You've started a new homecare business. Congratulations! 🎉 So far, you’ve recruited some carers, and have a small number of clients on board. But how do you grow?
Here are 5 ideas for how to get new clients for your domiciliary care company and help more people in your community.
1. Referrals from current clients
Keeping your current clients happy with an outstanding quality of care will help you get more business. People talk, and if the service you are providing to someone is a quality experience, then they will talk about it! Consider a referral scheme; if someone refers someone else to sign up, then a reduction on charges will persuade them to talk more about your company, and advertise for you through word of mouth. A referral is qualified and coming to you, which means a lot less effort to keep your name out there. So keep your service quality high, and you’ll see more clients.
2. Good and consistent inspection scoring
Inspections in homecare are a guarantee; local councils and governing bodies will conduct inspections to make sure that visits are happening correctly, on time, and in a friendly and efficient manner.
Organisations such as the CQC in England rate and publicly display the rating of each and every homecare provider in England, and only have 4 different grades: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate. Outstanding is the most difficult to achieve, with only a small proportion of the 11,000 or so registered homecare companies in England achieving this rating.
Making sure that your consistently get a good or above rating will make you much more attractive to new clients.
3. Advertising - getting to your decision makers
Advertising costs money, and how to spend this is often the biggest guessing game for homecare providers. Are your clients the decision makers themselves, or is it generally a family member or friend that would decide on a care provider? How do you reach your decision makers?
There are a number of different ways to advertise, but importantly it must be targeted on a local level; there is no point advertising to those that are based in London if your company is based in Manchester. Try to make sure that the communities are being targeted as well. Smaller projects such as leaflet drops, local newspaper advertisements or a billboard/bus stop advertisement can go a long way. Bigger projects can be considered too; local radio ads and local care roadshows where you can exhibit.
But most importantly, get some kind of online advertising. Having an easy to read website, containing all the information about your care service, will naturally bring some leads to you. You can also go with doing some local advertising on the likes of Google Adwords by specifically target those that are looking for new care services in their area. Social media advertising on Facebook or Instagram may also generate some interest and gives you the ability to reach people in a very specific way.
Watch: Care business strategist, Kate Pym, shares her advice on sales and marketing for new domiciliary care businesses.
4. Networking at hospitals and GP surgeries
Getting to know the professionals diagnose, treat and discharge patients may help bring you more business; by capturing someone before they have even considered options for a homecare provider, will help you gain more customers. By networking with staff at hospitals or with local physicians, you can make your company better known, and recommended by them. Personally visit each office with a well-organised summary of your homecare services, and you can see more business being referred your way.
Also remember smaller community organisations, such as mobility shops or social groups for elderly people. One of our Nursebuddy customers, Caroline Cares for You, has some great examples of how they've built networks within their local community, to bring new homecare clients to them.
5. Working efficiently with technology
Care management software can help improve the reputation and the quality of care that your clients receive. Trust in your brand is important, from both a client's perspective but also carers. Carers are your frontline team, the ones actually doing the important work in the community. If they have the information and tools needed to do their job quickly, efficiently and communicated instantly, then this leaves more time to develop relationships with current clients.
Find out more about how Nursebuddy can help your homecare company to grow by requesting a free online demo and chat with our team, today.
You might also like to download a copy of our guide to getting more homecare clients.
