![\"Diane](\"https:\/\/loveandcompany.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Diane-Burfeindt-800x800-1-300x300.jpg\")
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As I\u2019ve been thinking about strategic planning for senior living organizations, I\u2019ve found myself encouraging organizations to take an \u201coutside-in\u201d approach\u2014leveraging the real-world experiences of our boards and leadership teams, then applying those experiences to the evolution of the services we offer. Said another way, I\u2019ve stopped looked at strategy from the \u201cWhat are other senior living organizations doing?\u201d perspective, and I\u2019ve started looking at how \u201cthe rest of the world\u201d is trying to serve the same people we serve. I\u2019m looking at how technology in our everyday life is ubiquitous, yet our organizations haven\u2019t adapted as we should have, and I\u2019m looking at how choice and consumerism are impacting some of our products and services.<\/p>\n
In considering these topics from a strategic standpoint, we have to look at ourselves honestly and determine whether we have the tools necessary to adapt and evolve, and how we\u2019re going to use or get those tools. Then we can start to make some systemic changes to meet the consumer where they are today.<\/p>\n
When I consider the challenges and opportunities facing senior living, I think about the core strengths of aging services providers in the areas of navigating\/coordinating services and care, offering expertise on the aging process and aging well, and providing trusted advice. To be successful in the future, we need to think about how these skillsets can be applied in new ways that the world needs. To help do that, I think we need to focus on three key areas: (1) the evolution of technology in our everyday lives, (2) how every other business is trying to serve our clientele (and doing it) and (3) tapping into the consumer mindset of people who know us best.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s address technology first. Senior living organizations have spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out which robot will serve our meals or which fall prevention system will yield actual results. What we may be failing to see is a broader view of how our consumers are adapting to technology in their daily lives. When I jokingly say that\u2014when you step into many senior living campuses you go back in time 10 years from a technology perspective\u2014the knowing nods and chuckles confirm the suspicion.<\/p>\n
If we think about our consumers expecting that we\u2019ll help them leverage the technology that exists, we move from thinking that we have to invent the next iPhone to a mindset of \u201cHow do we help seniors interpret the information they\u2019re getting, use technology to its fullest and provide expertise to navigate it?\u201d<\/p>\n
For example, in a day and age where smartwatches and phones can monitor your heart rate, balance, fall risk, sleep and myriad health data, we\u2019ve become overwhelmed with information but lack true guidance and assistance. If I were a consumer of aging services, I would expect that my senior living community would assist me with interpretation of my data, provide guidance on how to improve my medical outcomes, assess ways I can prevent decline, link me with medical experts and help me coordinate all of this into a plan. In other words, I would expect my community to be the aging experts.<\/p>\n
But it doesn\u2019t stop there. You could spend an entire day discussing areas where we all use technology and whether our organizations are keeping pace. Areas include ordering online (everything), booking services, being transparent about online pricing, customizing services and providing a la carte pricing and products, to name a few. Our clientele has quickly moved from gradual adoption to widespread acceptance of technology, much of which may be due to the forced reliance on it during the pandemic. We should consider how much we<\/strong> would have to compromise if we lived in our communities and, therefore, how much we\u2019re asking our customers<\/strong> to compromise.<\/p>\n This leads right into the arena of how companies everywhere are working hard to serve our customer base in new and refreshing ways: marketing against our biggest barriers, like the perception of institutionalization, lack of choice, and heavy financial and lifestyle commitments. I encourage you to Google companies like Best Buy Health, Upside (joinupside.com), Vive Bene (vivabeneliving.com) and TechStars Future of Longevity Accelerator to see how they are \u201cfilling the gap\u201d in traditional aging services options. Notice how choice, independence and an incremental approach to services are notable features in much of the product positioning.<\/p>\n All of this is why it\u2019s so important to tap into the consumer mindset of those who know your organization best\u2014your board, your leaders and your customers. As I consider the work I\u2019ve done over the past several years helping organizations link strategy and governance, it\u2019s become increasingly obvious how important the engagement of board members is to the overall success of the organization. By \u201cengagement,\u201d I don\u2019t mean approving consent agendas or assenting to a strategic plan developed by leadership. It\u2019s the generative work of understanding their consumer lens that is critically important.<\/p>\n Too often, I have heard board members lament that they \u201cdon\u2019t know the field\u201d or \u201care not an expert.\u201d Likewise, CEOs have a similar lament that their boards can\u2019t truly provide advice and direction when they don\u2019t know the complexities.<\/p>\n Enter the consumer: the ones sitting at your board table. Once you invite your board to consider their own view of aging and whether your current services fit into that view, you open up a whole new world of collaboration. Take, for instance, the question that I ask many board members and leadership teams: \u201cWould you live in the organization that you govern?\u201d Posed the right way in the right setting, invariably you begin to uncover the truths about what attracts them to your products and what is unattractive. The same is true of your current consumers\u2014and the ones who didn\u2019t choose your services. Understanding the nuance of why someone \u201cisn\u2019t ready yet\u201d to use your services is the key to your marketing, messaging, service delivery and organizational evolution.<\/p>\n Perhaps it\u2019s time for you, your leadership team and your board to begin thinking from the outside in. Think about your own views of aging, your own technology expectations and your own biases. Weave those things together with (1) an understanding of how others are approaching your customer, (2) the expertise your team brings to the table, (3) your history of evolving your services and (4) your connections with and to the greater community, and you will be prepared to guide your organization toward \u201cfilling the gaps\u201d in aging services for your next generation of consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Discover how embracing a consumer mindset can revolutionize strategic planning for senior living organizations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-contributors","category-healthcare-marketing","category-industry-trends"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.loveandcompany.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.loveandcompany.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.loveandcompany.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.loveandcompany.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.loveandcompany.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.loveandcompany.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.loveandcompany.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.loveandcompany.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.loveandcompany.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.loveandcompany.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Our clientele has quickly moved from gradual adoption to widespread acceptance of technology. We should consider how much we<\/strong> would have to compromise if we lived in our communities and, therefore, how much we\u2019re asking our customers to compromise<\/strong>.<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Expanding Competition<\/h2>\n
Adopt a Consumer Mindset<\/h2>\n
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Once you invite your board to consider their own view of aging and whether your current services fit into that view, you open up a whole new world of collaboration.<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Start Looking from the Outside in<\/h2>\n