While referrals are great at building a business, this isn’t the only way you can increase your client base. This guide will focus on some of the most proven methods that you can use to help you get more home care clients, so you can expand and grow your domiciliary care business.
How to Find More Clients For My Home Care Agency - Tenders
This article will focus on how to get private care clients, using various tactics to present you care service in the best possible way and to make your services known about, in order to get more clients for your home care agency.
However, local authority funded care remains a core component of most home care providers’ business model. Is that is an area you want to do better in too? If so then open our article on how to win social care tenders in a new tab, and read that after this.
How To Get More Home Care Clients – Our 13 Market Beating Tips
1. Create a Referral Scheme
Recommendations are a basic yet effective way to build the reputation of your home care business. If a service user or one of their family members is impressed with your quality of service, then you should find a way to encourage them to share their thoughts and experience with others. One of the best ways to do this is to create an incentive-based referral scheme.
A great way to approach this and share the message is to create an email marketing campaign. Typical incentives you can highlight in your emails include a temporary reduction in fees, a free care visit or a reward, such as well-being-related tickets or vouchers. You can also use incentives to encourage people to leave honest reviews online, such as entering them in a prize draw.
While it would not be best practice to incentivise people to leave reviews that are not true to life, often what you will encounter is that people find it difficult or are unsure of how to recommend your service to others.
This means you could have many clients and their families who would be more than willing to shout to the world about how great your service is, but lack the knowhow or the encouragement to do so. It can be as simple as adding a link to a review site (or your referral scheme) to the footer of email and other correspondence, for example.
2. Boost Your Regulatory Rating
The CQC (Care Quality Commission) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. The Care Inspectorate focuses on social care and social work in Scotland, the CIW (Care Inspectorate Wales) takes care of services in Wales, and The RQIA (Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority) is the independent body used in Northern Ireland.
Regulator inspections are important for you, your employees, your service users and their families. Inspections are in place to monitor your provision while giving those receiving care peace of mind that you provide a high standard of care and are a reputable service provider. This will improve your reputability and increase the number of service users in return.
Because of this, the rating you receive from your regulator will have a huge impact on the number of clients you manage to get on board. Being rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ will make a difference in the number of people who notice your care service. Your rating will be displayed on the regulators website, so those looking for care can easily search for your rating online.
For care services, implementing Access Care Compliance software is one of the easiest and most effective ways to boost your CQC rating, as it can help you manage your employees, protect valuable information and data on your care clients and carry out mock inspections. This organisation alongside the reduced time spent on admin means your care business can provide safe and well-managed person-centred care, which is a plus for anyone searching for the best care.
For local authorities, implementing both preventative and proactive services is another way to help improve care outcomes for your home care clients. In the CQC’s upcoming inspections for local authorities, they are assessing how councils commission and oversee adult social care to identify how you provide care to help prolong independence and delay future care needs.
Access Assure offers this through providing digital telecare which also offers a greater peace of mind to families by notifying them about changes to their loved one’s behaviour before something more critical happens.
This helps to improve independence through encouraging achievements such as increased community involvement and ultimately boosting your regulatory ratings due to using an outcomes based approach for your care provision and adapting care as needs change. This in turn, helps you achieve more home care clients as you can offer both private funders and local authorities the reassurance they need that individuals are safe in your care and that all their needs will be catered for even as care needs change.
3. Build a Strong Website for your Homecare Business
If you don’t have one already, building a strong and professional-looking website for your homecare business is highly recommended. It doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive, but in this day and age, having an online presence is essential. The internet is used by many to search for the goods and services they need and if they can’t find you, they could easily be persuaded by a competitor.
While your target audience may not utilise the internet as much as other age groups, if they have decided to use your care service or they have asked a family member to help find a domiciliary care provider, chances of one of them carrying out a basic Google search on your business or for a provider, in general, are extremely high. You can either create a website yourself or pay someone to do it for you.
4. Use Content and Keywords
Creating your website is the first step, the next is to ensure that it has all of the information and detail required and make sure you update this regularly. There is a lot of competition out there, so staying relevant online can be tough but it is key to being successful.
If you don’t already have one, you should consider starting a blog and populating it with heaps of useful information about home care. Update this often, this can be weekly or fortnightly, and once published, make sure you find a way to tell your audience. This could be via email or social media.
