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Are you the well-meaning health or elder care service provider that is assuming you know what the senior wants? Are your assumptions based on the historical pattern of what was successful in years past? If you are, then move over because your competition is paying attention to the changing trends.

Mildred, an independent 82 year old, stood on the corner awaiting the transit bus. A well-meaning pedestrian took hold of her arm and tried to help her across the street, assuming the Ms. Mildred was trying to cross the street. She resisted, he was stronger, and though she battled him, he did get her across the busy intersection. She missed her bus.

Based on continued consumer-driven surveys within a variety of categories of service providers within the industry of serving seniors (and their baby-boomer age adult children), Senior Approved Services gladly shares a synopsis of what the consumer is actually in search of when it comes time to contract with outside sources.

The consumer is defined as both the adult child of the senior and the elder person that will actually be the recipient of services. If you haven’t begun to recognize that elder care is a family affair then that must be your first step in revising your delivery of service and most importantly, your marketing message.

Simplification. A one-call solution to locate all services that a senior may need, now and in the immediate futureSeniors are need of a multitude of different types of services and chances are will need on average, 5 different types of services over time.

He or she may start out in need of in home care assistance. A few months later, may be in need of medical equipment or assistive tools. A year or so down the road, the family may come together and recognize that important legal documents must be attended to and are then in search of expert elder financial planning and document organization.

Perhaps a year or so later, the need to downsize and move in to an assisted living environment or perhaps utilizing the services of adult day centers may peak the interest of the family.

In any case, no one wants to have to start from scratch each and every time a new need arises. The consumer wants a one-call solution. One number, one primary resource that he or she can turn to, in trust, to locate the different services when the need arises. On what basis do you make referrals?

Assurances. A method to quickly differentiate the multiple listings of choices.

Choices are wonderful, but in this day and age of utilizing the Internet as a research tool, the choices become overwhelming. As a business, you must begin to consider how to differentiate your service from your competitors in order to assist the senior (and more often then not, the adult child conducting the research on behalf of an aging parent) to first find you – and then have a good solid reason to select you from the multitude of choices. Why choose you?

Continuity. The need for a 'point' person that may be called upon as often as needed for additional assistance.Seniors and their families appreciate the ability to have one entity that can oversee the entire care plan. A person that has the senior’s best interest at heart. A person that knows the ongoing history of the senior and has come to know what his or her likes and dislikes are, what their physical, emotional, and financial limitations are. A go to person, if you will, that has an ongoing relationship with the family. Who do you trust this family to?

Care Management. An affordable program that would continue to follow up with his or her loved ones while using a service.More often then not, the adult children of the elder parent do not live within the same community as mom and dad.

It is common to find that these adult children are also ‘sandwiched’ between their own immediate family demands and a career. He or she sincerely cares about what’s happening with mom and dad, but are literally strapped for time and so visits to the house or to the location where mom and dad are living are few.

It is a known fact that parents lie to their children. You call your mom every day and she assures you that ‘all is well.’ She doesn’t want to worry you. You then visit over the holiday and are shocked to find a woman that is not bathing, her home is cluttered, and the cupboards are bare.

Or, you may have the other kind of parent that will tell you how awful everything is, when in fact, everything is really okay. He or she is lonely and is quilting you in some way.

Regardless of which situation, adult children truly appreciate the opportunity to call a third party (someone other then the business hired to provide services) to verify if indeed, ‘all is well’ with mom and dad. Who do you recommend?

Advocacy. A non-threatening, positive program that, if needed, would advocate for the senior without creating a problem with the service provider.

Maneuvering through the health and elder care system is confusing, even for the professional. Many times the adult child and/or the senior actually receiving services are not sure of their rights and are not sure of what a realistic expectation of service ought to be.

Often, the business contracted with, is the last call that a family will make to complain about service. Fear of retribution or fear of losing the service often times compels the family to seek out an alternative service before canceling with the one in place.

Unrealistic expectations are also a common factor. There are indeed times when the care recipient (and/or his or her family) is under the false illusions of what to expect. Truly there is a need to educate the consumer of what expectations are and should be expected.

Business owners cannot be expected to respond in a favorable consumer friendly manner if in fact, the consumer is not communicating with the business.

There are, of course, businesses serving the elder population that in fact, ought to be forced out of business. Though elder abuse, fraud, and theft cases perpetrated against the elder by an outside contractor only account for 23% of reported cases, it is still an alarming number.

Having an advocate that will intercede on behalf of the rights of the senior and their family is imperative and a great assurance to the current savvy consumer of health and elder care related services. Do you offer an outside source as advocacy for the family?

Pay attention to the changing trends of expectations of the consumer today or step aside and let your competition do the work and claim your clients when they elect to drop you. You will find yourself in the endless activity of replacing clients even though you know it cost you five times as much to acquire a new client as opposed to implementing a solid plan for client retention.

To learn more feel free to access a free narrative of a focus group study conducted by Senior Approved Services over a three-year period that includes the responses of seniors and their adult children from nearly every state within the U.S. See Focus Study

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