Boost client retention with these strategies
Part I: Keep clients happy with your agency
By Judith B. Clinco, RN
Home Care Consultant
President and CEO
Catalina In-Home Services
Tucson, AZ
You’re working hard to make your agency grow. Are you working just as hard to retain the clients you already have?
I own and run Catalina In-Home Services, a Tucson, AZ-based agency providing private duty fee-for-service home care aides. During the 16 years Catalina has been in business, our staff has developed a number of strategies for boosting client retention.
Our clients are in the market for the best value in home care. And since our agency doesn’t require long-term contracts, clients are free to leave if we fail to satisfy them. That’s a tremendous incentive for aggressive quality control. And our system works. Many clients stay with us for six, seven, or even eight years a track record we’re proud of. Here’s how we do it.
Making good placements
A successful placement begins by matching the needs, abilities, temperament, and communication styles of client and caregiver.
• Screen the client.
Careful screening is the key. Our initial RN evaluation determines if the level of care the client needs meshes with our services. And when we screen, we really listen. What type of meal preparation will the client need? Does the client prefer a more mature caregiver? Is smoking an issue?
• Screen the caregiver.
We check references, driver’s license, driving record, and auto insurance, and we do a criminal background check. We also require a TB test every year and CPR certification every two years.
• Make the match.
We inform the prospective caregiver of the client’s physical abilities and service needs, personality, assignment location, allergies, attitude toward smoking, and other information. How the candidate responds is vital. What we most need to hear is a sincere commitment to the job. Placements may last for several years; if the candidate wants a temporary assignment, we keep looking. And we never pressure a caregiver to accept an assignment.
• Send the best match first.
Accepting a caregiver is up to the client, but sending the strongest candidate first reduces stress on the client, the candidate, and ourselves.
Sometimes we just can’t find the right person for the job. Sometimes the client seems unable to accept or adjust to the supportive care he or she needs, requires nursing care, or has unrealistic expectations. Our reputation is on the line with every placement. If we can’t send the right caregiver, we’d rather not accept the assignment.
Set high standards and supervise
Every client deserves a caregiver who looks sharp and behaves in a professional manner. Some of our rules are as follows:
• Be prompt arrive 15 minutes early for all services scheduled for four hours or longer.
• Don’t watch television or chew gum while on duty.
• Don’t use the client’s phone for personal calls.
• Don’t eat the client’s food.
• Be in clean-and-pressed uniform attire.
• Wear your name pin.
Our basic service includes a monthly or bimonthly in-home visit by the RN care manager. The nurse checks the client’s vital signs, looks for medical problems, and fills medication boxes. Is the client getting good care? Is the client satisfied with the services? Are the client and the caregiver compatible? Is the relationship professional? The routine nursing reevaluation is our way of making sure the answers to these questions are yes.
If the client is unhappy with the caregiver, we’ll send a replacement immediately. Unsatisfactory placements can and do happen but dealing with the situation promptly goes a long way toward making things right.
A week after being scheduled, the caregiver makes detailed records of the client’s daily routine and weekly schedule. Kept in the home, these records help ease the transition should a substitute caregiver be needed.
We have other ways to stay in touch, too. Every client gets the following:
• a birthday card (flowers for those with the agency more than two years);
• a card at each major holiday;
• a gift certificate for four hours of service for every new-customer referral (because personal referrals from happy clients are priceless);
• a choice of a weekly or monthly billing cycle. And to make things just a little easier for our clients, we always send a stamped, self-addressed return envelope with our bills. Often, it’s the little things that mean the difference between a "good enough" agency and one that can win a client’s loyalty.
We report monthly on the client’s welfare, by phone or in writing, whenever a trust officer, family member, or other representative who is helping manage the client’s affairs requests this information.
Many clients form close bonds with their caregiver, and it can be a shock to the client and an invitation to switch agencies when a caregiver leaves. How can you retain your caregivers in an industry where high staff turnover is the rule, not the exception?
To learn how Catalina has combined its own multilevel training program with other worker-friendly personnel practices to build a skilled and loyal team of home care professionals, see the next issue of Private Duty Homecare.
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