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Published On: Jul 28, 2022•By Julie Redd•27.7 min read•
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We’re Home Care Pulse, a leading provider of experience management & surveys, caregiver/CNA training, and online reputation management. 1 in every 2 clients will end up leaving your agency—we’ve surveyed over 100 thousand clients to find out why. Learn what your clients are saying about your agency behind closed doors and what they wish you’d do to improve. What your clients think about you generates over 35% of your agency’s total income, making their opinion worth $582,700. But less than half of them are currently satisfied. If you’ve ever wished you could be a fly on the wall to listen to what your clients are saying about you to their friends: you’re in luck. We survey over 9,000 pre- and home-based care clients every month to reveal their top 10 complaints, with actionable steps to resolve each, so that you can start delivering on what your clients wish you knew. Find out what they want you (and your staff) to do differently as we count down to their number one complaint: Complaint #10: Being treated like a job instead of a friendWhile it’s in the job title, it’s a practice that is easily taken for granted in the field: “care.” Although your caregivers may be checking all the boxes of their job description, clients are looking for companionship that makes them feel less like a checklist and more like a friend. As caregivers are often the only social interaction a client receives, caregivers have the unique opportunity to not only help their clients feel less alone as they work, but to build life-changing relationships while on the job. Likewise, family members hire your agency with the expectation that you will provide someone they can trust to take care of their loved ones with dignity, respect, and friendship. And it begins with bridging the generational gap between client and caregiver. Steps to resolve this: As 1/3 of the American labor force is made up of Millennial or Gen Z employees, the age difference between most of your employees and clients is no secret. Bridging this generational divide is not only crucial to client satisfaction, but can also be argued as the secret to providing meaningful and fulfilling work outcomes for the rising generation. Empower your care staff to build relationships with their clients:
Complaint #9: Care staff that lack accountabilityThe little things your caregivers do define your agency’s reputation—and it’s all being done behind your clients’ closed doors. Which is why listening to what your clients experience every day is the only way to know that they’re frustrated with caregivers arriving late, leaving before the end of their shift, or not showing up at all. As some clients are on a strict schedule, having a caregiver show up late could result in being left unattended or cause an inconvenience for family members who have to stay longer as they miss out on those extra 10-20 minutes they’re paying for. According to your clients, your caregivers are also not completing what is expected of them, are spending most of the time on their phones, and are arriving in unsuitable attire. Steps to resolve this: Don’t be left wondering how your employees are acting when you aren’t looking. Train them to deliver polished, quality care before they even step inside your clients’ homes. Making your employees accountable for their actions starts by clearly communicating the quality of care your agency expects:
Take Your Clients from Satisfied to LoyalMeasure and improve client/caregiver loyalty, learn where you can improve, and boost retention across the board—while saving time for you and your team Complaint #8: Unmet expectations and confusion in the type of care they can expectClients are finding their desired tasks are being left uncompleted and are tired of being assigned caregivers who wait until they’re told what to do. They feel they are being left in the dark about what they can and can’t expect from their caregivers. Although you may know what your agency does, your employees and clients are unsure. Inform your clients of the services your agency provides before they let their assumptions lead to disappointment. Steps to resolve this: Miscommunication leads to dissatisfaction. Your employees and clients need to know what your agency expects of them to build a mutually satisfactory and successful relationship. Clarify your company’s messaging from the start of your clients’ and caregivers’ first interaction with you:
Complaint #7: Caregivers who can’t prepare a mealWhile this seems like an easy complaint to skip past, the number of clients who stated they would appreciate if your caregivers had basic cooking skills was staggering. While we recognize that a caregiver isn’t hired to be a personal chef, sometimes clients do not have the ability to feed themselves or would appreciate being cared for in a small way with a simple dish. In fact, most clients reported just wanting to be able to rely on their caregivers to make them a grilled cheese sandwich, fry an egg, or prepare a small meal. Steps to resolve this: Stand out as an agency by training your caregivers with basic cooking skills so they can take care of your clients as if they were their own loved ones. Care staff who learn culinary skills for the workplace improve health outcomes when they are given the tools to manage nutrition for chronic conditions. HCP Training offers culinary skill training courses that will help your care staff know what types of meals are reasonable to prepare for clients and give them greater confidence in understanding how to fulfil their client’s needs. It’s also helpful to equip your caregivers with a few easy recipes with instructions to have on hand to ensure they don’t feel overwhelmed when a client needs to eat. Free Scheduler Success Training SeriesThe industry’s first training series created just for home care schedulers. Available for a limited time only. Complaint #6: When they don’t have scheduled care during the hours they need it mostMany clients complain that their caregiver isn’t scheduled to start their shift until hours after they needed them most or are leaving before they’ve met all their needs for the day. As caregiver shortages continue, lack of staffing makes it difficult to ensure there is always someone scheduled to take care of a client during their desired hours. But before the industry-wide staffing shortage induces further panic, the solution isn’t to hire more caregivers. Instead, strategically place the staff you do have in the hours they’re needed the most. Steps to resolve this: Not every client requires care at the same time or during office hours. Listen to your client’s and their family’s needs to determine when they believe care would be the most helpful, and hire employees based on those hours. In a recent episode of our podcast, Miki Rossanis, Head of Clinical Development at Sensi.AI