krak
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My mother has opened an RCFE (assisted living facility for seniors) a little over a year ago. Before opening this home, she was a full-time caregiver and hospice nurse. Previously, she worked in the ICU, but when her mother (my grandmother) got older and broke her hip - my mother started taking care of her full-time in our own home; thus starting her passion for hospice and senior living.
Fast forward to now, the RCFE is working, but finding patients to move in has been significantly harder than she expected. The typical lead generation methods for this business are: referrals from past patients, placement agencies, hospitals that are releasing patients, lead gen companies (i.e. aplaceformom.com, caring.com)
Referrals from past patients are certainly great when they come, but this is obviously hardest when just starting out and the list of previous patients is so small. Even with a large list of past patients, it's hit or miss whenever your previous patients will know of a friend who needs care (this is prob the best way to get patients, but can't be relied on at times when you have vacancies that need to be filled ASAP).
Hospitals that are releasing patients - In this business, it's very important to have patients who are still healthy and able to move around a fair amount. They often live longer and are much less difficult to take care of (as they won't need/want help with every little task including moving a few inches over in bed). Often times when patients are coming from the hospitals they are not in a very healthy condition and may even have a short time left to live. These aren't necessarily ideal patients for an RCFE.
Placement agencies are a great option that my mother does use but they often can go months without a lead - not enough leads to rely on
Lead Gen Companies are the most interesting for this conversation/post. These services are FREE for the customers (people looking for places for their loved one to live), all they have to do is provide their personal info (i.e. lead info). Once the companies have a lead, they will look within their database and offer suggestions of RCFE's to the customer. (This business model reminds me of somewhat of MJ's lead gen business, but optimized for assisted living facilities). If their lead ends up moving into any of the RCFE's they charge a fee of 120% of first month's rent. This is a HUGE fee for RCFE's to pay (rent will be between $4,000 - $7,000) and many times a new patient may only live a few months. On top of the 120% of month's rent, they also charge either monthly fee's for being active on their site or one-time initiations (the most popular site charges $3,000 just to be listed). The way these companies generate their own leads are through dominating SEO and also Google Ads. If you search for assisted living anywhere in the country there will be lots of competition for the top spots of google PLUS the google adword auction, by these massive lead gen companies with 6-figure+ ad budgets. Hence, here is the problem AND ALSO the opportunity. It's too costly for local RCFE's/small businesses to be spending enough money on Google Ads to compete with these big companies. The RCFE's are also stuck paying a huge premium when accepting a lead from these companies. There must be a better way for smaller RCFE's to advertise themselves locally and generate leads (my mother would be more than happy to pay $2,500 of her own ad spend to generate a move-in, as this would save her at least $2,500 she would have additionally spent with one of these companies. She'd also have significantly more control over her future ability to generate move-ins when needed).
The opportunity here is to generate leads at a lower price than $50/lead (assume that we will need 50 leads for 1 move-in). If it's possible to do this by leveraging other online advertising platforms (Facebook, Pinterest, etc.) not Google - then PLENTY of other RCFE's would need the help too. Thought this would be an interesting discussion/curious if people on here have any ideas how to help.
Fast forward to now, the RCFE is working, but finding patients to move in has been significantly harder than she expected. The typical lead generation methods for this business are: referrals from past patients, placement agencies, hospitals that are releasing patients, lead gen companies (i.e. aplaceformom.com, caring.com)
Referrals from past patients are certainly great when they come, but this is obviously hardest when just starting out and the list of previous patients is so small. Even with a large list of past patients, it's hit or miss whenever your previous patients will know of a friend who needs care (this is prob the best way to get patients, but can't be relied on at times when you have vacancies that need to be filled ASAP).
Hospitals that are releasing patients - In this business, it's very important to have patients who are still healthy and able to move around a fair amount. They often live longer and are much less difficult to take care of (as they won't need/want help with every little task including moving a few inches over in bed). Often times when patients are coming from the hospitals they are not in a very healthy condition and may even have a short time left to live. These aren't necessarily ideal patients for an RCFE.
Placement agencies are a great option that my mother does use but they often can go months without a lead - not enough leads to rely on
Lead Gen Companies are the most interesting for this conversation/post. These services are FREE for the customers (people looking for places for their loved one to live), all they have to do is provide their personal info (i.e. lead info). Once the companies have a lead, they will look within their database and offer suggestions of RCFE's to the customer. (This business model reminds me of somewhat of MJ's lead gen business, but optimized for assisted living facilities). If their lead ends up moving into any of the RCFE's they charge a fee of 120% of first month's rent. This is a HUGE fee for RCFE's to pay (rent will be between $4,000 - $7,000) and many times a new patient may only live a few months. On top of the 120% of month's rent, they also charge either monthly fee's for being active on their site or one-time initiations (the most popular site charges $3,000 just to be listed). The way these companies generate their own leads are through dominating SEO and also Google Ads. If you search for assisted living anywhere in the country there will be lots of competition for the top spots of google PLUS the google adword auction, by these massive lead gen companies with 6-figure+ ad budgets. Hence, here is the problem AND ALSO the opportunity. It's too costly for local RCFE's/small businesses to be spending enough money on Google Ads to compete with these big companies. The RCFE's are also stuck paying a huge premium when accepting a lead from these companies. There must be a better way for smaller RCFE's to advertise themselves locally and generate leads (my mother would be more than happy to pay $2,500 of her own ad spend to generate a move-in, as this would save her at least $2,500 she would have additionally spent with one of these companies. She'd also have significantly more control over her future ability to generate move-ins when needed).
The opportunity here is to generate leads at a lower price than $50/lead (assume that we will need 50 leads for 1 move-in). If it's possible to do this by leveraging other online advertising platforms (Facebook, Pinterest, etc.) not Google - then PLENTY of other RCFE's would need the help too. Thought this would be an interesting discussion/curious if people on here have any ideas how to help.
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