How to Get Reviews for Your Assisted Living
The decision about where to spend your later years — or where to move your loved one — is not one people take lightly. It’s a decision that can take months or even years for someone to make, and you can bet that a lot of research will be done in the process of making it.
The research includes reading up about services and offerings on assisted living websites, touring assisted living communities and, perhaps most importantly, reading reviews.
Why assisted living reviews are so important
In recent years, assisted living reviews have become an integral part of the decision-making process for those looking to move themselves or their loved ones into an assisted living community.
Reviews provide insight into the quality of care and the level of customer service that assisted living communities provide. They also offer a glimpse into what life is like in these communities for residents, and how they compare to other communities in the area.
The top assisted living reviews sites offer a wealth of information about assisted living communities and allow users to make informed decisions about senior care.
Because they are primarily written by your residents and their families, reviews help to establish trust more than almost anything else.
6 tips to get reviews for your assisted living community
If you don’t have reviews — or you don’t have a good average star rating — it can hold your assisted living community back. Here’s how to get more five-star reviews and build a strong reputation for your assisted living community.
#1. Provide a five-star experience
People have high expectations of service these days. They want to know that they’re getting the most bang for their buck. And while this applies to every industry, it’s especially true for senior care.
From the taste of the food you serve and the dining experience you provide to the cleanliness of your community and the friendliness of your staff, everything you do impacts the experience you provide for your residents and their families.
If you provide a memorable experience — good or bad — it compels your residents to want to spread the word. Providing a great experience helps to ensure that the reviews you get are positive.
You can’t please everyone, and not everyone will feel compelled to write a review based on good service alone, but building a strong reputation for your assisted living community always starts with the experience you provide.
#2. Ask residents and their families
Some people will write reviews based on good service alone, but some people need a little more encouragement. One of the best ways to encourage reviews is simply to ask for them.
You can — and should — get feedback about your assisted living community from as many people as possible. But at the end of the day, it’s the opinions of your residents and their families that really matter.
Reviews from families and residents are what people want to read the most when they seek out assisted living reviews. They should be your number one focus when you set out to get more reviews for your assisted living.
Not everyone will write a review for your assisted living just because. But, most people are more than happy to write a review when you ask them to.
The next time you hear from one of your residents about how much they enjoyed the activity that day or how delicious their dinner was, ask them if they wouldn’t mind sharing that feedback in a review.
Asking for reviews from family members can help you gain feedback about other parts of the experience you provide, like the tour, billing process, etc.
#3. Request reviews via email marketing
Apart from asking residents and their families face to face, one of the easiest ways to get reviews for your assisted living community is to put email marketing software to work for you.
By using automated email marketing, you can request reviews from dozens (or more!) of people at one time. Best of all, you can increase your email open rates and the effectiveness of your campaign by personalizing your emails for your recipients.
Your review request email should be simple, with thumbs up and thumbs down buttons, like in the example above.
If the recipient is happy with their experience, they’ll click the thumbs up button and be sent to Top Rated Local®, Google or another review site, where they can write a review for your assisted living.
If the recipient is unhappy with their experience, they’ll click the thumbs down button and be sent to an internal feedback form, where they can share their concerns directly with you.
#4. Be mindful of technology barriers
Technology is always changing, and it can be hard for everyone to keep up. That’s especially true of older generations who may not utilize the new technology as much in their daily lives.
Older people are becoming much more technologically savvy, with many more of them actively using Facebook and other social media platforms. But it’s important to be mindful of where they’re at.
From QR codes to email marketing, new technology makes it easier than ever for people to write reviews for your assisted living. But, it’s important to be mindful about what your residents are already using and what they’re comfortable with.
Keep in mind that your residents aren’t the only people you want to ask for reviews from. Family members, employees and other people who could write reviews for you may be a lot more comfortable with new technology.
When you ask for reviews, think about who you’re asking. If it’s a resident, ask directly or send an email. If it’s a family member or caregiver on your team, give them a QR code to scan that will take them to a review site.
