CUSTOMER STORY
How Third-Party Surveys Helped Visiting Angels of Carlisle Achieve Their Top Growth Quarter in Company History
About Visiting Angels Carlisle:
Visiting Angels Carlisle is the leading provider of home care services for elderly adults in Cumberland, Franklin and Adams Counties in PA. They are proud to help local seniors safely and comfortably age in place by providing assistance with everyday activities.
With their senior care services, elderly adults can continue to live independently in their own homes.
When Visiting Angels corporate began encouraging franchisees to use Home Care Pulse’s monthly client and caregiver surveys, Richard Ruda wasn’t interested.
His reasoning was simple: “Why do we need to pay someone to do what we’re already doing ourselves?”
Recognizing the Gaps
Soon after his initial hesitation, however, Richard changed his mindset on using a third-party vendor.
“I started recognizing that there were gaps in [what we thought we knew]. I saw that while we always had a general feeling of where our weaknesses were, we didn’t always have the whole picture or an action plan to strengthen these areas.”
After some of the most stringent questioning and research our sales team has ever seen, Richard signed up with Home Care Pulse and worked to make the survey feedback a key part of their client care processes.
“Our business success is like a three-legged stool; it now rests on our relationships with three indispensable partners,” says Richard. “Those three partners are our marketing agency, our hiring software, and Home Care Pulse. And once we had those three relationships in place, we had the best quarter in our company’s history.”
How Surveys Contributed to Agency Growth
“Surveys have contributed to that growth in a few ways,” says Richard:
“First, identifying the areas where we’re weak has helped us ensure a higher standard of care, which elevates growth in all areas. If you want to be a premier provider of care in your area, you need an independent surveying company to help you provide the care that sets you apart.
“It’s also helped us to improve our intake process and significantly improved our intake conversion ratio. [The social proof from the feedback and scores] is a powerful motivator for people deciding whether or not to use our services.”
Having social proof has been instrumental with referral partners: “There have been multiple times where having that survey data sealed the deal with a referral partnership,” says Brandi Hollar, VA Carlisle’s PR/marketing coordinator.
Every agency says they’re the best. [When we’re talking to a potential client or referral source], we now have third-party satisfaction client and caregiver satisfaction scores to prove it.
Richard Ruda, Owner, Visiting Angels of CarlisleEven recruitment is impacted: “We’ve used the scores/awards in our recruiting and even hung employee scores in our offices so that new applicants can see what it’s like to work for us from the perspective of a potential peer.”
At the end of the day, it simply changes the overall nature of their external communications, according to Richard. “Every agency says they’re the best,” he explained to our team. “We now have scores and feedback from our clients and caregivers to prove it.”
Richard’s staff: “The surveys make our lives easier”
When we asked his office team how Home Care Pulse surveys have made their work easier, several of them started talking over each other in their enthusiasm.
“You’re always going to struggle to get the answers that you’re looking for as a supervisor if you call them directly,” said Brandi Hollar.
“Having a third party agency complete these calls on a consistent basis has dramatically improved our client/caregiver satisfaction. Home Care Pulse is streamlined, efficient, and we’re getting more honest feedback.”
From Kristy Saphore, senior client care coordinator: “One of the biggest things it’s helped with is clearer perception of situations. Now that we’re consistently surveying both clients and caregivers, we can get a better view of how a client, client’s family member and a caregiver perceive a single situation.”
Having a third party agency complete these calls on a consistent basis has dramatically improved our client/caregiver satisfaction. Home Care Pulse is streamlined, efficient, and we’re getting more honest feedback.
Why a third party?
Where Richard had asked why they should pay an outside company to do what they could do themselves, he now had his own answer.
“The reality is, we simply didn’t always have the follow-through. Too many things come up to do it with the consistency of a third-party surveyor. I realized we could achieve far better results if we had more consistency in administering and following up on the surveys.
“Plus, I realized that using a third party delivers much more unbiased feedback.”
According to Kristy Saphore, “[Home Care Pulse’s survey program] isn’t really about the surveys. It’s about giving your clients and caregivers a voice. When there’s a problem, you’re empowering them to become part of the solution.”
