Senior Living Shoppers Say Community Staff is No. 1 Selling Point

Among considerations for those in search of senior living solutions—from prospective residents to their family members and others invested in working through the process of choosing a senior living community—staff remains high on shoppers’ lists. 

In the “information gathering” process of choosing a community, more than 80% of those having gone through the process report that the attitude and knowledge of a community’s staff ranks as a “5 out of 5” in importance when choosing a community, according to a survey released this week by A Closer Look. 

Other factors reported to have a strong impact on the decision making process include the information available on a community’s website, whether the community representative offers a tour of the community, availability of staff during the information gathering process and access to photos and videos of the community. Each of the considerations were deemed to be “important” by a measure of 4 on the 5-point scale by the more than 1,000 survey respondents. 

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For the communities’ physical characteristics and services, shoppers indicate location and cost are the top considerations, outpacing medical and nursing services, food and dining, floor plan, amenities and activities. Friendliness and caring attitude of staff topped the list with an average 4.84 on the 5-point scale. 

“One of the most interesting findings from this section was the lack of importance potential residents placed on activities, amenities and apartment size,” Ac Closer Look reports. “However, 45.7% of those surveyed claimed that their biggest reason for not choosing a particular senior living community was because they felt staff could not provide proper care for them or their loved one.”

Written by Elizabeth Ecker

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