#5. Ask employees and volunteers
At the end of the day, everything you do in your assisted living is about one thing and one thing alone — taking great care of your residents. There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of people who contribute to that end goal.
From the cooking and cleaning to the activity planning and resident care, it takes a team of people to create a beautiful community for your residents. You need to attract great people to these roles just as much as you need to attract new residents.
With tons of senior care communities and home care providers out there, assisted living employees have a lot of different options to choose from. They use assisted living reviews, just like your prospective residents do, to make decisions about where they should work and volunteer.
Furthermore, how you treat your employees plays an integral role in the decision-making process for residents as well. That’s because the happiness of your employees directly affects the care they provide.
Older people would much rather live in an assisted living community where the caregivers and other employees are happy.
Asking for reviews from your employees and volunteers is important for both attracting the right kind of people to your team and the right kind of residents to your assisted living community.
#6. Make reviewing your assisted living easy
The more barriers someone has to overcome in order to leave a review for your assisted living, the less likely they are to actually write a review for you. Do everything you can to remove the barriers and make it as easy as possible to write a review.
When you ask for reviews in person, tell people exactly where they can go to write reviews. When you send review requests through email, send links directly to the review sites you want to focus on. Use QR codes that go directly to key review sites. Embed a reviews widget on your website.
The more options you can give people to write reviews for your assisted living community, the more likely people are to find an option they’re comfortable with using.
Plus, when you include links, you can send new reviews exactly where you need them to go, whether that be Google, Facebook or Top Rated Local. This way, you can build a strong reputation for your assisted living across the web.
What to do with your reviews
Your job is not done when you get new reviews. In fact, getting reviews is only half the battle. Here are a few tips for what to do with them.
Respond to your reviews
When someone writes a review about your assisted living, it’s incredibly important that you take the time to respond. This shows that you listen to and value feedback from others, and encourages others to share their feedback with you as well.
If a review is positive, a simple, “Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. We’re so happy you enjoyed your experience,” will suffice. But if the review is negative, you may need to be a bit more careful in how you respond.
How to respond to negative assisted living reviews:
- Apologize – Whatever the situation and regardless of whether you’re at fault or not, always apologize for the negative experience with your assisted living.
- Take a moment – If you’re upset, don’t rush into responding. Take a few minutes to take a breath and gather your thoughts before responding.
- Take the conversation offline – Invite the person to talk with you directly about their experience instead of getting into a public back and forth.
Accept and learn from feedback
You want to provide a great experience for residents and their families. But in order to do that, you need feedback from them about what’s working and what’s not.
The feedback won’t do you much good if you write it off or dismiss it as a one-off problem. And if you get upset about it and act defensively, it can actively harm your assisted living community.
Whether it comes in the form of a review or a face-to-face conversation, listen carefully to any feedback about your community, learn from it and use it to provide a better experience in the future.
Showcase reviews on your assisted living website
When someone is deciding where to spend their later years or which assisted living community to choose for a loved one, they will inevitably visit your assisted living website. Highlighting reviews on your website can help to build much-needed trust.
Showcase great reviews on your homepage and service pages. Have a dedicated reviews page on your assisted living website where people can go to read multiple reviews and watch video testimonials.
You should also consider embedding a reviews widget on your website, like the Top Rated Local widget, where people can go to read your reviews from across the web and write new reviews.
Post reviews on social media
Social media platforms, like Facebook, are more than just about connecting with old friends or seeing the latest pictures of the grandkids. People use social media platforms more and more to find local businesses, like assisted living communities.
When someone gives you a glowing review, share it on your social media profile! This helps to celebrate your successes and spread the love for your community, while also building trust and social proof.
Every assisted living community needs five-star reviews and a strong reputation. Build one with the Marketing 360® Reputation app, the only reputation management software you need to send out review requests, respond to reviews, manage your reputation from across the web and more.
