Want customer feedback for your senior living community?
The best resource of customer feedback is a family who has had their family member living at your assisted living or continuing care community.
What families think is invaluable to uncovering weak links and improving customer service.
Of foremost importance is that an operator/management company use the information that is gained to make improvements. Without that commitment, exit interviews with families are useless.
One of our clients takes our completed Exit Interview survey to their weekly managers’ meeting. They discuss the feedback we have obtained with the various department managers. Often, it’s not only criticism. Families share compliments as well and offer glowing reviews. Plans are put in place to correct weaknesses and this feedback is considered high priority.
For any community with leasing issues, this is one of the most effective tools that a community can use to improve leasing and goodwill. Referrals definitely can be built by building this rapport with former families.
One family member we spoke with said she was grateful to have an opportunity to have someone listen to her concerns.
Outsourcing this research is very critical to the success of exit surveys since families want to know they are not speaking with someone from the company. They can feel they can be honest and open with their feedback.
Effective exit interview surveys use no more than 4-5 open ended questions. People appreciate that they won’t be on the telephone for an extensive length of time unless it is of their choosing.
Generally it’s important to learn the reasons for the move-out, what a parent liked about the community and constructive criticism for improvement.
If you are outsourcing exit surveys, establish the difference between a “completed” call and “incompleted” call. Some companies charge for a “completed call” if someone was reached whether they participated or not. An “incompleted call” could be a disconnected telephone number or a left message not returned. While all calls require a sensitive listener, for every completed call that is short and sweet, there are those calls that require tremendous empathy.
We recommend knowing who will be making the exit survey telephone calls. You want a mature, listener who is empathic. Since these calls are not recorded, it’s important that the feedback provided on the form be accurate.
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