In an industry that employs over 350,000 people to provide services to millions of older Australians, the pressure for consistent service delivery and sustainable growth is as real as it gets. Faced by the demands brought on by the Global Aged Care Crisis and the recent Australian Aged Care reforms, what are you doing to set your care business up for success?
Without adequate foresight for innovation and process improvement, your organisation might miss out on addressing the needs of the ever-changing market and lose your competitive edge. So, what do you need to stay on top of your game? Here are four tips to consider to build growth into your Aged Care and Home Care organisation.
Go Paperless
There are hundreds of clients requiring personalised services from your organisations, how long can you follow your paper trail?
Keeping hard copies of your records need both time to organise and a space for storage. Print-outs are also vulnerable to getting misplaced, damaged or stolen. You also need to have delegated personnel who spend hours sorting through the clutter, hours that are better spent on more productive means.
The rapid growth of cloud-based technology enables more and more companies to go paperless. Keeping digital records makes your data easier to store, find and retrieve. Having documents uploaded onto a Cloud server, users can access their documents any time and in any place with an internet connection. It’s a practical, time-saving and cost-saving upgrade to your systems and processes.
Move to Mobile
Managing client tasks and booking requests, tracking KM travelled, sending photos and text messages to field carers, changing schedules in real time? There’s an app for that.
Sitting in front of a desk to fill out carer reports is not the best way to end a day of on-site caring. Moving to mobile enables your carers to create and send reports in real-time. It streamlines reporting processes, minimises reporting discrepancies and forms valuable communication streams with your client’s family and primary carers.
Build a Service Culture
Your organisation’s culture seeps into every facet of your business, from your services, communication, marketing, to the look and feel of your facility and more. No matter how you position your business in the market, it is still the people in your team who drives your culture.
Having a Service-Driven Culture starts with customer service. It means giving your customers the ability to request services on demand, allowing your team to adjust the care to suit the client’s needs, and getting feedback to improve your services.
Activate your service culture by providing your team with the right platform where your staff can communicate with clients, stay on top of tasks, check-in and out of scheduled appointments, and share reports in real time.
Focus on Community
Your organisation has your care service down pat but how are you doing in terms of community engagement and wellbeing?
The wellbeing of the community helps improve a wide range of aspects of community life. When well-being improves, the safety and security in a community improve along with the overall ambience and environment, providing peace of mind and comfort to everyone in your community.
Constant communication and involvement with your clients’ family and friends build trust and confidence in your team and services. The more people know about you, the more brand exposure you get. The increase in brand equity will help you open new services and revenue opportunities, including increasing referrals.
I know what you’re thinking.
Yes, it’s nice to go paperless, have your staff use mobile devices for their day-to-day activities, build a service culture and have more time to focus on your community’s well being. Is it possible to get all of these improvements in one platform?
CareVision seeks to bridge the gaps of care by providing an innovative cross-device solution that connects aged care and home care clients, families, friends, care providers and communities. If you’re ready to take the plunge and build growth into your aged care and home care organisation, call us at 1300 324 070 or book a demo.