The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has put assisted living facilities to the ultimate test. Thankfully, the recent disbursement of the Covid-19 vaccine is beginning to provide hope to the elderly population and their providers after a very long and emotional year.
Moving forward, one of the key components to the future success and growth will be how health protocols are communicated within each assisted living community and the external marketplace. Since the pandemic dramatically limited personal interaction, organizations had to find creative ways to provide updates and stay in touch with everyone affected. It’s also important to identify assisted living trends that will help, obstruct or complicate the recovery process. And with this comes a greater need to meet higher expectations of residents and family members while restoring resident’s psychological, emotional, and physical well-being.
2021 Assisted Living Trends That Redesign Your Long Term Strategies
Delivering Care and Safety through Contactless Communication
As vaccinations become commonplace a pandemic will eventually pass. But the lessons learned will have a long-lasting effect on an assisted living community.
While residents and staff safety remain the top priority, families will always require communication from the providers to keep them updated on their loved one’s health and well-being. Meeting their expectations can add extra work for your staff and can be frustrating at times. But supporting a happy resident and providing peace to their family members is essential for resident retention.
Staying connected, fulfilling requests, and managing communication has become challenging due to social distancing. Assisted living communities are revisiting their long-term strategies and exploring new technologies like contactless communication to focus primarily on care and safety. Family members can communicate with a care provider to receive updates, administrators can inform staff and loved ones on important notices, even payments can be submitted and recorded through a secure platform that can be accessed from any device from anywhere in the world. Resident satisfaction and assisted living software like Zenya can help meet necessary communication requirements.
You can even automate a series of communications like sending a personalized note on health conditions, activities, and upcoming services or events. Providing personal touches and opportunities to connect creates a greater experience and improves interaction and satisfaction.
Early Technology Adopters Will Lead the Post-Covid Environment
The Coronavirus vaccine has given some respite to assisted living management and owners. But the question still holds strong on how rapidly occupancy will rebound once infection is no longer a threat. How long are providers able to hold the tide and sustain themselves? What factor takes the front seat in weaving their long term strategy?
2021 should prove to be a better year than 2020. With the U.S. senior housing market expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.3% from 2020 to 2027 to reach USD 119.2 billion by 2027 ; providers need to embrace new opportunities that pandemic has brought in.
As the economy starts to recover and occupancy rates start to improve, providers may experience temporary signs of relief. But those who lack operational skills and those who aren’t willing to invest in technology and innovation, won’t be able to survive for long.
Increasing demand for resident-centered care and higher-quality amenities has put immense pressure on administrators to provide the ultimate living experience. Through the enhancement of to engage the elderly population, assisted living software like Zenya helps facilities meet safety goals, provide technological offerings, and transparent communication.
No wonder, Covid-19 has opened up new avenues for older adults where they can live and receive care. Avenues like co-housing communities; staying along with their loved ones who can take care of them because of work from home benefit; and living even in their own homes with the support of an array of new on-demand services that they became adept at using during the pandemic.
Long Overdue Digital Sales and Marketing Emerge
Safety protocols prohibited in-person tours for a considerable time so most senior living communities relied on their website and their sales department to offer information, interact with prospects through chats or virtual tours. Providers have been focusing their energy on digital sales and marketing more than ever. And since this has shown considerable success with adaptation by many users, they have started allocating budgets to make additional investments in technology. Enhancing the website with the latest technology of software integration, two-way communication such as a live chat with automated response capabilities, virtual tours, lead tracking and follow-up amongst others – all contribute to the future success of your community.
Cloud-based senior care management software like Zenya offers an interactive widget which gives prospects a new way to view housing options and availability, search highlights and amenities, and see general pricing – all from their website. It’s chatbox feature allows sales to initiate a conversation with the lead in real-time whenever possible, otherwise, the chatbox can be programmed to auto-respond based on keyword codes.
All leads are funneled into a centralized system in real-time enabling the sales team to manage and evaluate activity. Follow-up tasks for the staff can be automated so leads are addressed on time. Centralized lead tracking provides demographics and other insights to direct future marketing strategies and increase occupancy.
Outmigration To Small Cities
A new study reveals by 2025, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely, an 87% increase from pre-pandemic levels. The pandemic created the emergence of a new type of work-from-home culture in which people had an option to live anywhere they chose. Many preferred metropolitan U.S. cities while others demanded more remote locations with a lower population, or milder weather, or closer to family.
Low cost of living, equivalent amenities, and unlimited opportunities for wellness and outdoors, further makes smaller markets more lucrative for population shift. (U.S. Postal Service data.)
Towns like Katy, Texas, and Cumming, Georgia witnessed the biggest influx of new residents during pandemic. As the population shifts toward these smaller markets, real estate development — including senior living development — will follow. These markets will offer great opportunities to reap its benefits, however, senior living developers and providers will need to adopt to the evolving technologies to entice an influx of residents. Zenya, simplified resident satisfaction and assisted living software, brings CRM + PMS + Invoicing + Resident Experience + Automation + Website Chat — all together in one solution. Meet and exceed occupancy goals, lower labor costs, and increase efficiency and resident satisfaction with automation workflows.
New Approaches Developed During the Pandemic Designed Successful Senior Living Community Models
Once the pandemic has passed senior living providers will need to try new approaches to create a successful community. The lessons learned will form the basis of these approaches and redesign how these communities operate.
These assisted living trends are shaping the future of assisted living communities. Providers need to ingest these insights and formulate sustainable strategies and adapt to them. With the right software and tools your business will leverage in the right direction. Meeting occupancy goals, streamlining processes with automation workflows, contactless but seamless communication is all possible by incorporating Zenya. It can help you build a robust platform and integrate with your existing system without disrupting your CRM.
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