As a senior living CEO, the burden is on you to increase net operating income and revenue at your communities.
That’s why, when occupancy begins to plummet, you aren’t afraid to discount your prices, cut your staff, or cut certain services.
But strategies like these can only temporarily halt your revenue loss.
Eventually, you’ll need to find a long-term solution—not a temporary band-aid.
Truly reversing your numbers isn’t possible unless you have a strategy that targets the real reason for your lost revenue.
And that begins with diagnosing your problem correctly.
Without in-depth information on each of the properties in your portfolio, you can’t see the larger picture of what’s occurring in your operation…and what you need to do to increase occupancy.
The solution to this problem is mystery shopping.
Mystery shopping your communities gives you a candid glance into your portfolio that can reveal…
- Which executive directors are effectively managing revenue generation.
- Which regions of your senior living portfolio are suffering from poor sales leadership.
- Which sales counselors are following your organization’s sales process, and which ones are losing leads.
Mystery shopping can be your secret weapon to close your revenue gaps, and here’s why…
You Have a Problem—And It’s Not Getting Better
It’s tempting to simply react to the declining occupancy in your senior living portfolio.
It’s all too easy to blame your prices, your service offerings, or even the region where your communities operate.
But you can’t increase your net operating income or ignore your lack of strategy by simply hoping industry growth will provide a lift.
The reality is that the senior living industry—as a whole—is suffering from dismal occupancy numbers.
Bild & Company mystery shopped over 1,000 senior living communities nationally.
This research consists of a combination of straight mystery shops to evaluate the customer experience as well as competitive analyses to understand communities’ pricing and occupancy data.
We’ve released a sample analysis to reveal why your portfolio may be suffering from threats you may not even know exist.
To reveal what’s lurking in your poor occupancy numbers, check out these results from a sample of 200 communities represented by 15 different senior living organizations nationally.
An Analysis of a Sample of 200 Shopped Communities
In this sample, each of our shops investigated how senior living communities responded to and followed up with incoming leads—an import part of what it takes to steer clear of low occupancy and poor revenue.
We pulled the data, and what we found was shocking.
- For leads who inquired by email, 44 of the 200 senior living communities failed to respond in 48 hours. That’s a painful 22% of communities.
- For leads who inquired by phone, 73 of the 200 communities failed to follow up by phone or email over the span of two weeks. That’s a painful 36.5% of communities.
Despite the strategies these organizations were employing to meet their growth goals, they were undermining their efforts by simply leaving a small detail undone—something that’s devastating for an organization trying to uncover the reason behind its low occupancy.
Keep in mind that the average lead costs you $500.
While our stats uncover a hidden threat that can minimize your revenue, they reveal so much more.
They indicate how senior living CEOs underestimate the negative impact poor sales infrastructure has on top-line revenue.
With big investments regularly made into marketing, the reality is that many of those leads are lost.
For instance, Genworth Financial reports that the national median cost for assisted living care is $3,628 per month or $43,000 a year.
If your communities lose just 25 leads (in total)—who would have become residents had your communities responded properly—then you’ve forfeited over $1 million annually for your organization.
Without established systems to drive strong occupancy, decreasing revenue and dipping occupancy will only continue to plague your organization.
Don’t Settle When It Comes to Data
You can’t settle for a mediocre or generic approach when your ability to solve your problem relies on the data you’ll receive.
At Bild & Company, we provide mystery shopping services targeted for senior living executives who are ready to get to the bottom of their occupancy troubles and solve them.
We’re the eyes and ears in your communities—giving you actionable information to find a shortcut to growth gains.
Doing more than simply pinpointing your problems, we partner with you to create a plan that reverses your dipping numbers and helps you meet your short- and long-term goals.
Here are a few things that make our mystery shopping unique. At Bild & Company, we…
- Only use trained shoppers. In addition to initial instruction, we provide refresher training as well as training for new licensing or products offered at senior living communities.
- Hand-select our shoppers. When you request mystery shopping for your senior living operation, we’ll select shoppers with demographics that match the needs of your senior housing communities.
- Provide personalized feedback for our shoppers. When shoppers need feedback, we don’t send blanket emails. Instead, we pick up the phone, ask questions, and even conduct role play scenarios to strengthen their skills. This allows us to understand our shoppers and match their personalities, strengths, and weaknesses to your franchise.
Stop settling for declining occupancy.
Start diagnosing what’s draining your revenue.
Discover our proprietary three-part mystery shopping research service that reveals the intricate details of your revenue-growth struggles.
