In an effort to help simplify the senior living search process and garner interest in Sunrise Senior Living communities, the company this week is rolling out an online Care Questionnaire that assists prospective residents in determining the type of care that will be the best fit.
The questionnaire has been several months in the making, and stemmed largely from a usability test Sunrise conducted among 50 participants in early 2014. The test indicated that many visitors did not know the difference between simple care distinctions such as assisted living and memory care.
Sunrise enlisted its care team, legal and sales teams to establish the types of questions to ask of leads and help direct them accordingly.
The resulting 8-question program is designed to take about four minutes to complete, and asks simple questions about the level of care that a prospective resident may need, such as questions about depression, memory loss, recent hospital stays and ability to prepare meals or complete housekeeping tasks.
Those who complete the questionnaire then receive a basic assessment, for example: “Your answers suggest you may need Independent Living.” They can then choose to save their results and pass them on to Sunrise, or keep them for their own purposes.
“The responsible thing to do is to read as much content as possible to get a great understanding of the process,” says Meghan Lublin, senior vice president, Marketing & Communications for Sunrise. “But in times of urgent need, you don’t always have the patience or time to read all that content. We feel this tool will help families get to the information they need on a much quicker basis.”
Four days following the launch, Sunrise is already seeing success with the new resource. Of the number of people who have completed the form, almost as many have come through as leads to Sunrise, Lublin says, and two have already visited Sunrise communities for tours.
But not all of those who complete the questionnaire become leads. Visitors have three choices: find a community by zip code or location and choose whether to attach the results of the questionnaire; schedule an assessment with a care expert by calling a toll-free number; or print or save the results.
Sunrise views the tool as also being useful in starting the conversation with family members who may be in need of care.
“This is something that really simplifies the process to make it as easy as possible to figure out directionally what type of care might be best,” Lublin says. “This is a first step.”
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
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