From lawns to laundry – helping a care home provider understand the customer journey

Yet, customer is a hard word, and does not do justice to families making the decision to hand over the care of a loved one to a care home provider. We are talking here about emotional, upset, tired and worried people, wanting to do their very best for their parent, spouse or family member.

We have worked with Care UK for several years. From the early days of trying to understand the self-pay market, to building care homes of the future that meet their needs, and communicating their offer to these very fraught people.

We helped them to understand the reality of the journey that people go through. To understand that those with time on their side might be looking from the prism of their own needs (lovely manicured lawns and gracious drawing rooms), whilst those where it has all got too much might be more focussed on easy car parking, laundry that does not go astray and the warmth of a carer’s touch.

This learning has influenced the customer satisfaction study they now run, the new builds they design, their website and individual communications…and the way in which the individual home managers interact with people on this journey.