In the first survey of its kind for the nationwide senior living company, Emeritus (NYSE: ESC) is rolling out a new customer satisfaction system to be implemented beginning in December.
The company has contracted with a third party, Mindshare, that will allow Emeritus to survey its residents and their family and friends both on their general satisfaction levels as well as specific day-to-day feedback they might have.
Emeritus will then analyze the information to implement changes within its communities and company as a whole.
“If you ask the right questions, with the right frequency and the right people, you’ll get very actionable data,” says Doug Baynham, vice president of Strategic Business Enhancement. “You can give yourself a score, which is typically what our industry does, but we want to do the opposite—down to the specific person and building to have a positive impact on the customer.”
The surveys will be rolled out by email, phone and online, with residents able to access the surveys at any time of day or night.
Currently Emeritus is working to collect email addresses for its residents and their family members who are interested in contributing to the initiative, with the launch planned for December 2 with subsequent surveying to take place throughout 2014.
Mindshare will help then analyze the data that is collected, so that Emeritus can respond down to the community and individual level.
“We don’t know what we’re going to get back, but we are committed to responding appropriately,” Baynham says. “We are looking at this as an opportunity to improve, to get better and to be more connected with the communities.”
Though the results will help Emeritus better serve the company’s residents, the effort is not in response to critical media coverage of the company that aired earlier this year, Baynham says.
“This is more a response to the wildly important goal that has been in place the whole year,” he says. “We always want to get better and be responsive. Each of our buildings has been collecting information anecdotally on a regional or community basis. This is the first time we’ve done an entire, company-wide survey.”
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
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