Assisted living and customer service: The holidays are here – and so are the visitors!

Troupes of dancing children. Choirs of carolers. Families you’ve never met before, bearing gifts of cookies and chocolates.

The holidays are here – and so are the visitors!

It’s the perfect time to showcase your community as well as the dedication you and your team have to customer service.

As a manager, it’s important to spend an extra few minutes each day reminding staff about customer service basics. It’s also vital that you model excellent customer service even more than usual throughout your day.

Try holding a short stand-up training session each day at shift change, both in the morning and afternoon. Focus on one key concept each day – only one – and let staff practice this concept on each other or give you examples during your stand-up. Your team will have fun with this, and they’ll really remember the key points.

Here are some of the key points you may want to include in your brief trainings:

• Smile and great each visitor with a sincere welcome. Use their name whenever possible.
  

• Wear your name tag, every single minute you’re in the building.

• Tidy at least one thing every shift, no matter what your job description. Make a point to look around and find one thing to straighten, pick up or clean during every shift.

• Offer coffee, tea, a cookie or water to every visitor, including those who come in groups. Be prepared for a large number of visitors every day, and let staff enjoy any left-over cookies at the end of the day.

• Take personal ownership when answering any visitor’s question. Before answering the question, say, “I can help you with that.”

• Look for something positive and complimentary to say to each visitor. Notice the colorful scarf, the Santa earrings, the furry boots. Be genuine and sincere. It will immediately give your visitor a warm and positive feeling about you and your community.

Have fun with this opportunity to teach your staff about customer service.

And let your community really shine during this holiday season.

Customer Service is the Key

We had the pleasure of attending the ALFA conference a few months ago in Orlando.

We also went on a few roller-coaster rides (the water ones are my favorite) but that's another story.

By far and away, the predominant theme of the conference was customer service. Clearly, if we're going to stand out - and thrive - in this very crowded, competitive field, we need to get the customer service element firmly ingrained into our entire approach to service delivery.

Speakers from the hospitality field talked on this subject every day of the conference. The place where the conference was held, the Gaylord Palms, has one of the best customer service programs in the US. They actually answer the phone, "Consider it done." Whatever your problem, question, or need, they work hard to fulfill on that promise.

They know what we in senior care need to see more clearly: the success of a company (hotel or senior living community) will be based on how the employees relate to the customer.

Every day.

Every contact.

How does the Palms make sure that everyone is on board? Their single word answer? They train. From day one, they train every single employee in what it means to be a part of their service team. They train in how to do the assigned job, but they also offer English language classes, among several training options. They celebrate every employee advancement or achievement by throwing a party, complete with cake, balloons and applause. They actively seek ways and times to add to the knowledge and skills of every employee, and to celebrate those individuals.

What are you doing to celebrate your team today? What are you doing to build the strongest, most service-oriented employee group possible?