Life Lessons

 Weight Loss Surgery Lessons and Customer Engagement There is a television show about extremely overweight people wanting to have weight loss surgery. During the first doctor's appointment, the patient's initial weight is taken, and they are given a 60-day weight loss goal. Reaching this goal determines eligibility for the surgery. Each patient receives very detailed instructions on how to meet their goal. Following the instructions are guaranteed to work. Most patients return for their two-month check-up only to realize their weight loss was minimal or they gained weight. Unfortunately, this process may repeat itself for over a year.  The scale does not lie.  At some point the patient realizes this is a life-or death situation and they need to make a complete Lifestyle change to meet their goal and be approved for the surgery. It was as simple or challenging as following the initial instructions.  So, what does Customer Engagement have in common with weight loss sur...

  Mirror mirror on my desk, help me rise above the rest.   This is not rocket science: however, an understanding of what you see in the mirror is critical: 90 percent of initial telephone inquiries perceive who you are based on the tone of your voice and facial expressions.  The initial call can be your best friend or enemy. The mirror is your secret weapon if used properly. A successful call means connections are initiated, trust incubated and next steps scheduled.  Moving the sales lead from call to tour requires a transition from salesperson to partner. Screw this up and results will crash. Master it and your bank account will love you.  Prospects want and need to like you. The more you smile the better they feel and the closer you are to making a deal. This is for all of you hard working sales folks.  Place a mirror on your desk and be amazed with the results.  Rick D. Watkins rickd.watkins@gmail.com

Assess Your Vulnerability Now Sharks Are Circling Several things are in motion that will make it challenging at best to provide quality service and care to your customers in the near future. Small/Regional/Mid-Sized businesses are about to be chum for the most massive, deadly business eating sharks the United States has ever encountered. They already smell your blood, have you in sight and are waiting for any opportunity to attack. The good news is you can reduce the risk of being their next victim, but lets talk about what attracts this particular breed of shark and a possible attack scenario. They tend to thrive in atmospheres of chaos, new health care regulations, entitlement mentalities, rising workers compensation rates and low organized labor membership. I cannot accurately describe the carnage your business could experience and will certainly witness in the near future.  Imagine the potential damage a simple email or phone call to a regulatory oversigh...

During my 30 years in senior living operations and sales I've failed to understand why families or future residents rarely ask detailed questions relating to management. Even more alarming is that the checklists many are using to assist with their decision-making process does not mention them. Delivering consistent quality care and service in such a dynamic atmosphere is difficult. Imagine what it takes to provide quality meals, housekeeping, activities, maintenance, assistance with specific resident needs such as medications, bathing, grooming, mobility, emergency response, communication with physicians, pharmacies, families, therapists, hospice, home health and so much more 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Each residents needs and expectations are unique and changing. Residents and families trust the community team to deliver consistent service. The importance of employee satisfaction is often overlooked. It directly impacts the quality of care and services delivered. It's si...

Trust and Assisted Living trust : to believe  that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc. : to have confidence in (someone or something) : to believe that something is true or correct : to hope or expect that something is true or will happen You might say entrusting an assisted living community with the care of your parents or loved one is the ultimate act of trust.  It's common for the adult children of assisted living residents to live hundreds or thousands of miles away. It may have taken months or years to convince mother to make the move into an assisted living community. She isn't completely sold on the idea but is willing to give it a chance. It still sounds too good to be true; a community filled with loving people that will meet her every need and always have a smile on their face. It better be, because mom trusted your advice.  The key to building a family "trust account"  Imagine...

Overwhelming pressure from owners/investors to meet NOI expectations, increased competition, labor retention, and increased costs created a “put today's fire out”  atmosphere in Senior Housing. Quickly adapting to market changes or other operational issues is necessary, however the foundation for sustained long term success requires a committed organizational culture. Why is employee satisfaction/engagement so important? Happy, satisfied, valued and respected employees create happy, satisfied loyal customers, resulting in lower turnover, improved quality, lower operating costs and better financial performance. Unhappy, unsatisfied employees create unhappy or fewer customers, lower quality, higher operating costs and negative financial results. Forbes referred to employee engagement as “the wonder drug for customer service”. Foresee , a customer-service  analytics firm who represents two dozen global businesses including Ann Taylor and Apple released its find...

It’s all about your TEAM People are the foundation of Senior Living success. Imagine every organization is a puzzle with many unique pieces, requiring specific talents and skill sets yet combine to form a perfect picture. Each day you are exposed to many puzzles or organizations; i.e. your company, a hotel, restaurant and let's not forget the local cable company. You form a perception of each organization based on your interaction. This post has nothing to do with a specific experience but it has everything to do with a lifetime of experiences and observations regarding the power of a completed puzzle. A significant predictor of success in the service industry is having all the pieces of the puzzle in the correct place. Have you experienced the frustration when trying to find that missing piece and more than likely have attempted to squeeze a piece into an opening, knowing it wasn't a perfect fit? There are times when the puzzle is incomplete for months, creating tremen...

