I enquired at 40 care homes. Here's what I learned

2024-12-04 09:49

Why on earth would anyone enquire at 40 care homes?

It’s a fair question.

I’m writing a follow-up journey for one care provider at the moment, and I was curious what others are doing.

I wanted to see how many providers have a journey in place. And what does it look like – email, call, text, direct mail? Is it a simple sell or do they try to add more value?

Then, once I'd enquired at a few, I got a bit carried away.

How I went about it

I searched on carehome.co.uk in two locations, one where I live and one where I have a loved one that might need care before too long.

I went down the list in order, from 10 or 9.9 ratings down. so all these providers would be more switched on to marketing than average, and have paid for that little bump up the list. Almost all have 9+ ratings.

This wasn’t a general enquiry, I was asking for a brochure and opting in to follow up, where possible. Then seeing what happened.

The results

Only 25% sent a follow-up email. Of those ten, only one has sent something resembling a welcome journey

Remarkably, only 25% sent a follow-up email. These run the whole gamut, from very simple template, to something that seems to have been written just for me. And from the terse to a whole load of detail I probably don’t need just yet
Of those ten who sent an email, only one sent more than one email that’s part of a recognisable welcome journey
7 made a follow-up call, anywhere between 5 minutes and a few days later. The ones that did are the big groups, with one or two exceptions
Where possible, I took the option of a PDF brochure rather than hard copy, and I always signed up to newsletters. One sent a brochure in the post, along with a handwritten compliment slip. Only one has sent me their regular email news.

The home with the highest rating (a straight 10!) had the worst-designed brochure. It looked like it was created in Microsoft Paint – a true abomination to any designer’s eyeballs, that I found oddly charming

One included pricing, example contract, newsletter, and social impact report. Another had an ‘Is this home right for me’ questionnaire (100 questions!)

Easy wins

The good news is, it’s pretty easy to stand out. With a few simple changes, your nurture journey can be one of the best:

Ensure your form is easy to find on your website, and keep it simple – don’t put barriers in the way of potential customers. There’s always a trade-off here between how many questions you can ask (like finding out how urgent the need is) vs not putting them off
Those first few, hours, even minutes, after someone makes an enquiry are vital. People are busy, and someone’s care needs can escalate fast. So if you can respond quickly and helpfully, you’re halfway there. Shout out to Care South for the promptest call of all!

A follow-up journey doesn’t have to be just email. The more you mix it up, the better – text, call, even post.

Tell people what’s different about you
Make the tone informal and personal, just as you’d talk to them. Keep templates simple (do you even need one?)
Give people valuable info. They’re trying to navigate something confusing and overwhelming. A helping hand stands out.

Pro tips

Slip a plain text email into the journey with a simple question, like 'Did you have any questions I can help with?' This stands out as from AN ACTUAL HUMAN and can really cut through

If that's all a bit obvious for you, you can try these:

A good third or fourth email is to ‘close the loop’ on enquiries. Something that says ‘We hope you’ve found somewhere that’s right for you. As we haven’t heard back, we’ll assume you don’t need to keep hearing from us but if we can help let us know’. This is a great way to get a response from someone who’s serious but just hasn’t had chance yet. And of course, it’s a good way to keep your list clean
A plain text email after a couple of templated ones, with a short message asking if you can help, feels much more like it's from an actual human and can really cut through
You can still offer to keep in touch from time to time and have a long-term nurture list that focuses more on news, handy resources, etc.

Takeaways

As you’d expect, the big groups were efficient in following up by email and call – although even they’re guilty of the occasional broken form

Not all homes have a brochure. And those who do often say something along the lines of “It’s quite out of date but here it is anyway”. And some have obviously decided it’s not worth it – BUPA would be the most notable example

If you follow up with a short series of emails, you’re light years ahead of most. If you follow up promptly with a call, you get a Frank Care Marketing gold star ⭐ Of course, this means you’ve almost certainly got a salesperson doing that job, rather than a manager.

A not very rigorous approach

I stopped at 40 enquiries, because I felt bad about bothering people, and also I’ve sort of got work to do. So it’s not a very representative sample size. That said, the numbers feel about right in terms of indicating what you’d find across the social care sector.

If someone called, I either explained I no longer needed help (bit weird), or explained what I was doing (very weird). Either way, I told them they’re brilliant at their job and thank you.

But this does mean that I prematurely disappeared off a lot of lists that may well have a really good nurture journey. Particular shout out to Beritaz Care as a smaller provider with a strong follow-up process

Is it worth having a brochure?

Yes. It’s a good non-scary way for people to find out more.

It’s also a way for someone looking for care to feel like they’ve done something, and made some kind of progress. If they then get guidance on the next steps, you’re serving them well, and showing you care. Which means they’re that bit more likely to respond to you.

Is it worth printing a brochure? I’m thinking here of the husband visiting his wife in hospital and wanting to help her make a choice. So I’d say Yes it’s still worth it, but have a good plan for getting those things out there.

Got a nice journey?

If you have a follow-up journey for enquiries that you’re particularly proud of, or you’ve seen someone else doing this well, I’d love to see it.

Get more not-very-scientific studies from me

This started out – as many unexpectedly fun projects do – with me wondering what everyone else is doing.

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