This episode of the Care Home PR And Marketing podcast features Debbie Harris, founder of Autumna, an online care and advice directory of care services for the elderly.
In this episode we reveal:
- Why online information on care homes has become critical for self-funding families, particularly in light of the power of Google search.
- How COVID has changed the way families choose care homes
- How to provide information to communicate the personality of your home, and what differentiates your home from others
- How some online directories rank care homes according to their marketing spend, whereas others rank according to location, service or price.
- Why more than 5% of self-funding families are looking for a care home on a bus route
- Why many families search for homes on Saturday and Sundays, and even during the early hours of the morning.
- Why families have the ability to directly compare one care home against another in vastly more detail.
- Why Debbie encourages care providers to display their fees online.
- Why too many care operators either fail to respond to enquiries at all or are late in responding, particularly to weekend enquiries.
- Why if one resident is worth up to £250,000 in life-time revenue then it is worth getting coverage for enquiries during the weekend!
- Debbie reveals the staggering statistic that people answering enquiries fail to record a name or telephone number 75% of the time. “You’ve just lost your enquiry” says Debbie.
- Why tone of voice is vital for someone responding to an enquiry via the phone