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As senior residing demand surges, operators are placing extra time and sources into excursions that wow older adults and their households.
Senior residing gross sales and advertising groups in 2025 are shifting away from cookie-cutter experiences and tailoring excursions primarily based on what they assume their prospects need. Operators are customizing the neighborhood tour expertise primarily based on preferences for every little thing from the care that residents will obtain to the meals and music they get pleasure from.
All of that begins earlier than a resident or their household steps foot inside the neighborhood, based on Ginger Atwood, nationwide director of selling and gross sales for Harbor Retirement Associates.
“We coach our HarborChase gross sales groups to actually step again and conduct a deep discovery by asking private questions on what that prospect enjoys doing, what they used to get pleasure from doing and what they need to proceed doing if that they had the liberty and the safety to do it,” Atwood advised Senior Housing Information.
Child boomers and their grownup kids are conducting extra analysis in 2025 than they used to, making customization in gross sales much more essential, based on Gale Morgan, vp of gross sales for Evanston, Illinois-based Mather.
Different senior residing corporations taking a tailor-made strategy in senior residing excursions embrace Beztak, Solera Senior Dwelling, Solinity Advertising and marketing and Watercrest Senior Dwelling Group.
Earlier than the tour
A cornerstone of senior residing gross sales and advertising with new prospects is obvious communication. Senior residing prospects usually carry apprehension with them that operators can alleviate throughout their first assembly, based on Anna Wynn, senior vp of gross sales and advertising for Solera Senior Dwelling.
“This isn’t thrilling to them to come back have a look at senior housing,” Wynn stated. “[It’s] what you do to … be certain that it’s not their worst worry, that that is the largest reduction and so they might truly depart smitten by what we provide.”
A number of operators search to be taught the main points of a prospect’s life story and construct rapport instantly after making first contact. Salespeople at HRA start their preliminary outreach normally inside a day of inquiry, based on Atwood.
Some operators, like Farmington Hills, Michigan-based Beztak, initially share with prospects prerecorded neighborhood tour movies to construct pleasure and get them via the door quicker, based on Govt Vice President of Senior Dwelling Jason Kohler.
Mather communicates with prospects initially both via textual content messages or quick emails to learn the way a lot they perceive about senior residing and why they’re desirous about it.
“It’s stunning what number of occasions we’re having a voice dialog with someone for the primary time once they stroll via the door,” Morgan stated. “We all know with this clientele, first impressions are pivotal, so we now have to know sufficient about them via the pre-conversations.”
Watercrest has rebranded the identify of its excursions to “experiences,” which Vice President of Gross sales Schooling Michale Marlowe stated has proved helpful for rising conversion ratios. The Vero Seaside, Florida-based firm’s inquiry-to-tour ratio at the moment sits at round 26% and a tour-to-move-in ratio of about 46%.
Watercrest focuses on three main phases for attracting prospects and speaking to them: the pre-visit and on-line discovery, the in-community tour expertise and follow-up as soon as the tour concludes.
Through the tour
As soon as a prospect arrives at a senior residing neighborhood, operators welcome them indirectly, normally with indicators, designated parking or pleasant staffers. Then, operators normally carry them to a gathering room to allow them to be taught extra in regards to the prospect, a gathering that would final as a lot as a number of hours.
Operators put a number of thought into the sorts of refreshments they provide prospects and their grownup kids. Frequent snacks embrace sweets resembling candies, cookies and fruit, alongside water, soda, espresso and juice.
Generally, operators take the second to wow prospects with extra distinctive choices and showcase what the neighborhood’s kitchen employees can do. For instance, Denver, Colorado-based Solera lets prospects nosh on treats like chef-crafted cookies, infused waters and lemonades which might be distinctive to every of its communities. Mather doles out toothsome treats like do-it-yourself macarons, sugar-free cheesecake slices and recent pastries, Morgan stated.
The tour course of gives a number of stops the place operators can feed each residents’ curiosities and their starvation. Beztak, for example, retains the fridges in its mannequin models absolutely stocked with sodas, water and fruits prospects can assist themselves to. HRA employees usually take prospects right into a neighborhood restaurant for a meal or appetizer, with meals picks culled from preferences gleaned earlier within the gross sales course of.
Normal crowd pleasers for senior residing excursions embrace cookies, brownies and natural fruit, based on Sara Mitchell, president of Knoxville, Tennessee-based Solinity Advertising and marketing. Incoming residents are also selecting more healthy and allergen-free choices that issue right into a extra lively life-style, she stated.
Refreshments are only one method operators present they’re in-tune with resident preferences. Backside-line, throughout the excellent senior residing neighborhood tour “nothing is cookie-cutter,” based on Solera’s Wynn.
“They don’t overwhelm the household or the prospect that they’re giving a really personalized tour, and never feature-dumping,” Wynn stated.
Senior residing gross sales groups can use info gathered earlier within the gross sales course of to give attention to options that may stick out to a prospect, resembling eating venues for these desirous about meals or gardening areas for individuals who choose to be outdoor. Generally operators will go to lengths to wow a prospect. For instance, HarborChase of Mandarin in Jacksonville, Florida,arrange raised backyard beds locally for a prospect who beforehand ran a landscaping firm, Atwood stated.
Music and different media additionally assist set the temper throughout a tour. Gross sales groups at Beztak for instance would possibly play music a prospect likes or play their favourite TV present in a mannequin unit throughout a tour, Kohler stated.
The {custom} strategy is supposed to assist the neighborhood stand out amongst opponents.
“We see analysis that claims the typical household visits 4 communities earlier than they select one. So this makes a neighborhood stand out as a result of they bear in mind what has been personalized for them,” Marlow stated.
Senior residing gross sales groups are also catering to the desires and wishes of grownup kids – particularly, by sharing info resembling value, stage of care and staffing ratios, based on Kohler. To ease these considerations, Beztak staffers reveal care strategies, like displaying somebody methods to use a name pendant or strolling them via bodily remedy choices.
Operators incur various prices placing on excursions, from as little as $50 to round $450, primarily based on the standard of presents and refreshments, and budgets are constructed round neighborhood occupancy wants.
After the tour
The follow-up is a crucial a part of the tour course of, provided that prospects will usually store round to different communities.
Operators usually give prospects presents upon the top of their tour or after, resembling handmade darkish chocolate sweet bars and biscotti, flower deliveries, books, handwritten notes and playing cards or custom-built presents resembling birdhouses. Items usually give operators one other likelihood to place their model or brand on one thing the prospect will carry residence with them. For instance, Mather embosses its brand onto the treats its communities’ government cooks make.
From there, gross sales groups refocus their efforts on sustaining rapport and following up with prospects. Beztak for instance follows up with prospects 24, 48 and 72 hours after a tour to maintain the connection recent. Observe-up for Beztak may additionally embrace a video from a neighborhood’s chef with a message mentioning a prospect’s favourite dish.
Wynn stated one Solera gross sales staff member sends a textual content message to the households she toured with all through the day earlier than she leaves the neighborhood. From there, gross sales staff members have a aim of getting one other face-to-face assembly inside every week to 10 days.
Moreover, operators make the most of resident ambassadors to attach with prospects for extra outreach.
“We see this so much within the unbiased and assisted residing communities, operators are leveraging their very own residents to assist inform that story,” Mitchell stated.
Atwood talked about that for HRA, the time for a prospect to resolve tends to differ relying on what time of the month they arrive to go to and the extent of want. Excursions that happen previous to the twentieth of any given month usually tend to shut earlier than the top of that month, whereas those that come after are likely to take into the next month to decide.
