Marketing Not-for-profit Home Care Services
Posted by Mike Ferris on Friday, June 20, 2008 and posted in Home Health Care SalesFrequently I am asked how marketing not-for-profit home care services differs from marketing for-profit home care services. The simple answer is that the basics aren’t any different! The need to market is the same within the community no matter what the type of agency. But when you dig deeper, you will find that the need to market today at not-for-profit agencies is probably greater than at for profit agencies. In fact, I have been getting more calls from not-for-profits lately than ever before.
This is because most of the not-for-profits are behind in the game. For years they have not had to market and have been successful. Now they find themselves being told by their boards of directors that they have to be more self sustaining—and the way to do so is generally by generating more business with less overhead. The typical not-for-profit today is subject to more accountability for its financial success and at the same time they are the subject of greater competition. The old saying, “You must first do well, before you are able to do good,” is certainly true in home care today.
Here are some tips for successfully marketing a not-for-profit home care agency:
- Enlist your board and foundation members in the marketing effort. They know a lot of people in the community. Ask for their help in making introductions to potential referral sources or influencers. If you haven’t asked lately, you should do so. You cannot count on them to take the initiative.
- Play to your strengths and highlight what makes your agency unique. What are you known for in the community? Use these strategic advantages in all of your marketing efforts.
- Package specialty programs around core competencies. There are certain things that your agency does very well. This usually means that you have staff that are trained in the specialty, like this type of care or that you get paid best to perform. Many times every home care agency in town offers the same services. But to really promote them, you should package a specialty program around these core competencies so that your agency will stand out as the best choice for these types of referrals.
- Make it easy to deal with your agency. Customer service is very important and the first step to customer service excellence is to be easy to work with. Intake should be easy to access, friendly and service oriented. The referral process should be as easy to complete as possible to maximize the number of referrals. Take a moment to analyze your processes and make sure that you are easy to work with.
- If you provide charity care to low or no income patients, use this to a marketing advantage. This is a commendable and needed community service. Make sure that the referral sources that send you these patients also know that you would like to have their Medicare patients as well. Your competition probably doesn’t provide charity care, so make sure they don’t get all of the profitable cases.
- Enlist your entire staff in the marketing efforts and give them the tools to tell the world about the agency and its services.
- Hire an outside sales team. There needs to be someone out calling on referral sources on a regular basis and in person.
- Have a clear and consistent message.
These are just some basic ideas to implement to effectively and efficiently market your agency. Good luck and happy marketing!