To say it’s been a tough year for occupancy in senior living is an understatement at best. Assisted living occupancy in the second quarter fell to the lowest point since the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care began collecting data in 2006. And combined senior living (independent living and assisted living) fell to its lowest levels since 2011. Thankfully the third quarter showed an improvement, but it’s still more important than ever to take every possible step to attract and retain residents. Live chat is one tool that can help you do just that. Here’s how.
Benefits of Live Chat
Live chat offers many benefits, not just for your prospects and customers, but for you as well.
For Prospects and Customers
Immediacy – Forrester reports that 53 percent of consumers abandon a website if they can’t find quick answers to specific questions. Yet immediate answers are precisely what live chat offers. It allows you to guide them, help to overcome objections, and move them forward in their journey to senior living in a way only a live person can.
Confidence and Trust – Both are vital as your prospects determine if and/or where they will choose senior living. Live chat helps you to begin building both before they even step foot in your community and perhaps help cement the decision to tour in the first place! In fact, WhosOn states that 41 percent of consumers think a company that offers live chat on its website is more trustworthy.
Improved Experience – Quite simply, live chat offers convenience, and that makes prospects and customers happy. According to Zendesk, 92 percent of customers feel satisfied when they use live chat, compared to telephone (88 percent), email (85 percent), web form (85 percent) and social media (Facebook 84 percent, Twitter 77 percent).
For Your Senior Living Brand
Greater Understanding – To successfully attract and retain residents, you must understand their needs. Live chat can help with the ability to save and analyze transcripts. This type of Voice of Customer (VOC) data gives you a window into the thoughts, opinions, and behavior of your prospects, which you can then use to help grow your occupancy. Per Aberdeen Research, brands that collect VOC data have a 10-times-greater year-over-year increase in annual revenue.
Continued Engagement – We all know the complexity of the senior living decision. Rarely is it done in one visit on one senior living website. Luckily, live chat gives you valuable information on your prospects for continued, and more personalized marketing. What’s more, 63 percent of consumers are more likely to return to a website that offers live chat, according to eMarketer, giving you even more opportunity to engage them.
Competitive Advantage – Live chat could be just the tool to help differentiate your senior living brand with prospects because many of your competitors likely aren’t using it yet. In fact, a TELUS International study of over 1,000 websites found that only 9 percent use live chat.
Decreased Costs – Research by TELUS International also found that live chat agents can engage in as many as six simultaneous chats, depending on the complexity of the issues involved. Can your call center agents say that? This could save you big on personnel alone.
In Action in Senior Living
With SiteStaff’s live chat service for senior living, the results speak for themselves. In just the first seven months of service, we helped one client achieve:
- 1,058 new inquiries
- 223 initial tours
- 48 additional tours
- 48 tours resulting in move-in
Download the entire case study today to learn more about SiteStaff live chat for senior living!
