Luxury retirement communities today are selling to a whole new breed of retiree, people who are staying active longer, seeking out unique and immersive experiences, and looking to enjoy their golden years (and invest their savings) in comfortable, luxurious lifestyles. Still, educating your potential customers about your community’s long-term care and support services is a critical part of the customer engagement process, and I recently had the chance to see it handled completely wrong.

In calling, touring, and visiting a number of upscale retirement communities in Southern Connecticut for an 89-year-old relative, I couldn’t help but think about the possibility that my life might lead me to one of these very places sometime in the distant future. With that in mind, the task of evaluating the products and their presentations became a much more personal one; not only was I concerned about the treatment and well-being of a loved one, but I was keenly interested in finding a place that appealed to me across many stages of life.

For anyone who has gone through this process, you know that the adjustment to a new lifestyle is the hardest part. For Baby Boomers seeking out active, upscale environments, communities stop at nothing to welcome, accommodate, and inform; by the time you leave the premises, your guide knows everything about your hobbies, workout routines, and favorite cuisine. It becomes a highly emotional experience, and you’re made to feel as though the community is fitting into your life, rather than the other way around.

Emotions are important to remember, because every place my wife and I visited missed the single most important point in the sales cycle: engaging us as customers, emotionally.

No one bothered to talk to the buyer first. Since it was the family, not the resident, making the final decision, no one really engaged. No one took the time to ask us a few simple questions that would have framed the way the rest of the tour and discussion evolved:

• What is, and was, your relationship with the potential resident?
• What kind of person are they? Tell me about their life and your lives together.
• What are your expectations for their life while they live here?

Once they had engaged us, they would have been able to deliver a tour filled with information that really mattered to us. The communities didn’t bother to understand the customer, but launched right into a sales pitch. I spent so much time exchanging glances back and forth with my wife as some very well-meaning admissions person spewed irrelevant, and sometimes insulting, information that should have never been directed to us. But, then again, they didn’t know what they didn’t know.

A recent Forbes article, Pioneering A New Era Of Customer Engagement put it well.

“Brands today realize in an effort to differentiate with customer experience they need to go above and beyond with service.”

It would have taken very little effort for those admission people to respectfully understand what we were looking for before they tried to sell to us. No one engaged us. No one went above and beyond. For those communities accommodating both active lifestyle and long-term care residents, the importance of the customer engagement process cannot be overstated. You are responsible for helping your customers usher in two of the most emotional, disruptive stages in their lives.

Here are 3 customer engagement strategies for luxury retirement communities that should be included in the training process for your admissions representatives:

• Ask questions. Develop a series of questionnaires for prospects to fill out before (or during) and after their visit. Questions asked prior to or during the tour should cover prospects’ expectations for an active lifestyle or long-term care community; what they anticipate their involvement will be in the decision-making process; and the top concerns they have for themselves or their loved ones. Following each visit, ask prospects to share their feedback and briefly review the tour experience. This will not only help you to identify their needs, but also to improve for future customers.
• Create a training manifesto. Providing your staff with scripts to help them answer FAQs and conduct tours is important, but their understanding of the brand must go deeper. Incorporating your brand standards into the training process will promote consistency and help your staff create a streamlined experience for prospects.
• Think like a prospective resident. Whether a prospect is considering a move for themselves or a loved one, considering the emotional state and likely extensive to-do list on their plate. Even those seeking out luxury senior living are making a very important decision about their lives. Recognizing this will help you provide a more insightful experience. Staying in tune with your current residents and reviewing questionnaires will create a clearer picture of what prospects are going through when they walk through your doors for the first time.

Guiding someone through one of life’s biggest transitions is no simple task, and leaving it to an ill-prepared staff can kill valuable leads and jeopardize your business. Follow these customer engagement strategies from the start to establish better connections with your prospects and help them convert.