How an agency uses technology is becoming more important each year to the success of its marketing initiatives.  There are many uses of technology in home care marketing, and this article will attempt to provide a short summary of those being used most successfully.  These techniques allow an agency to maximize the benefits from their investment in their marketing programs.  These ideas will enable a home care agency’s limited marketing budget go further.

Web sites have not been significant drivers of business for home care agencies, so far.  They have become more prevalent and are expected of more substantial and successful agencies.  Consumers of home care services will be more likely to research potential agencies online than any single place (with the exception of Yellow Pages).  In the future it is expected that a significant portion of home care referrals will be handled via the Internet.  So it is in important for an agency to include a Web site in their marketing plans.  Web sites should be of simple design with the ability to request information made as easy as possible for the site visitor.  Simple is better when designing your home care Web site—so don’t over engineer your site.

E-mail can be a very effective marketing tool for home care agencies.  When developing mailing lists, the agency should always request e-mail addresses and the permission to send information.  Permission based marketing is always more powerful than spam (which will generate a negative marketing return).  Once an e-mail list is developed the agency immediately has a quick and inexpensive method of communication that will provide a strategic advantage.  This list can be segmented by areas of interest so that highly targeted marketing communication is possible.  (Good book to read on the subject: Permission Marketing by Seth Godin)

Communication with existing referral sources by e-mail can provide a strong competitive advantage.  Never make assumptions; be sure that the referral source would prefer e-mail communication before making use of it.  For really busy case managers in facilities with high tech systems, e-mail may be the preferred method of communication.  Additionally, e-mail is important for communicating with and maintaining an active network within the industry. 

List-serves, such as the one sponsored by the NAHC, are the fastest and most convenient methods of keeping up-to-date with changes in the home care industry.  If you are not availing yourself of this important and valuable benefit of membership from the NAHC, you should sign up today.  The members of the list-serve community will benefit from the combined expertise of the association staff and the membership of the association.  A provider can pose a question to the list and receive many great responses.  When there are legislative or regulatory changes affecting the industry, the members of the NAHC list-serve will be among the first to know.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the fastest-growing areas of investment for all types of businesses in America.  Billions of dollars have been invested in CRM systems that have enabled the efficient delivery of customer service to their customers.  Home care, however, does not have a large budget for CRM systems investment.  The primary use of CRM in home care is to automate the marketing system and enable effective management of relationships with referral sources.  These systems allow an agency to keep track of the specific information about each referral source to allow the agency to enjoy a competitive advantage.  They will also allow for the automation of the sales reporting and management processes.  (More information about CRM for home care is available at www.homecareCRM.com)

Electronic order exchange is another area that is finally starting to gain some traction in the marketplace.  Services such as e-clickMD (www.eclickMD.com) allow the agency to send orders electronically to the physicians to review, sign and return.  The only drawback currently is that the physician must have the software installed on their system and should have a high-speed Internet connection.  HIPPA compliance is insured by this type of system as well as speeding up the processing of orders to allow for timely billing.

Cell phones are ubiquitous in our society today and can serve an important role in home care marketing.  For the salesperson in the field it allows key referral sources to be able to reach them directly when they need assistance.  Service is the critical element used to differentiate between agencies by top accounts.  Referral sources should be encouraged to call orders and referrals directly to the intake coordinators at the agency, in most cases.  Whatever is perceived as the platinum level of service by the referral source should be employed.

Intranets provide secure Web sites that are only accessible with password protection.  They can be very important tools to communicate with staff and referral sources.  They allow the agency to keep sensitive non-public information in an easy to access location.  Anytime communication is enhanced; so too is service.

Web logs or “blogs” are basically public forums for the discussion of topics of interest to the community.  Agencies can use them to provide an important source of information about the agency and home care in general.  They have become prevalent in many different industries but so far are not common in home care.  One thing to remember is that people can post anything that they like, so make sure that your service is good!  Blogs are great tools to use to enable support groups for patients and families with similar health concerns.  The agency can sponsor the blog and enable the discussion.

Facsimiles are commonly used to communicate with referral sources for home care agencies.  The most common use is to send orders for signature that are late in being returned.  Be cautious how you use this tactic as it can alienate some referral sources when they feel that they are receiving multiple copies of the same order.  The biggest marketing opportunity that is most often overlooked by home care agencies is the cover sheet.  It is an ideal advertising opportunity and it should be well-designed with an advertising message that is changed frequently.  Cover sheets should always be clean, first generation copies.  Too many times agencies create a poor image by sending forty-fourth generation, slightly crooked cover sheets that look awful.  (By definition they are never going to look better on the receiving end.)

Point of service devices are becoming more common for the clinical field staff.  The impact of these devices should be considered to make sure that from a marketing perspective they are being used appropriately.  First, the way that the relationship with the patient is impacted is important to consider.  Second, the marketing team should make sure to communicate the fact that the agency has invested in this technology and the benefits to the patient.  Finally, equip your sales team in the field with PDAs to use with their CRM solutions.

You are invariably already using many of these electronic tools at your agency.  But, have you incorporated them into your marketing plan?  Use technology to create another competitive advantage.  Happy marketing!

