by Stephen Tweed

Yesterday, I was down in Macon, Georgia presenting our workshop, “Serving More Clients in Private Duty Home Care.”  The first section of the workshop is focused on creating competitive advantage in the marketplace.  We had an excellent conversation with the 25 private duty home care owners and administrators who were in the room.  I was delighted to find that half of the participants came from Georgia, and half from other states including California, Texas, Arkansas, and the Carolinas.

The conversation about seven sources of competitive advantage in home care was particularly interesting, and the group really got into talking about the differences in their local markets, and how they needed to understand their competitors before selecting their unique factor.

Last week, I was in Orlando, Florida speaking for the Home Care Association of Florida.  On Thursday, my son, Jason and I presented the closing keynote speech.  I was live in Orlando, and Jason came to us live over the internet via Skype.  The audience loved Jason, and they had great conversation back and forth.

In Orlando, I presented the Seven Sources of Competitive Advantage.  Then we focus in on Exceptional Customer Experiences, and Jason talked about exceptional home care from the consumer’s perspective.  As you probably know, Jason is physically disabled, lives in a wheel chair, and uses the services of home care on a daily basis.  This program is one that we put together three years ago for the National Private Duty Association National Convention in Philadelphia.  Since doing the program live in Philly, we have done the internet and Skype version a number of times.

The key points that Jason makes in his part of the presentation is that to be a highly effective home care company from the consumer perspective, you must do seven things:

1.  Do What You Promise You Will Do – Always!
2.  Send the Same Caregiver Every Time
3.  Tell the Truth with Love
4.  Turn Client Requests into Action
5.  Manage Inconsistent Employees
6.  Find a Way to Say “Yes”!
7.  Connect with the Decision Maker

How often to you and your team members do these seven things consistently?

As you are developing strategies to grow your private duty business,  one of the things you need to do is create competitive advantage in the marketplace.  One way to do that is by crafting exceptional customer experiences. And part of that is looking at the service you provide from the consumer perspective.

The more you put yourself in the shoes of the consumer, the more you are likely to have delighted customers.  And delighted customers tell other people about their great experience with your company.  That’s how you leverage the power of WOMM – Work Of Mouth Marketing.