Aaron Marcum
Despite the challenges we face in the industry, the 2018 Benchmarking Study as well as the relaunch of BestofHomeCare.com provide the tools and information to make this a year of growth.
In March we hosted a webinar about the true cost of caregiver turnover. Thank you again to everyone who attended. On the webinar, our COO, Erik Madsen, discussed how rising turnover rates are impacting home care agencies and what you can do to reduce turnover. We are excited about the release of another powerful resource to help you reduce caregiver turnover, increase client satisfaction and ultimately grow your business: The 2018 Home Care Benchmarking Study, our ninth annual edition.
As you may know, at Home Care Pulse we concentrate our efforts around four core purposes that represent WHY our customers choose to work with us. These purposes are:
I want to share with you a few findings from the 2018 Home Care Benchmarking Study that tie in directly to these important purposes and how they can help you succeed in these efforts.
Increase Quality of Care
The study reveals specific areas of the client experience that are critical to high satisfaction and highly correlated to the likelihood to provide referrals. For instance, the category of care that clients industry-wide scored agencies the lowest in was communication from the provider. This category was also very highly correlated to your clients’ likelihood to refer. Therefore, one simple way you can greatly increase client satisfaction and make them more likely to refer their friends or family is to maintain stronger communication with your clients.
Decrease Turnover
Once again, the industry caregiver turnover rate has risen from the previous year; it now sits at 66.7%. Fortunately, the study cements several remedies to combat this issue. As always, the data is clear that retention begins at recruitment. We cannot overemphasize the importance of finding employees who value your company’s WHY and recognizing them when they contribute to it.
In addition, there is a clear correlation between increased wages and caregiver turnover. According to this year’s findings, those agencies with caregiver wages in the top 75th percentile have a median turnover rate of 59.5%, whereas those paying in the lower 25th percentile have a median turnover rate of 70.6%. The correlation between wages and turnover is also clear from regional data; the Pacific Northwest consistently reports significantly lower turnover rates than other regions of the US and reports the highest caregiver wages. While paying your caregivers more adds quickly to your costs, it is important to consider the benefits it brings throughout your business including decreased turnover, less time spent by management finding new caregivers, and the ability to attract higher-caliber caregivers.
Grow Revenue
The 2018 Study provides many important metrics for you to track in your business. One important benchmark is the Net Promoter Score, a key performance indicator directly related to how likely a client will recommend your services to others. Because current clients were once again the overwhelming winner for top source of new client referrals in 2017, tracking and improving your Net Promoter Score will have a direct impact on your ability to grow as a business. The 2017 Industry Net Promoter Score was 5.9 (% of promoters minus the % of detractors), which is commendable but certainly shows room for improvement. How does your score compare to the industry average?
In addition, we are excited to announce the relaunch of our own website created to help clients identify the right providers: BestofHomeCare.com. BestofHomeCare.com is a user-friendly directory of Home Care Pulse Trusted Providers and Best of Home Care award winners that makes it simple to find the best home care agencies. Enhancements coming in this relaunch include the ability to automatically publish verified client reviews from feedback captured through our program, a brand new individual agency profile page, and a new program for qualifying home care leads and transferring them directly to your office. This will be an excellent venue for prospective clients to find and connect with your agency. These new capabilities will complement our existing review integration with Caring.com. The combination of Caring.com and BestofHomeCare.com brings an increased number of verified client reviews online and provides opportunities for you to grow your business with quality leads.
Provide Proof of Quality
Each year, agencies using our Quality Management Program are eligible to receive Best of Home Care awards including Provider of Choice, Employer of Choice, and Leader in Excellence. So far, 848 agencies have won Best of Home Care awards this year, with 131 of them being awarded Leader in Excellence. All of these awards, which are given based on achieving excellent levels of satisfaction with clients and caregivers, are powerful tools that provide proof of quality care and help you drive growth by standing out from your competition. They provide credible evidence to prospective clients and caregivers alike that your agency delivers a quality experience.
In addition to certificates, we provide every award recipient with a marketing kit that includes award logos, press release templates, fact sheets, and other tools to help you promote the quality of care you provide. Our objective is to help you receive recognition and results from your hard work and commitment to quality.
Great Things Are Happening
Despite the challenges we face in the industry, the 2018 Benchmarking Study as well as the relaunch of BestofHomeCare.com provide the tools and information to make this a year of growth. For a deeper look at some of the insights from the 2018 Study, join me for my webinar on April 11th and 25th as I dissect more key findings and help you apply them to your business.
Warmest Regards,
Aaron Marcum
Founder & CEO
Home Care Pulse
