By Stephen Tweed
So! What is YOUR story?
Every home care company owner or CEO has a story about why they started their home care company, or how they got into home care. What’s yours?
This week is the annual conference of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice. This year, they also held a conference within a conference by hosting the Private Duty Summit. Kristen Wheeler, the Executive Director for Private Duty Home Care at NAHC was kind enough to invite me to come to Washington and present the opening Keynote for this Private Duty Summit.
My Topic: Telling Your Private Duty Story.
This topic is relevant to each of you who are leaders in a private pay home care company. How you communicate with clients, families, caregivers, and referral sources is critical to your position in your local marketplace, to your company brand, and to your ability to attract and keep caregivers. Using stories is an amazing leadership skill that each of us can develop and use more effectively.
There are five elements to any powerful story. You can see each of these elements in any of the movies, TV shows, or best-selling novels that you watch or read. The five elements are:
- The Plot
- The Setting
- The Characters
- The Conflict
- The Outcome
In most stories, there is also a hero who helps to save the day, resolve the conflict, and achieve the outcome.
When you are thinking about crafting your private duty story, consider these elements and how they fit into YOUR story.
Four Ways to Use Stories in your Home Care Business
Who had some great discussions about four specific ways you can use stories to connect with your stakeholders and communicate your message:
- Using Stories to connect with clients, families, caregivers, and referral sources
- Using Stories to craft your Company Culture
- Using Stories to make a learning point
- Using Stories to shape the home care industry
Think about these elements of your business. How can you use your own personal stories to achieve these four outcomes?
Nine Places to Tell Your Home Care Story
As you become more comfortable telling your own home care story, you will look for more places to tell it. Here are nine specific places you can share your story:
- On your website
- In our promotional materials
- In a video
- In your “Lunch & Learn” presentations
- In your sales presentations
- In your recruiting message
- In your new employee orientation
- In your award celebrations
- In your social media postings
Building Your Home Care Brand with Stories
One of the things we have learned over our decades in home care is you can gain and sustain a competitive advantage in your local home care marketplace by building personal relationships. Here’s a key point:
“All things being equal, people would rather do business with a friend.
All things being unequal, people would still rather do business with a friend.” – Stephen Tweed
You build these personal relationships by making an emotional connection. And the best way to make an emotional connection is through sharing your story. When they hear your experience, the often say, “me too!”
Home Care clients and families don’t make the decision of which home care company to choose based on facts, data, and information. They make an emotional decision based on how they feel. When you build an emotional connection through stories, you increase the chance they will choose you and your home care company.
Learn from the Stories of Other Home Care Owners
One of the great ways to get ideas and see examples of how this works is to interact regularly with other owners of home care companies your same size who do not compete with you. The best way to do that is to be part of a Home Care Mastermind Group.
If you would like to explore this opportunity to be part of a mastermind group, CLICK HERE.