By Stephen Tweed
What is the best way to find new clients in private pay home care? What about Lead Generating Web Sites?
On Monday of this week, I was in Franklin, TN speaking for the Tennessee Association for Home Care. I did three presentations and the last one was called, “Putting Pizzazz in Private Pay.” We had a full room with great questions and discussions. One of the questions was about getting new clients from the various web sites that offer leads to private pay home care companies. Home care CEOs are always looking for new ways to attract new clients.
Several years ago, there was a lot of interest in the various lead generating web sites, so we did a survey of our readers. A total of 115 companies responded to the survey. We asked a series of questions, and the results gave us a list of sites, how many companies has used that site, and their rating on a scale of 1 to 5.
- A Place for Mom 49.1% 2.09
- Caring.com 40.18% 1.70
- Home Advisor 33.93% 1.72
- Care Scout 32.14% 1.45
- Elder Care Link 28.57% 1.50
- Care.com 28.57% 1.44
- Care In Homes 24.11% 1.73
- Angies List 16.07% 1.44
- Best of Home Care 7.14% 1.67
As you can see, at the time of this survey, the most frequently used lead generator was A Place for Mom, which was also rated the highest in terms of effectiveness.
Changing Their Business Model
Each of the lead generators has a different business model and pricing structure. Over time, many of these companies have changed their business model and their pricing structure in response to changes in the marketplace. One of those making a change was A Place for Mom. They had charged a flat fee of $275.00 if your agency admitted the client and provided 16 hours of care per week or more. They decided to shift their pricing model to request 10% of the revenue receive from the client for the life of the client.
Apparently, many home care companies didn’t feel they could give away 50% of their net profit per client for the lead, so they dropped the service. Some companies, however, felt that getting those leads and booking the business was worth the commission of 10% so they continued.
A big, new wrinkle in the business model
Apparently, that new business model was not working as well as they expected, so A Place for Mom added a new wrinkle. Here is an email received by one of the members of our Home Care Mastermind Group:
Subject: A Place For Mom – Home Care Agency Process Changes
We hope this email finds you well. We value your partnership and appreciate the time and work you spend on supporting the home care referrals that we send you. Your continued success is important to us and we take great pride in sending you high quality home care referrals.
As you are aware and per the agreement terms, there is a 10% fee for a move-in/activation that you convert to home care on the referrals that SeniorAdvisor.com sends you. In the past, there was an optional fee discount by 1% for partners using our self-reporting tool. This is notice that effective June 1, 2017, SeniorAdvisor.com will no longer discount any fees, and the expectation is that all partners will self-report billings.
Please see the summary below of the monthly self-reporting expectations and timelines starting June 1, 2017.
- Agencies must self-report the previous months billing totals between the 1st and 10th date of each month.
- All reported revenue is billed at a 10% referral fee.
- Agencies who do not report current billings are subject to agreement program fees (section 4) of a charge of, the greater of, 18 times the fee or $5,000, and Company will pay the Charge within 30 days of the invoice date.
- To continue to receive SeniorAdvisor.com home care referrals, partners are expected to maintain a minimum 6% conversion rate.
We know and appreciate that many agencies are already self-reporting, but if you have not or have forgotten your log-in credentials, please reach out asap to accountreviews@senioradvisor.com for support.
Again, thank you for your partnership and your hard work. We appreciate your patience as we continue to seek to improve the way we do business.
Warm Regards,
The Home Care Team
Email: partners@senioradvisor.com
Office: 855-348-4845
Fax: 623-321-7806
A Place for Mom, Inc./SeniorAdvisor.com
Follow us: www.aplaceformom.com/blog/
What’s Your Reaction?
How would you react to this email? What has been your experience with A Place for Mom? What has been your experience with other lead generating web sites? Join in the conversation in the Leading Home Care Network discussion group in LinkedIn.
Join a Mastermind Group
One of the best ways to grow your business is by spending time interacting with other CEOs and COOs in similar sized home care companies. Having a planned opportunity to meet regularly is a great value. You can do that by becoming a member of a Home Care Mastermind Group, hosted by The Home Care CEO Forum. Take a few moments today to consider the value you would receive by being a member of a mastermind group.
