How To Improve Your Care Business’ Sales and Recruitment Processes

[00:00]

Cameron Campbell: Hi, I'm Cameron from Smooth Digital [Smooth Digital, now Prosperwell], and welcome to Tea with Tobi, the show where we ask and answer the questions playing on the minds of care sector business leaders. This week's episode is sponsored by The Access Group, and it's a little bit different from recent episodes. We're going to have our very own marketing strategy director, Tobi Alli-Usman, under the spotlight for some questions, and we're going to be covering processes. Tobi, first of all, welcome to the show.

Tobi Alli-Usman: It's good to be back in the spotlight, so yes, let's do it.

Why processes matter

Cameron: I think we're really ready for it, and glad to have you back under fire. Processes is one of your favourite subjects, so let's not waste any more time and kick off with the first question. Simply, why, now more than ever, are processes so important for care businesses?

[01:01]

Tobi: The good thing is that care businesses, our audience, are used to following processes, especially during this period with Covid-19. They've been given a set of procedures they need to follow, and it reduces the likelihood of people making mistakes. In terms of our area, where we find processes are best used is in recruitment and customers. Most people are lacking in that area when it comes to processes.

Cameron: Just on that one, you said recruitment and customers. What could processes be used for specifically within those?

Tobi: Processes can be used to help whoever's handling the enquiry. What are the steps they need to take, from the very beginning when someone enquires, up until them actually becoming a customer? It's the same if someone applies for a job: what individual steps need to be taken, and how should they be taken, from enquiring about a job to becoming a team member?

The ideal enquiry process

[02:02]

Cameron: Brilliant. When we come into campaigns and work with clients, we don't really have control over their processes. We can provide some input and suggestions, but ultimately it's down to them. So let's put you in their perspective. Say you had a care business, Tobi, and I said, right, you can put your ideal process in place. What would your ideal process look like if we're running a campaign to attract new clients?

Tobi: There are three ways someone could enquire: by phone, email or live chat, 24-hour live chat. Let's say it's by email. First of all, say the enquiry came in yesterday. The process is that as soon as the enquiry comes in, you respond within no more than one business hour. If it came in over the weekend, I'd say get on to it straight away on Monday morning.

[03:01]

So the process is: take the enquiry, then import that information into a CRM or an Excel spreadsheet. A CRM is a customer relationship management tool. Then reach out to that person by phone first. Most people don't actually get through to the people enquiring on the first call, so I'd then have a process with a number of different follow-ups, and I'd say a minimum of four.

[04:00]

The first contact would be a call. The second follow-up could be a text message, and people massively underuse text. The next one could be a call again, or an email. And the final one could be what I call a break-up communication.

I'll explain the phrase. I remember when I was at a traffic light and someone bashed into the back of my car, and I was going to claim for it. During that week, which was a hectic week, the insurance company kept phoning me, emailing me and texting me. I was just busy and didn't want to speak to them. Then I got a sort of break-up communication from them by email, which basically said: this is who we are, this is why we're trying to get in contact with you, and if you're still looking to claim, here are our contact details. Reading that, I felt these guys aren't going to keep contacting me, so if I'm interested, let me actually reach out.

[05:02]

We've found that having that process, and having it cleverly written, whatever break-up communication you give, whether it's a text, an email or a voice message, actually does increase the likelihood of them saying, "OK, let me reach out to these guys today. I'm interested."

Cameron: That fits in with the seven touchpoints of marketing we've talked about, too. They may have seen something that caught their eye and emailed you about it, but not had enough touchpoints, enough exposure to your business, to actually take action. You've given them those emails and then that last bit saying, here we are.

Tobi: Absolutely. The big one within that process that's massively underused is text. Most people aren't using text, and the great thing about text is there's a 95 or 99% chance it will actually go through.

[06:00]

If you leave a voicemail, not everyone actually listens to their voicemail. If someone calls and people see a number they don't recognise, some people don't call back. They don't have the time.

Cameron: I think there's massive fatigue from all these PPI companies calling you, "You've been in an accident" and all that kind of stuff. People see an unknown number, or just a number they don't know, and think they might be getting cold-called.

Tobi: That's right. So text is really important in terms of that process coming through.

What to track

Cameron: Brilliant. So, Tobi, you've got your ideal process, but what should people be tracking along the way? What should they look out for?

[07:01]

Tobi: I'm a big numbers person, and numbers do tell a story. Numbers can pinpoint bottlenecks within the business. So on a monthly basis, you want a separate sheet, an Excel document, that tracks total enquiries into the business, total assessments booked, and from those assessments, total customers. In between those numbers there's a percentage conversion rate. Then you can identify, from enquiry to assessment, how we're performing as a business. If we got ten enquiries, are we only converting three into an assessment? If that's the case, it needs to be looked at. What's happening on that first call? Is the person not really buying into the person they're speaking to? Are the calls even being answered? Whatever it is, it needs to be looked at.

[08:00]

Then at the next stage, from assessment to customer, what's the conversion rate there? It's really important to first work on those conversion rates. Then, if you want to grow as a business, you can predictably know that for every X number of enquiries, we convert that into X number of customers. If you want to double the number of customers, you can then pour more into the front end, the marketing, to get those enquiries coming in.