When creating content, whether your main pages or your blogs, you need to focus on topics that are being searched for often. To do so, you can carry out basic keyword research and make sure those words appear in your website’s content. If you need to learn more about keyword searches, click here.
When improving your web pages or content its important to be specific to the services you provide. When you’re tyring to get more home care clients this typically means focusing on local searches rather than broad searches. For example, instead of ‘home care services’ or ‘domiciliary care for older people’ you would want to focus on keywords like ‘home care services in Altringham’ or ‘elderly care in East Doncaster.’
Even though the number of searches will be lower for these more niche terms, they will be more targeted at the people in the geographies you actually provide care in. This will help you get more clients for your home care agency.
These more niche searches will also typically be less competitive than broader, high volume searches, meaning it will be easier for you to ‘rank’ highly on Google and other search engines. Or if you are purchasing GoogleAds it will usually mean a lower ‘cost per click’ – more on this below.
5. Start Using Social Media
Almost 60 million British people use social media regularly, so you should not underestimate the power of these tools. If your care business isn’t already set up and active on social media, you could be missing out on so many new clients. Remember, there will be some platforms more suited for homecare businesses than others, so you should do your research and focus on the ones that’ll help you the most.
The two platforms that will most likely work best for a homecare business are Facebook and LinkedIn. There are more older people and people of an age most likely to be finding care services for an elderly relative on Facebook compared to other platforms, and there are also so many opportunities for you to advertise your services for a low cost. On the other hand, LinkedIn is a business-focused platform where loads of groups related to the homecare industry can be found.
People trust people, so if you have happy clients or family members that want to share a great experience they have had with your care service then encourage them to do so on social media. You may be astonished at how effective this can be in solidifying a positive impression of your service in people’s minds.
Whenever the time comes to find a new or replacement care agency for their loved one, they will probably think back to that post they saw from a friend of a friend, and take it as a more trustworthy endorsement than any flashy marketing.Learn About Google Advertising
Most people will use Google when searching for a home care business, so you should learn more about the power of Google Pay Per Click advertising. This useful tool works by ensuring that your business appears at the top of every Google search for home or domiciliary care. You can set your budget, making it a relatively inexpensive option and you can also key your demographic and the local area you aim to target. There are no contracts, so things can be paused or amended whenever you want or need to and you only pay if someone clicks on the advert that takes them to your website.
6. List on Popular Lead Generation Sites
For those wondering how to find clients for a home care agency, one of the best ways to do so is by listing your agency on industry lead gen sites, such as homecare.co.uk or Care Sourcer. If you haven’t done so already, get your agency listed. People trust these independent sites, so having your domiciliary care agency listed on a lead gen site will boost your reputation. These sites are also used often and there are options to purchase featured listings, increasing your exposure.
7. Create Eye-Catching Leaflets
While advertising online is a great way to build your client base, traditional methods of marketing can be just as effective when it comes to attracting clients in your local area. To save you time, you can consider a maildrop company to hand-deliver your leaflets through letterboxes. You could display them in local shops and medical centres, this may require a small fee. You can also advertise in your local paper or organise them to include your leaflets in their next issue.
8. Speak at Community Events
Speaking at community events is a great way to grow your business visibility, broaden your professional network and establish your authority. It also gives your local community a chance to create a relationship with you and your team, which is a great way to boost your reputation and grow your client base. Speaking at local senior centres, assisted living facilities, retirement communities, etc. is also recommended. Make sure you choose to discuss relevant and informative topics for your audience.
9. Make Sure You Stand Out
Standing out from the competition is often easier said than done, especially if you’re competing with fancy private or international care services. Having a set of differentiating factors will help your business shine and set it apart from the others. These don’t have to be massive differences, but they should be enough to make potential clients think twice about considering another home care provider.
For example, you should make your sign-on process easy, fast and age-friendly. For agencies, you should put in place protocols of specific conditions or speciality care services. Giving clients the option to pay on your website gives them more flexibility. Finally, allowing clients to interview and get to know their caregivers before they start care will support a smooth transition and build stronger relationships.
There are other things you can do to stand out from the crowd, you just need to see what works for your care service and consider your staff and available resources when planning the process. You should always request feedback from your clients to keep track of the features that they love and that work well for them. This will allow you to master what you do well, but don’t neglect other areas.
