Whether a company wants its senior living communities to be reviewed or not, it’s going to happen and they need to be prepared. During the Assisted Living Federation of America’s 2013 Conference and Expo, held in Charlotte, N.C. earlier this week, panelists told attendees the number of reviews posted online are only going to increase.
“Social [reviews] are the new comment card,” said Blair Carey, managing director of Retirementhomes.com.
This shouldn’t be any real surprise, as a report from Nielsen company showed that 70% of people surveyed said they trust consumer opinions posted online. The only category with a higher trust factor was a recommendation from people they already knew, which came in at 92%.
The number of reviews posted online can also have a direct impact on the financial performance of the community. A study from Harvard University found that reviews posted online have been shown to increase revenues 5-9%.
“The more comments and the more responses, the greater the [revenue] number increases,” said Carey.
Make no mistake, there are plenty of review sites dedicated to the senior housing industry. Over the past few months, companies such as Caring.com, Senior Advisor, Golden Reviews, and others have all launched or have offered reviews of senior communities.
“Companies need to decide which review sites are the most popular and where they should put their resources,” said Steve Moran, publisher of Senior Housing Forum.
The number of review sites can be overwhelming, but the odds are that all of the review sites won’t last forever.
“Consumers would prefer if there weren’t 100 companies,” said Andy Cohen, Co-Founder and CEO of Caring.com during an interview with SHN. “There will be some that do great and others who are testing the waters. Those who are looking for a quick buck will move on.”
Managing those reviews is likely to become a part of everyday business for providers, according to panelists. If consumers are posting negative reviews, providers should respond quickly, be personable, and work toward a resolution.
“Companies must have a plan in place to manage [reviews],” said Blair. “If there is a fire or emergency [at the community], you have a plan, it’s the same when a ‘disaster’ happens online.”
At the end of the day, companies need to begin to seriously address reviews posted online as they become greater in number and will increasingly have an impact on customer perception.
“Online reviews are here to stay,” said Moran.
Written by John Yedinak
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And hopefully someday one of these sites will rise to the top enough, have a comprehensive enough list for a given locale, to actually be useful — including details on more than just their advertisers.
It would also be great to have a list of LGBT-welcoming senior communities.
When Caring.com acquired Gilbert Guide in 2009, that site's senior care reviews feature had been in place for years already. Today, Caring.com welcomes about two million visitors per month and hosts more than 35,000 reviews from family caregivers, senior residents, and eldercare experts (the directory reviews feature also recently earned an "Official Honoree" distinction in the 2013 Webby Awards). Any senior housing listing on Caring.com — whether a free, basic listing or an enhanced paid listing — can receive reviews, which can be positive or negative (or in between), and will be included or rejected based only on adherence to the review guidelines. In analysis of listings in 2012, Caring.com found that listings with reviews got more than 5X more consumer inquiries than those without reviews ,and Caring.com frequently hears from family caregivers who cite this feature among their top three considerations of local providers ("I want to know what other folks think before I sign up for a place," one family caregiver said while searching for an assisted living community for her mother). To further assist, in 2012, Caring.com launched the "Caring Stars" award recognizing service excellence in assisted living and memory care communities based on consumer reviews (helping to publicly identify and honor those communities that consumers think are performing the best). The first year, there were 120 winners in 24 states. This year, there were 383 winners in 40 states! We're excited about the growth of this program, and pleased to see more press coverage like yours about the valuable contribution that consumer reviews are making in senior housing. Thank you!
I think it's kind of disingenous of these sites to market themselves as a comprehensive listing when they only list companies that pay a fee or advertise with them. Consumers should know they're not getting a broad listing of all their options; just the companies who have chosen to pay the fee to list with them.
Caring.com's Senior Care Directory is not limited to paid listings. Information for consumers is about numerous local providers, including those who have free listings. There is also a self-serve tool for providers to get listed if they aren't already in the directory: http://providerinfo.caring.com/ProviderGetListed….
Hi KA:
As Blair and I prepared this presentation I spent a lot of time looking at this very question and as Denise said, they and at least most of the other review sites I took a look at they all have a fairly easy mechanism for communities to claim their listing (or add a listing if the community is missing) and to make changes to those listings at no cost.
Just this morning I was on the phone with the executive team of Senioradvisor.com and they only wish that more communities would come in and claim their listing, to get maximum value.
Steve Moran
Seniorhousingforum.net
That's correct, Steve! Our listings are comprehensive. A community manager can claim their community simply by navigating to their community and clicking "Do you manage this community? Click here to claim it." We respond to these requests within 2-3 business days.
What is not mentioned here is the general consumer related review sites – Yelp – Angie's List etc. After the corporation sponsored web site, this is where consumers are now moving. So, the statement above about having a strategic plan and action steps for handling reviews is essential for the future
Hi Z.Zingo:
In the presentation we spent some time talking about the general consumer sites. Both Yelp and Google Local are particularly important, with Google being the most important because it can substantially improve a communities search results.
Steve Moran
Senior Housing Forum, LLC
Thank you for reiterating the importance of responding to reviews and engaging with your customers! SeniorAdvisor.com makes it easy for you to respond to reviews about your community. Once you have claimed your community, you will receive an email notification whenever a new review has been posted.
I think it's kind of disingenous of these sites to advertise themselves as a comprehensive history when they only history companies that pay a fee or enhance with them.
I believe that when a family member takes the time to write a review of an RCFE, they have valid comments. You can tell by what they write if they are ranting or are presenting factual information. If they have factual information, the RCFE should be or should have been concerned and take action to remedy problems to spare others similar problems. RCFEs should care. RCFEs like Merrill Gardens now pay companies to bury or remove any negative comments about them instead of addressing concerns. If that is the way RCFEs will handle online reviews…no need to worry about them…just pay to have them removed. I hope that is not the future and instead RCFE will listen and care about problems, not bury them.
John, I agree with your points about the fact that providers should be proactive about monitoring and responding to reviews. We will see reviews increase in number as our industry further embraces the Internet. However, I think we've missed a big point about reviews. The potential of reviews to become a primary decision making tool will always be limited by the inherently small review writing audience for each assisted living community. Reviews do have value, helping consumers to gauge the culture and personality of a senior living community, but they will never have the impact that they do in hotels and restaurants, for example. It is for this reason that we launched the SeniorHomes rating system in May of this year–to offer consumers an objective decision making resource. Please see a blog post that I recently posted on this topic: http://www.seniorhomes.com/w/putting-assisted-liv…