Allyn P. currently owns a couple of residential care homes in the Western United States and is in process of buying more. He doesn’t want us to be more specific, because he’s had so much success with his Caring.com partnership that he wants to keep us a secret.

“As soon as I signed up one of my residential care homes, I think within 72 hours, I had a total of 7 very qualified leads! And within 48 hours of signing up, I had my first move-in from the second lead I received from Caring.com. It was pretty shocking actually,” Allyn P. said. “At that point, I didn’t want any of my local competitors to know about Caring.com.”

Before upgrading his first residential care home listing on Caring.com, he’d tried a few other marketing channels, including advertising on a very popular search engine, advertising on a very popular reviews website, and working with offline local referral agents. He thought online directories and Internet referral agencies had a fee structure that wasn’t really in line with the budgets of residential care homes, so he explored other options.

“None of them worked, especially for the money I was spending,” he said, “And, to be honest, I wasn’t sure about Caring's site either at the start. I was extremely skeptical, but that feeling shifted to ‘Wow, this is a real thing!’ rather quick. I dropped the others, because Caring.com was supplying me a steady flow of qualified leads, resulting in more move-ins!”

One big reason that Allyn P. has been so successful with his residential care home listings on Caring.com is because he’s taken advantage of the review collection services in the partner package, including leveraging Caring’s reviews-by-phone service that wasn’t available with any other lead generating businesses. In fact, despite his second residential care home being fully occupied, he still upgraded his second listing to the partnership package anyway, just for the reviews program that Caring.com offers. (Even though the second home was full, he was able to offer prospective residents a place on the waiting list, or offered them a tour of his other residential care home nearby with vacancy).

He states, “It was absolutely worth it to upgrade my second home’s listing just to take advantage of Caring.com's review collection program. I absolutely believe the industry’s business owners are missing the fact that their online reputation is essential to growth and keeping their facilities full. Families are absolutely reading reviews and they need to be current and extensive to be effective.”

His focus on reviews has paid off: the first residential care home (starting in mid-2020) rapidly went from zero to 10 reviews and earned the Caring Stars 2021 award. He continues to focus and build his reviews in 2021, and has added 2 more reviews for a total of 12. His second residential care home is off to a great start in 2021, too, with 4 reviews and more on the way. His goal is to get each of his residential care homes to earn the Caring Stars 2022 award.

Senior living searchers seek out online reviews in their research and selection process. Reviews help Caring.com partners elevate in the directory rankings, and attract more potential residents and their family members to the listings. Allyn P. has seen this effect with both his residential care home listings — they’ve had about 1,000 pageviews in a short period of time (in months rather than years).

“Online reviews are huge for credibility for bringing people to your door,” he said. “People will call you when you have great online reviews, that they believe.”

He continued, “We have reviews on other sites that are 5-stars, but are older and just contain a few words. This is not really helpful to prospective families and they don’t believe them anyway. I’m always directing our residents/residents’ families to the reviews on Caring.com because they’re lengthy, current and believable. Caring’s collection of reviews-by-phone has made a HUGE difference to my businesses.”

He has also done an excellent job converting Caring’s referrals into customers too. Within 6 months, he achieved seven (7) move-ins just for one residential care home — realizing a high conversion rate from the leads he received.

“You have to work the lead as soon as you get the lead. You can’t let it go 2-3 days,” he says. “I have discovered that the first, second or third in, one of them wins, because the families are generally in a hurry to find a place. They don’t have the time or desire to go tour many different facilities, or they just get overwhelmed. We’re not the only residential care home or assisted living community calling them, and we have to compete by being fast in responding and booking them for a tour.”

His sales activity doesn’t stop there though. “You gotta follow up. Fortunes are made in the follow-up. Initially: call, text, or email them until you actually get ahold of them, and then decide if necessary, how to follow up later,” he suggests. “I will even contact them a month later, two or three months later, because some families are researching two to six months out from when they need your service, and you need to work with their timing and keep in contact with them as a great potential fit for their needs.”

As Allyn P. so eloquently sums it up: “We provide excellent service, safe, beautiful homes, and now 5-star reviews to prove it. With Caring.com, I have an edge on the competition and I definitely have selfish motives for keeping Caring.com a secret.”

***Results can vary by account and location. Please contact an account executive to learn more about the opportunities for your area: sales@caring.com or (855) 897-2433.