At the end of last month, Greystone traveled to Nashville for the LeadingAge Annual Meeting. Brad Straub, Executive Vice President at Greystone, was pleased to open one of the keynote sessions by introducing Cynt Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, while sharing some about Greystone's work and initiatives. Watch the video about Greystone’s services and impact here.  

Greystone also shared insights in three different educational sessions. If you missed these sessions, here is some of what you missed:

Targeted Digital Media: The Secret to Marketing Success

Marybeth Roberts (John Knox Village (MO)); Susan Bogan, Janel Wait (AgePop); Mary Jane Fitts (Greystone)

Today’s sales and marketing teams have access to more data about their consumer than ever before. Greystone partnered with AgePop to explore how John Knox Village, a not-for-profit Life Plan Community located in Lee’s Summit, MO, is leveraging marketing automation, SEO, and AI to create personalized, meaningful experience journeys for their prospects.

Some of the strategies mentioned:

• Today’s consumer is experience driven, rather than information driven. Identify opportunities to leverage AI technology to help personalize your sales experience. Prospects provide data at various touchpoints throughout the sales process; use that data to uncover insights and stories you can use in the selling process.  
• Utilize technology to enhance your sales strategy. Does your website have a chatbot feature? Can you use AI Search Grader to review your website? These tools are a low-effort, high-reward way to maximize your marketing.
• Build your marketing technology stack from the ground up, beginning with the CRM. Spending marketing dollars hosting prospect events or time pursuing leads isn’t worthwhile unless your team has the foundation to track and measure that information. The CRM is the foundation of the “martech” stack, on which teams can add marketing automation, reputation management, and more to develop those leads.

‍

Repositioning the Single-Site Life Plan Community

Debi McNeil (Canterbury Court); Brad Straub (Greystone)

Greystone teamed up with Canterbury Court’s CEO Debi McNeil to share how this single-site created a strategic plan to redevelop and expand their community. Greystone helped the management team and its Board identify critical success factors for the project, which included:

• Enhanced wellness, healthcare, and memory care services. This included the addition of a new healthcare center and the introduction of a new level of living to include memory support suites.
• The purchase of an additional 2 acres adjoining the current campus, which provided for the expansion of wellness and common areas, such as an 8,500 square foot terrace with garden views and a 10,000 square foot memory garden off the new memory support neighborhood.
• The addition of 132 independent living apartments, which helped to offset the financial burden of healthcare apartments and common area adjustments. The construction of a new independent living tower, and the renovation of existing units, allowed for an updated unit mix to better meet market demand and helped fund the creation of replacement healthcare facilities.

Learn more about their “enrichment project” in Greystone’s case study here.

‍

Embracing Aging-in-Place: A Greystone Perspective

Brad Straub, Stuart Jackson, Justin Spooner, and Melissa Heiss (Greystone)

Aging-in-place means many different things to different people. For the life plan community, aging-in-place may be a challenge or an opportunity. Greystone outlined the following key considerations for providers evaluating this growing market trend:

• Home- and community-based services
  • The Boomer prospect is increasingly insistent on living where they want to live and has the financial resources to bring care and services into their independent living unit. Bringing in home- and community-based services into your community can meet this growing customer sentiment. Whether in-house or third party, providing home health care, hospice, adult day services, case management, and other community-based services, homecare services are increasingly desirable.  
• Business model implications
  • Aging-in-place might provide for increased ancillary revenue but also may lead to lower turnover entrance fees. Independent living environments with a growing influx of home care services increase the likelihood that the community’s independent living may become a large assisted living after 10 years. Providers should consider having a relief valve to cycle its higher acuity residents into a proper assisting living care setting to alleviate the risk of reduced turnover and impacts of aging-in-place.  
• Infrastructure of the physical campus
  • Adapting the physical campus to allow for aging-in-place can be challenging – and costly. How can providers rethink their design? LED strip lighting along flooring, pull-out cabinetry, shower benches, and touch faucets are just a few options of adaptive design.
  • Technology is always changing. While we don’t know what tomorrow’s technology will be, we can prepare to have the infrastructure to accommodate it built into our communities. Designing with multiple access points, charging stations, and technology storage areas can accommodate for the technological support of aging-in-place.

‍

We are thankful for the opportunity to connect with and learn from our colleagues in the senior living sector and are proud to be a Gold Partner of LeadingAge. If your organization is interested in discussing these key trends or others that may be impacting your business, feel free to reach out directly or browse our list of services.