Hospitality in Senior Care

Hospitality and customer service. These may be the only features that set your facility apart from any other in your community. They can be the deciding factors in a family’s decision to choose you over your competitors. Today’s senior care communities all offer nursing services, rehab and therapy, activities, memory care and good food. But, these are expected. The goal of outstanding hospitality and customer service in senior care is to over-exceed expectations. This is what creates the “Wow!” factor and draws more business to your community.

Building Your Own Brand of Hospitality

If outstanding hospitality and customer service are this important, you should take the time to create your own brand and culture that is unique to your staff and community. A culture of hospitality includes your residents, their families, your staff, vendors, ancillary services, and physicians. In other words, everyone you encounter is a customer, potential customer or referral source. Take hospitality and customer service seriously and the payoff will be incredible!

First and foremost, positive customer service attitudes should be a part of your community’s culture. They should not be a nice thing that happens every now and then – they should be expected at all times. Service never sleeps in senior care. It should take place around the clock, shift after shift. Outstanding service should become a tradition and one that makes you and your staff proud.

What Do We Need to Achieve This?

Superior hospitality and customer service can only be achieved when your employees believe in what they are doing. They must feel purpose and meaning in their roles. They also need to have the proper tools to get their jobs done. Even the brightest surgeon cannot operate without the necessary tools.

Everyone on your team should be encouraged to express what service means to them and how to elevate it in your community. After all, your residents will notice the quality of service before they will evaluate the quality of nursing or medical care they receive. Your team should also be encouraged to deliver a very high level of personal attention to each senior and deliver services that truly person-centered.

Leading Principles of Hospitality

The most contemporary philosophy in senior care is and has been for several years, person-centered care. I personally feel so passionate about this philosophy that I wrote a full-length book on it – The Person-Centered Way: Revolutionizing Quality of Life in Long-Term Care. In it, I discuss culture change, creating a home, the importance of food and dining, activities and quality of life, changes in how care is delivered, environmental changes, a new culture of dementia care, family-centered care, finances and regulations, leadership and the many benefits of person-centered senior care.

Other leading principles of hospitality include:

• Instituting sustainable customer service practices
• Creating and designing intentional resident experiences
• Focusing on happiness and alleviating anxiety
• Speaking the language of care and love
• Personalizing care at all times
• Practicing effective accountability
• Refreshing the community’s culture frequently

Trust

Another important ingredient in service is trust. This involves your staff being committed to doing the right things, knowing their residents well, paying attention to details, preferences, likes, and dislikes, engaging in continuous self-improvement, being fully engaged, and taking 100% ownership of their roles and duties. Trust is an attitude.
Someone once said “It is far greater to be trusted than to be loved”. What exactly does this mean? Employees need to take the time to build genuine relationships with seniors. Good care is based on trust. Relationships are based on trust. Trust takes much time to develop and only seconds to destroy. Therefore, trust, customer service and hospitality are all interconnected and interdependent.

Final Words on Hospitality in Senior Care

It is one thing to read this article on hospitality and trust and quite another to do something about it. Make a commitment to improve your community’s culture, enhance customer service and develop a team that takes these principles seriously. The greatest difference between you and your competitor is not only quality of care, but hospitality and customer service. So, why not make them the absolute best you can?

More About Customer Service

• Customer Service from the Heart
• Working with Challenging Families
• Customer Service in Health Care