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Recruiting and marketing idea of the decade!  When a great new family movie comes out, contact the theatre and arrange to rent a screen.  Normally a screen can be rented before the first showing of the day, which is usually around midday.  Then invite employees and referral sources and their families to attend.  Other invitees could include potential recruits and physicians.

Make sure that the invitations are fun.  They can be oversized movie tickets or bags of popcorn, for example.  A direct mail piece could be in the form of an oversized postcard.

Arrange to have popcorn and beverages available.  Before the film begins the highest ranking person from the agency in attendance and the marketing director should say a few words to thank everyone for coming.  Tell the referral sources that you appreciate their confidence and referrals.  Tell the recruits that your agency always has a place for quality professionals and to contact you to set up an appointment to discuss an opportunity for a rewarding career in home care.  And, of course, thank your staff for all that they do, and their families for supporting them.

Follow-up is critical to the success of this type of event!  Everyone who attended should be contacted and thanked again for coming.  The referral sources should be contacted by the sales team.  The recruits should be contacted by the agency director or someone in a senior management position.

Excerpted from 101 Promotional Strategies That Deliver Legendary Results without Busting Your Budget! by Mike Ferris

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In home care and hospice, branding starts at the grassroots level.  Historically high level widespread branding initiatives have proven relatively unsuccessful and have not delivered a positive return on investment.  That is because in home care and hospice branding is accomplished successfully at the individual and local level.  The “brand” is established at the personal level.  Relationships are the key to sales and marketing success.

In a service industry, your people are your product.  They are all your sales people. They are the ever important customer service.  There are many examples in business today of enormously successful businesses that are based on the importance of the relationship with the customer.  This is also true in home care.

Marketing or Recruiting?

It has been demonstrated that in home care those agencies with good marketing programs will be better at recruiting and retaining employees.  Conversely, agencies that are better at recruitment and retention are generally better marketers.  The reasons for these are quite simple because recruiting is marketing for people.  Every time you create a positive impression in the community through marketing it gets easier to recruit the best people. 

Hire for Attitude

Only hire the best.  Anytime that you violate this rule you will lower your standards and you will run the risk of destroying much of the culture you have built.  Pride is powerful and it stems from knowing that the agency only has the highest of standards starting with the staff qualifications.  Stability and quality of staff is an important element in the long term viability of an agency’s sales and marketing program.

When looking at the most successful agencies we can observe that they have exceptional cultures that are built by over the years by consistently hiring for attitude.  Outside of home care, America’s most admired companies all make attitude a top consideration when interviewing candidates.  Southwest Airlines is bombarded with applications each year with over 100 times the number of applications than they have job openings.  They continue to recruit aggressively and pick selectively.  They know that if the new hire has the right attitude that they can teach them everything else.  Wegman’s Supermarkets finished first on the Fortune 100 Best Places to Work List for 2005.  They have over a century of hiring great attitudes.  Whole Foods Markets has now become the largest retailer of natural foods in the country and has built their business on hiring people with the right attitudes.  Starbucks was built on the keen focus on the customer relationship.  The list goes on and on; the point is that home care must also focus on the customer relationship.  The quality and training of the staff dictates the success of these initiatives.

Legendary Service Culture

Service sells.  There is no way to compete with strong relationships built on great customer service.  The culture of the agency should be one that provides exceptional service because that is the way it is done at that agency.  They can’t imagine doing it any other way.  By hiring the best and striving to create and maintain a Legendary Service Culture, the sales and marketing team will be very successful in bringing referrals to the agency.

Create the Ultimate Customer Experience

With the right people in place it is then possible to create the ultimate customer experience.  The goal should be that every customer’s expectations are exceeded.  The agency that knows the needs of their customers so well that they are met consistently and automatically will build long-term and valuable relationships.  In home care there are so many divergent and unique customer needs that understanding exactly what each customer wants, needs and expects is critical.  Only with that knowledge can the agency create the ultimate customer experience.  Once established it provides a significant competitive advantage.

Pride

A proud organization will promote the agency and its services.  Since we know that all of the staff are capable of generating significant numbers of referrals, pride becomes an important element in the overall sales and marketing strategy.  Pride is built over time by always doing the right things for the right reasons, consistently delivering quality services that exceed expectations and by hiring the best at all levels.  Pride sells!

How staff are recognized and rewarded for their efforts to promote the agency will generate additional business growth.  Rewarding positive actions in a fun and public fashion creates a bandwagon effect.  Everyone wants to participate and in doing so create tremendous inertia.

Celebrations

Celebrate your people.  There is tremendous marketing potential in how you celebrate Nurse’s week and acknowledge their important contributions.  Home Care month, Aide week, Doctor’s day, etc. provide natural opportunities for marketing.  Generate maximum opportunities from these activities.

If you are not approaching recruiting from the point of view of marketing, you will not reap the rewards of your efforts.  Every recruiting initiative should be designed to generate marketing exposure.  The quality of the employees will dictate the level of service, the customer experience and the long term success of the agency.  People are the key to home care relationships.  Successful sales and marketing of home care services is completely built on relationships.  The sales and marketing department should work closely with HR to unleash this important strategic and competitive advantage.

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