shares how artificial intelligence technology can help families and agencies determine what time of day a client needs the most help and what kind of physical care they need: “In one scenario, there was a period of the day where Sensi was picking up on a lot of cognitive anomalies where the client was very confused, forgetful, disorientated, and was making a lot of distressed phone calls to family members. “By using the Sensi data, they were able to implement physical care with the client’s consent and understanding of when they really needed care. It helped her see that she wasn’t going to have someone with her in her home 24/7, just during the period where there was more difficulty. This provided her with that first step to receiving physical care, enabled the home care agency to make more informed decisions on her care, and put the family at ease knowing that their loved one was being cared for during the period where she really needed it.” Be sure to personally follow up with your clients to see if their caregivers are showing up during their scheduled hours and to have your schedulers update their preferred hours. Complaint #5: When more than 1 or 2 caregivers are assigned to themWe get it; it’s hard to match a single caregiver’s schedule perfectly with a client. However, clients are seeking to build relationships with their caregivers and need to be able to trust and get along with the people who come into their home. The issue clients run into is when their regular caregiver can’t make their shift and they’re assigned someone who isn’t qualified to meet their needs or are just left without a caregiver for the day. Clients want to have consistent caregivers they can rely on to take care of them and who understand their needs. Steps to resolve this: While you can’t guarantee that a client won’t see more than one caregiver, fulfilling their needs is a team effort. Your whole team will need to communicate with each other to ensure everyone is up to speed on the types of clients and specialties they may need to work with:
Complaint #4: When their care plan isn’t taken into consideration while being matched with a caregiverImagine you need someone with physical strength to lift you in and out of bed, but to your surprise, you’re assigned a petite caregiver. This isn’t a hypothetical scenario; it’s a reality for many clients. Client experiences are riddled with instances like this, to the point where someone reported, “They just send me warm bodies.” Steps to resolve this: Deliver what your clients deserve and are paying for by matching your caregivers’ abilities to their needs. Schedulers play a crucial role in your client’s satisfaction. Help them deliver what your agency promised:
The Learning Ladder for Non-Medical Home CaregiversLearn how to provide confidence to new caregivers, continued education for intermediate caregivers, and a career ladder for experienced caregivers. Complaint #3: Hard to reach office staffBelieve it or not, when your company doesn’t communicate as a whole—your clients notice. Clients and family members don’t know who to contact to reach your agency and are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to get ahold of someone at the office when they have questions or concerns. They expressed frustration with needing to jump through hoops and work their way up a complicated chain of command just to get answers in a timely manner. As a result, many clients attempt to contact their caregiver directly or end up calling family members who hired your agency to help in the first place. Steps to resolve this: There is no such thing as overcommunicating. Your clients need to know who they should contact regarding each issue that they may encounter, such as caregiver concerns, billing, scheduling issues, or other questions. Enhance your company’s internal communication to provide a smoother process for your clients to contact you before you let their cancellation go to voicemail:
Complaint #2: Not being notified of schedule changesThere doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for the number of clients who have experienced their caregiver not showing up for a shift without being notified. Clients are being left for the day or weekend without hearing from anyone from their agency, panicking family members who relied on someone to be there for them. Steps to resolve this: As this is such a common client complaint, it’s up to you as the agency owner to address the obstacles that are causing your office and care staff to avoid communicating schedule changes. 1. Train your schedulers:
2. Keep your caregivers accountable:
Complaint #1: Caregivers who are sent into their homes without adequate trainingA client’s home should not be your caregiver’s first training room, and we’re not the only ones who think that. The number one complaint from clients is when an agency’s care staff doesn’t seem to be prepared to take care of their needs. Your clients notice when your employees don’t feel confident in fulfilling their job responsibilities. What they want more than anything are caregivers who know how to execute the details in their care plan and who understand what needs to be done before entering their home. Steps to resolve this: To ensure everyone is delivering consistent quality care on behalf of your agency, all of your caregivers need to have enough training to feel confident in their role before their first scheduled shift in the field. Your commitment to training all employees to a high standard, despite previous experience level, will expand the pool of qualified care staff your agency can rely on to help you take care of more clients at a higher quality standard. Train your caregivers in the following basics to equip your employees with the skills they need to confidently care for your clients: Knowing your clients’ top concerns will have you resolving them before your employees even know you’re aware of them. Complaints: Your Agency’s Blessings in DisguiseComplaining isn’t always a bad thing, especially when it comes to understanding the pre- and home-based care industry. If you don’t know the good, the bad, and the ugly about your agency, you’ll never know what you could do to improve. With HCP Training, you can train every department within your agency to turn your clients’ number one complaint into your agency’s best asset. Learn more:Turn Good Care Teams into Great Care Teams500+ courses. RN-developed. Blended online/in-service training options. Tailored to your state’s complete requirements. HCP’s Care Intelligence Platform offers RN-developed training, satisfaction surveys, and reputation management tools to help you become the best employer and provider in your area—and make sure everyone knows about it. Like it the old fashioned way? Join 67,909 home care professionals on our email listGet the latest updates from the blog and free resources to help you grow your home care business. 147 Comments
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