Throughout my career as a change agent, this quote by Tony Robbins or Henry Ford has been the simplest way to communicate the need to do things differently in order to achieve a different result. Many of us have had the good fortune to work with organizations that experienced remarkable success. They deservedly take great pride in the results of their blood, sweat and tears. As the years pass sustaining success becomes more challenging, yet some company's continue using the original formula that created their growth. Have you noticed as organizations grow some develop internal mini-organizations (much like our government) where even the smallest change may be dismissed or met with almost hostile resistance. Many times a great idea for improving employee engagement, service delivery or enhancing revenue, are only shared with  closest friends at happy hour for fear they would be flagged as having a negative attitude. They've witnessed other brave souls share new ideas with...

Assisted Living Secrets = Lost Revenue Imagine you are a young 85 year old and live alone in your home of 40 years. Your spouse died a few years earlier. All three of your children live several hours away. Both brothers and sister passed away about 10 years ago. You can drive, but your vision and memory aren't as good as they used to be and it worries your children. Each day you wake up at 7:00am, make a pot of coffee and read the local news paper. At precisely 8:00am you make a bowl of cereal so you can take the morning medications. After reading the news paper you turn on the television and begin watching talk shows, then soaps and before you know it, the evening news is on. Time seems to go faster when you play computer games. It’s time for dinner, but you aren’t hungry and it's such a waste to cook for one person. You decide on a meal replacement bar, some cookies and your evening medications. It's about time for one of the children to text or perhaps cal...

What are your most valuable life lessons? One of the most important things we can do is pass along or share life's most important lessons in hope others will be wiser than we were. These are not in any particular order and I consider this a living blog. I am sure I will add, delete up date portions of this post as I continue to learn and experience. I would love your feedback and or hear about your most important life's lessons. Treat others as you would like to be treated . Its amazing how much this simple philosophy impacts you and others. This will certainly be different for each of us. Always do the rite thing . When faced with a decision just do the rite thing. If there are no guidelines or you must act quickly this a golden rule. It may not be the best decision but doing the rite thing can't be too bad. Gather the facts as best you can . This will normally lead you down the correct path. I use this when conducting investigations, resolving customer and ...

Assisted Living and Mom Recently a friend shared a common frustration and challenge with me. He and his wife were trying to convince his mom (who always has known best) that is was time to move from her home into an assisted living community. How do you convince the person that gave birth to you, the one person that knows you better than anyone, the one person that has always believed in you, that she no longer knows whats best for herself? Mother knows best! Her love runs deeper than the rest. Mother could always kiss it and make it better, was there to nurse you through sickness or bad times. Her DNA runs through your every vein. Your heart beats because of her. Remember the valuable lessons that only she could teach. Those lessons were the foundation for who you are today. They helped you make the best decisions and do the right thing in her absence. Mother knows best! Her love runs deeper than the rest. The years have flown by and now mother is also a proud grand mo...

Trust and Honor in a Small Florida Town After years in the business and corporate world it is easy to become hardened and distrustful; very cautious at a minimum. We wrap ourselves in layers of litigious toilet paper. Its seems as though even the most minor decision we make must to go through a "what if" process. What if it offends, what if it leads to a law suit, what if, what if, what if ? We have been conditioned by our experiences to believe most people are out to get us. Hmmm? Wait a minute ! On a recent consulting engagement I found a town with the most honest, genuine, caring and giving people I have seen since my childhood. Imagine a physician wanting to give (free) flu shots to the residents of a local assisted living community or a company only charging you half of the $5,000 bill because they understand how the economy has affected you.  Imagine an artist who creates all day everyday, only to give her work away. While standing in line at the local groce...

Remember Retirement? Remember the rotary phone, life before remote controls, micro-wave ovens or Viagra ? Are we about to say "remember retirement"? Last year a resident of an upscale Independent Living community I managed requested a private and somewhat urgent meeting with me. It was important for him to explain in person why he and his wife were giving their 30 day notice to move out. He said "we worked hard, were successful and invested well, but never expected to live this long or for our investments to crash. We are running out of money and can't afford to live here anymore". "I may have to find a part-time job". That was the first of many conversations like this one and prompted me to take a look into several factors likely to affect retirement as we know it today. Only 11 percent of Baby Boomers are planning to stop working entirely when they reach retirement age. About 9 percent of Baby Boomers we be affluent (defined as having a ...

