Of all of the challenges that COVID-19 introduced Bickford Senior Residing, the one that rejected them was the slowdown in hire cost.
Earlier than the pandemic, about 90-92% of residents on the Olathe, Kansas-based Bickford paid their hire by the tenth of the month. In the course of the pandemic, that quantity dropped to 79%.
“It’s a thriller to us why the households since COVID paid later,” says Bickford president Mike Eby. “Whether or not they’re extra tight with their funds or one thing else, we’re simply unsure. We don’t know why it occurred.”
What Eby and the staff do know is the affect of these delayed funds.
“It triggered us to be later with our distributors,” he says. “It triggered money circulate points round payroll time on the finish of the month. And if we had property taxes due, that took an enormous chunk of money to pay. That’s what was impacted from the slower funds.”
That’s when Bickford linked with Sunbound and discovered the ability of accounts receivable (AR) automation. Utilizing its automated monetary know-how platform with hire assortment help, constructed completely for senior care, Sunbound helped Bickford get immediate funds above pre-COVID ranges, as much as about 95% by late this yr.
From March to October of 2024, Bickford rolled the system out throughout its complete portfolio, offering a versatile cost expertise for households, maximizing income and reducing billing errors. Here’s a have a look at why Bickford Senior Residing is so comfortable.
Bickford has seen a 94% resident adoption to digital funds
As operator struggles stacked up industry-wide through the pandemic, Bickford was among the many operators that Sunbound discovered. However Sunbound isn’t Bickford’s first try at changing hire funds from bodily checks to digital.
“Once we tried to roll out our earlier portal, we had some success, but it surely was perhaps lower than half of our individuals going with the portal versus issuing a guide examine,” Eby says. “I used to be very skeptical that Sunbound would be capable of get adoption north of fifty%.”
Not solely did Sunbound ship on that promise, they far over-delivered.
“They’ve gotten adoption as much as 94%,” he says. “I feel the most important profit is that it’s a a lot simpler course of for our households to pay. Earlier than we had been utilizing a financial institution’s portal and it was cumbersome. Sunbound’s portal could be very straightforward to navigate. Very fast. It has actually improved the client satisfaction with this space. We’re attempting to make it simpler to do enterprise with us.”
Improved expertise for household and workers, with decreased workers work about 20 hours a month
Even earlier than the funds reached that 95% mark, Bickford was seeing advantages from its Sunbound partnership inside only a few months of connecting. These embody three interconnected wins:
- Decreasing household disagreements over billing
- Improved billing accuracy
- Materially improved household expertise
“There have been disputes taking place with payments the place the household would name into the director and simply sort of proceed to extend,” Eby says. “If there’s a dispute, Sunbound tries to resolve it first with the household and alerts it to the constructing and us so we all know that these are getting addressed if there are disputes. That has helped tremendously scale back our dangerous debt load as a result of if a resident doesn’t pay for some time, that stability will get fairly large.”
All of those strikes scale back dangerous debt, and customarily make it simpler for individuals to do enterprise with Bickford.
“Our households have mentioned that they’ve been more than happy with this new rollout we’ve completed,” he says. “We nonetheless get the odd checks right here and there however by and huge it’s largely digital.”
Employees members are too.
“It’s decreased the period of time it’s taken our workers to handle accounts receivable and cost processing,” Eby says. “It’s in all probability decreased it for every director by as much as twenty hours a month. So it has freed them as much as spend extra time with residents as a substitute of administrative particulars.”
Sunbound is “one other arm of our firm”
What Bickford has seen is that Sunbound’s staff helps the monetary operations of every neighborhood. This isn’t simply software program that’s carried out; Sunbound’s help staff assists residents and households every day, which permits neighborhood groups to concentrate on different value-add work.
“The follow-up with checks which have bounced or funds which have come again inadequate funds have been actually optimistic,” Eby says. “Their workers has been actually good to work with. They’re all very succesful. And actually operate as one other arm of our firm.”
Transferring into 2025, Eby has a lot to fret about and handle. That’s the lifetime of a senior dwelling operator. What he’s not apprehensive about is hire.
“Their hire roll advance financing program has been very useful to bridge these short-term month-in shortfalls that we expertise,” he says. “I can’t say it sufficient: they simply have completed what they promised they might do, and that also at this time sort of amazes me. They’re the actual deal.”
This text is sponsored by Sunbound Houses. To be taught extra, go to sunboundhomes.com.
