3 Differentiation Strategies to Stand Out From the Competition

3 Big Changes in Home Care – Part 2 of 3

Home Care Office Staff Hiring Tips

To be the best you can be, it takes more than just providing quality care. You need to find something that sets you apart and emphasize that through all of your communication channels. 

Like it the old fashioned way?

If you’ve never heard of the artist Marc Johns, make sure to look up some of his work. While simple in detail, his style is very original. He takes pride in creating art that tells a story in the most unordinary of ways. He’s unlike most artists in that he tries hard to say a lot with only a few strokes of a pen.

Here are a couple examples of his work:

marc johns 2
marc johns 1

Marc Johns, although an artist, can teach us a lot about standing out amongst the crowd. It’s all about taking your own craft or service and turning it into something memorable or recognizable.

To be the best you can be, it’s takes more than just providing quality care. To stand out, you must find something that sets you apart from the competition and relay that through all your marketing and communications channels.

This is what you’d call your differentiator. While we’ve talked about this before, we can’t stress its importance enough.

Here’s why you need a differentiator and what you can do to stand out in a sea of home care providers competing for the same business.

Why do you need a differentiator?

How many home care agencies are in your local area? We’re willing to bet there’s quite a few – and while demand for home care services is at an all-time high, there’s still rising competition amongst the industry.

Those in need of home care services now have a lot of choices when it comes to selecting a provider. Simply put, they can be picky if they want to, and the more you differentiate yourself, the more revenue you’ll likely see coming in.

Not only does having a differentiator help you expand your clientele base and earn more revenue, but it helps you draw in clients (and even caregivers) that are going to stick around because what you’re offering is unique and something that they were specifically looking for. Your differentiator helps create your identity and your identity shapes your culture.

How to differentiate

There are a lot of ways you can differentiate your agency and while your specific agency will see better results from some, it’s important to note all the options. Here’s a list of the ways you might set your agency apart. You’ll also want to do your own research on your local market to see what’s going to make the biggest impact.

#1: Focus on your numbers

Tracking metrics and emphasizing the success of your organization can set you apart in more ways than one.

One metric you should be tracking is hospital readmission rate. If your patients are rarely going back to the hospital this number can help you gain more clients and lead to more success with referral partners – it shows how much time and effort your spending maintaining the well-being of your clients.

Another number-focused point you should focus in on is satisfaction scores. If you have extremely high satisfaction scores, you should be sharing those numbers on social media, your website, and wherever else you frequently communicate with the public.

#2: Offer something no one else does

Distinguishing yourself through unique offerings is one of the best ways to entice clients and caregivers.

An example of this might look a little something like what Royal Care does. While most agencies offer perks and benefits, Royal Care has redefined what that looks like. They have a facility just for caregivers to relax and destress. The facility offers services such as hair, manicure, facials, makeup application, and an in-house nutritionist.

#3: Specialize

Helping your caregivers to get certified in certain specialties like Alzheimer’s and dementia care, infection control, behavioral health, restorative care, or palliative care can give you a leg up against the competition since you can cater to specific conditions.

You should be creating custom care plans for each client in order to become the top option in your area for seniors who need that particular type of care.

One way you can help your caregivers become specialized is through online training like In the Know. Through In the Knows training programs, caregivers can follow specialized learning paths of pre-built curricula focused on whatever specialty you’re trying to differentiate yourself in.

Next steps

As you evaluate your agency and the needs of your local community, you should be doing a lot of research to see what best suits both. Your strategy is going to change and adapt overtime, so it’s important that you keep an open mind and stay flexible in your approach.

With any form of competition, it’s normal to try and replicate what your competitors are doing. We strongly urge you to take a look at your competitors offerings, how they’re marketing themselves, and they’re success rate, and implement a plan that expands on what they do or includes a unique, out-of-the-box idea. Maybe other agencies don’t specialize in Alzheimer’s care – you could easily make that part of your routine.

When choosing a differentiation strategy, the main goal is to do something that sets you apart. What that looks like for you, and what that looks like for another agency is going to be vastly different.

Stay tuned for next Thursday’s blog, as we wrap up our series “The Biggest Changes in Home Care.” In part one, we talked about the shift toward value-based care. Next week, for part three, we’ll be discussing why you need to start implementing voice of customer marketing (like online reviews). You won’t want to miss it.

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