Is there something that makes your service really distinctive? For example a special partnership with a local organisation that gets your service users connected with others, or the wider community? Whatever assets and plus points you have – shout about them. It could be the cherry on top that makes a new client choose you.
Is there something that makes your service really distinctive? For example a special partnership with a local organisation that gets your service users connected with others, or the wider community? Whatever assets and plus points you have – shout about them. It could be the cherry on top that makes a new client choose you.
New technology is also enabling some providers to offer more peace of mind to families and funders, and regular insights into how their loved one is doing. By using an array of sensors, smart watches, smart devices (fridges, kettles etc.) and so on, tools like Access Assure can create a complete picture of people’s behavioral patterns, their mobility, activity and more.
This means that of course, when something seems wrong, the care provider is alerted and can take action. This can range to the door sensors picking up that the person with dementia has left their front door open, all the way to early warning signs of impaired mobility, or that a person is using the toilet much more for example.
But also loved ones can see when everything is normal, that mum or dad has got up to make their daily morning cup of tea, or even when they are moving around more and showing improved mobility.
This all helps you provide a better, more competitive service, with increased safety and information to improve families and funders’ peace of mind and ensures they are not left in the dark.
10. Be Clear When Communicating
Communication is key when talking about your services with potential clients or their loved ones. Make sure you clearly explain every process that they’re expected to carry out, such as signing on and making payments. And highlight everything they will receive in return, as well as the benefits that come with using your service. Be upfront and fair about your procedures and the availability of your care team, so they have realistic expectations that can be met. Finally, encourage and answer all of their questions.
11. Put Outcomes Over Services
Once they have signed up for your service, you want your clients to be happy and comfortable with their decision. They will be looking for the best outcomes and results when they enlist help. You should take time to understand the lives of your clients by learning what matters most to them and how you can best meet their needs. Until you understand their lives in their context, it will be tough to connect on a specific level that ensures desired outcomes. If you focus on how and the way they want to live their lives, you will have no issues when it comes to attracting new service users.
12. Get Press Attention
You’ll be surprised how much local newspapers love stories about care providers and their care workers doing something special for the people you care for. The same goes for stories about an older person or people, who have achieved something special, such as raising money for charity, or a veteran meeting up with former comrades, foes or visiting a site of battle.
People like reading these feel-good, or interesting stories, online and offline, so newspapers and their journalists love them too. Even if the topic can be sad, or a bit darker, people do want to read about them and share them with others.
If you have an exciting or heart-warming new initiative, or one of your service users is doing something special or unusual then, with the person’s consent of course, let the local press know. Not only can it be really uplifting for the service user to get the added attention – if they like that kind of thing – it can also be a great way of highlighting how your service does things differently, treats people as individuals and helps them do the things they want to do, but might have otherwise not been able to.
Implementing the Right Home Care Software
When doing your research on how to get more clients in home care business, you may be overwhelmed with all of the information you come across. From building relationships and partnerships to learning new marketing skills, it can be a challenge but the results will be worthwhile. One thing is for sure, all of these methods won’t be much good without actually providing high quality care, having a strong rating from your regulator, and doing so efficiently so you have more free time to grow your care service and put your service’s best face out there.
To help you do this and improve your efficiency and productivity across your organisation, you should consider Access Workspace for Care. This complete home care software provides you with a single view over your entire organisation and will bring together all of the moving parts into a single digital workspace. With over 30 years of experience digitising businesses big and small, The Access Group has the knowledge and expertise you need to find the right software solution for your care business.
Also what is important to note is that one of the biggest things most of your home care clients will want to achieve is to stay at home. Many have the fear that if they move into a care home they will lose that independence.
Access Assure can help prolong independence by offering a technology-enabled care service that allows individuals to be monitored at home unobtrusively. The data Assure collects allows all unmet needs to be met and daily routines to be recorded in just a matter of 14 days. Our home hub and app can create smart alerts according to an individual’s health issues or concerns which will allow your home care clients and their loved ones to be reassured that all your home care clients can get the help they need when they need it, before something more critical happens.
For more information in how Access Assure can help you get more clients for your home care business contact us today.
Contact us today to find out all you need to know about Access Workspace for Care. You can even test the waters by booking a demo.