Can Assisted Living Learn From Starbucks? I hate to admit this, but I'm a fan of Starbucks, their coffee, locations, ambiance and most of all the quality and consistency of the store team members. There are many options for coffee and Internet usage, but something or things keep me a fan. The team members always make me feel welcome, the product is consistent even during high traffic times. While sitting in a Starbucks today I wondered what lessons the Senior Housing industry could learn so I did the popular thing and googled topics related to their hiring, training and philosophy. Here are some interesting bits of information I found in an article written by: Arthur A. Thompson, The University of Alabama John E.Gamble, University of South Alabama Every partner/Batista hired for a retail job in a Starbucks store receives at least 24 hours training in the first two to four weeks. The training includes classes on coffee history, drink preparation, coffee knowledge (...

This morning I received an email from a dear friend.  He probably received the email, thought it was special and passed it along to his friends.  So I am passing the body of his message along to you. There was no mention of the authors name.  I hope it touches you the way it did me.  There was a young woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live. So as she was getting her things 'in order,' she contacted her Pastor and had him come to her house to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in. Everything was in order and the Pastor was preparing to leave when the young woman suddenly remembered something very important to her. 'There's one more thing,' she said excitedly . 'What's that?' came the Pastor's reply? 'This is very important,...

Can Your Assisted Living Use Honest Eyes I would like to share a best practice for Assisted Living or any business. I have always valued two opportunities to collect raw, unbiased feedback. The first time I visit an Assisted Living, Retirement campus or any business I write down my initial impressions as I drive up and also take a few minutes to journal my first impressions before I leave the parking lot. I've learned over the years with each visit to a community my ability to capture the initial detailed observations fade. I also ask every person during their initial visit (vendor, family, interviewee ) to share their honest 1st impressions with me. It allows me a perpetual fresh set of eyes, ears, noses and perceptions. I understand that each visitor will tell their friends, family and coworkers about their experience. All business can benefit from this exercise. Recently more of my clients outside of the Assisted Living or Senior Living industry are requesting this t...

What Message Are You Sending? I recently overheard a family conversation about the men my niece was dating. It reminded me of an extremely powerful challenge we face personally and professionally. The conversation went like this; "she doesn't like any of them. I don't understand her, one is an attorney, one is an accountant and the other one is in Pharmacy school". "What's wrong with her?". If you're in the nursing home or assisted living business you are aware how this same phenomenon affects business. Some perceptions / expectations are cultural others are based on word of mouth, some on visible impressions. The fact is every person and business has one or perhaps many perceptions to manage. If they accurately reflect you or your business, use them. If they don't, manage them the best you can. Understanding how you are perceived is critical for success: business or personal. Understanding why is even more important. I rec...

What is the Value of your Service?  The weekend newspaper seems to contain more sales inserts than actual news. My family members always gravitate to them, so they must be effective for certain retail products. Over the years when an Assisted Living or Independent Living community begins to struggle with occupancy, price discounting is the first topic of conversation. Frankly the thought of lowering the price of a quality product or service makes me sick. A decrease in your sales or occupancy is normally symptomatic of quality or service delivery problems. Around 2006 I was managing an Assisted Living Community located in Mooresville , North Carolina owned by Pulliam Investment s . The community was led by an amazing Executive Director who created a team of associates dedicated to providing the best service possible. The community was the price leader in the market and remained full. A new competitor was about to open and our pricing strategy was to continue premium pric...

Improve Customer Retention My entire organization works hard to produce and promote a wonderful service. I am a sales person. I work months overcoming objections, building a trust relationship, actively listening, showing sincere interest, being the face of my company, establishing expectations and creating a special bond. I remember a time when when our customer retention was declining.  There was a noticeable difference in customer attitudes, an increase in their complaints but never anything specific. I felt our trust relationship slipping. I was going through a divorce at the time and thought my distractions may have been the cause. While researching the leading causes of divorce, I had one those "WOW" moments.   According to enrichment journal on the divorce rate in America: The divorce rate in America for first marriage is 41% The divorce rate in America for second marriage is 60% The divorce rate in America for third ma...

Customer Loyalty Close your eyes, play some relaxing music and imagine your employees were like this. My name is Passion. I used to work for the sake of work – a paycheck, something to do. But these days, work has become an extension of who I am. It's my way of changing the world, to make it the kind of place we want to live in. Its my purpose, it's what I believe in, my passion. My teammates and I are 100% driven to delight our customers. I get a great deal of pleasure and a sense of accomplishment from moving my department and my company forward. My company knows I will do the right thing. I feel like a partner. I have a spirit to serve. I care about my team, company and customer. I take the initiative. I anticipate my customers needs. I enjoy people. Learning is important to me. I'm human and need to feel appreciated. It doesn't take allot. Ask me and I'll tell you. Say thank you, remember my birthday, make me laugh, feed me occasion...