Cameron: Exactly. It really helps the marketing if you know what your conversion rate is and what that costs you, because then you can assign an appropriate budget and get the most out of your time working with an agency. Really important.

Technology to support the process

Cameron: OK, Tobi, we've talked about process and the things people should be doing. One of the benefits of the current time is that technology is really in the spotlight, and people are learning a lot more about the platforms available. What technology would you recommend people use to help with their processes?

[09:03]

Tobi: First of all, the people I speak to have probably had to make a big jump in technology from where they were to where they are now with Covid. They've probably implemented more technology in the last two months than in the last two years, so I want to keep things simple for those people. You don't need a massive, fancy CRM if you're at the early stages. Start by using something as simple as Google Sheets or Excel. If you're still writing enquiries down on paper, or your staff aren't tracking them at all, pull them into Google Sheets or Excel.

For people who are a little more advanced, you want to start thinking about using a CRM tool, and there are many that are free, or stripped down to do the simple things.

[10:04]

There's Streak, which is a Google tool that plugs into your Gmail, really simple. There's HubSpot, which is free. You can use ActiveCampaign, there's Zoho, there are loads you can use. But it's less about the tool and more about actually using it and following the process.

For people who are more advanced still, you can start using technology to influence your conversion rates. Say your conversion rate from enquiry to assessment is poor. What some care businesses we work with are doing is using things like Bonjoro.

[11:00]

Bonjoro is a tool where you can take your phone, record a video and respond to someone who's emailed you. You can send the video by email or text. Let's create the scenario: someone looking for care enquires with three different companies in one night. In the morning, two of the companies email and say, "Thanks for enquiring, we'd love to work with you," and so on. But you actually whip out your phone and say, "Hi, thanks for enquiring with us. My name is so-and-so, I'm the registered manager," and basically talk to them through Bonjoro. What that does is make you stand out compared with your competitors.

Cameron: It also gives you the opportunity to show a bit more of you and have that personal connection.

[12:01]

Tobi: And the good thing about that type of personalised communication is that even if someone has found a provider, because you've put the time in to personalise it, people tend to respond. So at least you get a firm "Thanks for the video, we've actually found somewhere", a firm communication to say stop. So that's a tool that can really make a difference.

Scripts

Cameron: Just to add, I think it's quite important when you're doing those videos that it's not just off the fly. You'd generally have a script, just like on the phone. You'd have something pre-prepared covering the things you want to get across in that first human interaction. Then you don't have to think about it, it's automatic, and you cover all the points.

Tobi: That's definitely really valuable. And Bonjoro, by the way, I totally forgot to mention, is free. I'll take a moment on the script, because I think that's really important.

[13:03]

Most people who handle enquiries are untrained salespeople. They've never had professional sales or customer service training, so I do think it's important. Some people might say, "I don't want to feel robotic," but there are certain things that need to be covered on first calls, certain things that need to be said in voicemail follow-ups, and certain things that need to go in a text. If you create scripts for all those bits of communication, you create a process and take the guesswork out of it. And if you really want the best out of it, say you have two different scripts for texts and you find one produces more of a response, start using that one more. But like I said, don't overwhelm yourself.

[14:00]

Start small and then introduce things a little more. The whole aim is to get a better end result.

Using video in your process

Cameron: Brilliant, fantastic. We're running a little short on time, but I want to cover one more thing we were talking about earlier in the day, and that's video. Part of the process could be having a pre-prepared video. One of the things I sometimes use is a Google Chrome extension that lets you embed video from YouTube in your emails, and I think video is very powerful. Is there anything you'd suggest on that?

Tobi: I love this process stuff, and I love the use of video, because you create assets once that you can use multiple times, and that's effective. I'll give you an example for recruitment. Say you've worked hard to contact these enquiries and you've booked the interview.

[15:02]

We usually find there's a big drop-off between booking the interview and the interview itself. One thing you can do is record a video with the team, once: "Hi, my name is so-and-so, I'm going to be interviewing you today," then pass the phone to someone else in the office who says, "Really looking forward to meeting you." You can record videos like that.

And on the customer side, say it's a care home, you can record a video of the team: this is the chef, this is the registered manager, this is one of our care professionals. Then when they actually come to the home, they feel like they already know you from the video. You record it once, and as part of the process, you just attach it to the email confirming the viewing.

[16:00]

So there are loads of clever ways to use video. I think it's a really good use of time to set some time aside to record specific types of assets, and then you can use them at different times.

Cameron: Absolutely. Tobi, thanks so much for coming under the spotlight. That's been really good. Processes are definitely something people should really embrace. They're very powerful, especially from a new enquiry and recruitment perspective. That's all we've got time for, but thank you very much for watching and listening, and definitely leave a comment. Tobi, you were saying something earlier?

Tobi: Yes, I'm always talking about how the algorithms have changed on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This is good advice for you too: if you're putting messages out there, encourage people to comment and like.

[17:00]

That's what the platforms are doing now. Facebook did it quite a while ago, and now LinkedIn is doing it too: they're only showing your videos to a small batch of your followers. So, a selfish plug: if you found this useful, please like the video, comment and share it with someone. We want to get this information out and help as many care businesses as possible. And use that for yourself as well.