few minutes to provide us with some feedback by writing an online review? This helps us continue to provide you and your loved one with the best. [insert link to your community page on SeniorAdvisor.com]
- It was good speaking with you just now. I’m glad to hear that you are happy with how we are doing. Could you please help us by writing an online review? Just a few sentences about how we’ve helped your family makes it a lot easier for others to find us and learn about all we have to offer – from those who understand best, family members like you! [insert link to your community page on SeniorAdvisor.com]
If you don’t have an email software and want some help automating this process, you can also use SeniorAdvisor.com’s free email tool – simply upload a .csv file of the email addresses, and reviewers will receive an individually addressed email directing them straight to your community review page on our site.
Provide residents and families with pre-postage paid review postcards.
Make it easy and convenient for your families to review you. You can order pre-postage paid review postcards from SeniorAdvisor.com – the family can mail it in at their convenience, and we’ll transcribe the review onto our site. To order, please email support@senioradvisor.com with your address and the requested quantity. These postcards are perfect for less tech-savvy reviewers. See image on the right for an example.