One Secret to Adding New Residents
Did you know that in the last year, we have seen an acceleration of senior living communities adding the option of online ordering?
In fact, online ordering deployment and usage in FullCount®’s 500+ senior living communities grew over 600% in 2020.¹
600%!
Why?
As you can imagine, part of this growth was due to COVID-19 related concerns.
However, FullCount also saw a growth rate of over 150% in the previous year, so it is the continuation of a trend in online ordering.²
If you work in senior living, you can understand that for seniors, the ability to order food from their room is an amenity that increases their overall satisfaction.
It’s a mistake when we think of seniors as low-tech or no-tech. Demographically, senior’s tech usage is rapidly changing. Over 80% of seniors now have and use a smart phone.³
Additionally, we are hearing from our customers that online ordering is now a critical component to adding new residents post COVID-19.
For our whole industry, adding new residents in the last year has been very difficult.
Prospective residents, although happy with the roll-out of the vaccine against COVID-19, have a new heightened level of concern about the ability to self-isolate now, and in the future if necessary.
And, prospective residents (as you probably know) are very tuned into what controls are still in place as well as staff vaccination levels.
Keep in mind, during the last year seniors learned new technology options like UberEats® and GrubHub®.
Their food convenience expectations (especially for prospective new residents) have changed.
In fact, a new competition for revenue is seniors remaining in home and using food delivery services.4, 5, 6
For a senior, knowing they can self-isolate at their own discretion, if there is an outbreak and still order food, checks an important safety box.
Also, as we talk to communities like yours, we are hearing more and more that online ordering and the capacity to dine in your room is an expectation for new residents.
Prospective new residents look at the amenity as a mark of how well organized your senior community is.
Additionally, online ordering has a positive economic impact for senior living communities.
From a detailed Cost Benefit Analysis, we can report that deploying online ordering in your community typically lowers labor costs $10k per month.
Click below to view our detailed online ordering Cost Benefit Analysis.
Key takeaways from the Cost Benefit Analysis (shown in detail in the report) are as follows:
The main driver in cost savings is reduced labor staffing costs.
For a typical community, deploying online ordering saves over $10,000 per month ($122,000 annually) in labor and support costs.
Residents will use the system.
When communicated and properly trained, 42% of residents will adopt online ordering and embrace it.
Residents will use the system.
When communicated and properly trained, 42% of residents will adopt online ordering and embrace it.
Proper training includes:
- Ensuring all residents have knowledge and access to their user ID and password
- Conducting quarterly training sessions with residents as a group, preferably with a large screen
- Having a few residents give testimonials at the training meetings about how easy the system is to use
For more questions on online ordering and how it will help you community add new residents and increase overall resident satisfaction, please contact us below.
1.FullCount internal online ordering cohort (anonymized data)
2.FullCount internal online ordering cohort (anonymized data)
3.https://www.aarp.org/research/topics/technology/info-2019/2020-technology-trends-older-americans.html
4.https://progressivegrocer.com/grubhub-24-hour-home-care-delivering-food-elderly
5.https://www.silive.com/coronavirus/2020/04/uber-eats-rolls-out-app-free-delivery-option-for-seniors.html
6.https://www.seniorliving.org/internet/food-delivery/