LydiaMiller
Marketing Specialist & Sales Trainer
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Aug 26, 2010, 8:16 AM
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Understanding Seniors' Issues and Challenges
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By Lydia R. Miller, B.Sc., CHSP, BC PIDP
Before you can ensure higher occupancies in your retirement facility, you must first understand the issues and challenges that seniors face when confronted with the prospect of retirement. Then you will be able to help them address their concerns and offer sound solutions for their individual situations.
As we all grow older and reflect on our lives, our loves and experiences, we also begin to face our mortality and how we want to enjoy the rest of what life has to offer. What does ‘retirement’ mean and what will it bring in our remaining years? Yes, I know that sounds a bit morbid but it is reality. The average age of most seniors is between 75 and 84 who are currently living in a retirement community. They didn’t wake up one morning and announce: Today’s the day I leave my house and move into a ‘home’. They started planning with their family and asking friends for recommendations.
So let’s fast forward the clock and put ourselves in the senior’s position. You’ll need to plan for your retirement and possible failing health. If you’re fortunate to have children who can offer you their spare bedroom, that’s half the battle won. But what do you do with the house you shared when the kids were small? How will you dispense of all the furniture and personal belongings that won’t have a place in your new home wherever that is? How will you get around town and keep active? And, most importantly, how will you pay for it all?
Once you’re able to identify with your seniors and future residents, you can offer sound recommendations to their challenges. Try sitting down with some of your current residents and talk with them over tea or lunch to get their insights prior to them choosing you. What was most important to them? This effort on your part will also elevate your level of customer service and re-enforce your reputation with your residents. Even if your own retirement community isn’t the best fit for everyone, you will have earned more of their trust and respect and the referrals to keep your wait-list current and pre-qualified. Remember, you must be pro-active in your search for new residents in this competitive marketplace. Order-takers aren’t sellers; they only maintain the status quo.
Lydia Miller is a Certified Hospitality Sales Professional with over twenty-five years of sales and marketing experience accumulated from within the finance, performing arts and hospitality industries.
The Miller Touch specializes in delivering customized sales workshops and presentations for the accommodation industry with a focus on retirement communities and hotel properties. Ms. Miller is a successful consultant assisting retirement communities, hotel operators, and other industry associations improve profitability, sales productivity and client/member relations. She is a founding professor with eHotelschool.com having written advanced online courses in international sales and marketing and in event planning and conference management.
For more information: The Miller Touch Training Group Inc.
Lydia@millertouch.com
Direct Tel: 604.984.7445
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(This post was edited by LydiaMiller on Aug 26, 2010, 12:05 PM)
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