Many years ago, I attended a marketing conference about company branding and company perception. I cannot recall the exact name of the conference, the number of audience attendees or even which company I represented while attending this conference, as it was early on in my sales career. I did leave that conference with a key “takeaway” that has stuck with me, however, albeit 25 plus years later.

I attended a mid-morning marketing session about branding, led by a senior-level marketing executive from the corporate office of a large national Italian restaurant chain. She started the session by sharing a story about one food item on their Italian restaurant’s menu: chicken fingers. 

Although chicken fingers typically weren’t an item that this Italian restaurant would add to its menu, the restaurant thought that doing so would be a great kid-friendly food option for children, as well as a menu item that parents would support. The decision was made at the company’s corporate level to add chicken fingers to the menus at all restaurant locations nationwide.

Several months after offering this one menu item, however, hiccups were obvious. Few orders for chicken fingers were being placed, and the chain had lower-than-expected profit margins on the item. There also were disruptions to the employee workflow with plating, cooking temperatures and other service delivery issues, although I cannot recall the details.

And so, at one of this restaurants’ monthly regional meetings, the subject came up about replacing chicken fingers on the menu. Brainstorming followed, and many ideas were tossed on the table by members of this executive marketing group. Alternative food items that could replace the chicken fingers were discussed. Other ideas, including redesigning the look of a new menu without including chicken fingers, and time frames of when a new plan of action could be implemented, also were talked about.

The group agreed that it would take about 10 months to make this change. In fact, for this restaurant chain, 10 months was considered quick, and so group members were very proud of themselves that their plan of action aligned well with the company’s established expectations related to time frames.

The newly hired CEO of this Italian restaurant chain also was at the meeting. After listening, he stood up and moved to the center of the room. “I have a couple of questions to ask you,” he said. “Are we all in agreement that our customers don’t like the chicken fingers that we are offering on our menu?”

Several marketing team members responded “Yes.”

“My second question is,” the CEO continued, “are we all in agreement that we are actually losing money every time a customer orders these chicken fingers?”

Again, the majority response was “Yes.”

“And do we all agree that our workflow, for the many reasons that each of you shared this morning, makes it difficult to serve these chicken fingers?” he asked.

Again, heads nodded “Yes.”

“Then why in the world would we wait 10 months to pull this item from the menu? What good reason do we have for waiting? Can we agree to pull this item immediately?” asked the baffled CEO.

A person in the audience responded, “I guess that is just the way we have always done it. I hadn’t really thought about doing it any differently.”

I share this story with you because I think we will all agree that the mindset of this CEO in the chicken finger story, has been resurrected, so to speak, in today’s current challenging senior living environment. His thought process of making immediate change, versus waiting, is echoed by a large majority of people working in varied roles throughout the senior living industry.

Our emphasis today is about changing the way we think to “What can we do right now to make positive impact to better serve seniors?” and “We must do some things differently to make positive change for our residents.” We are, in fact, bearing witness to a significant paradigm shift in the way we do business. For the senior living industry to thrive, “positive changes and immediate actions are needed” is a sentiment shared by many, regardless of corporate rank and position.

Just as in the chicken fingers story, when it comes to inferior incontinence products being used by residents in some senior living communities, and even when some products are not performing effectively for some residents, we still are in the habit of taking months and months to make a product change. And yet a change to a high-quality incontinence product is one way to create an immediate positive impact for residents, caregivers and communities overall. Instead of changing the soiled sheets daily, more people should consider changing the product. 

Not all, but certainly many, senior living communities wait until multiple incontinent residents have multiple incontinence-related issues, before setting aside time to review the incontinence products being used at their communities. Cost analysis takes time, forming committees takes more time, and with high nursing and caregiver staff turnover, the process takes even longer, often being “left on the table” for a host of additional unintentional reasons. It certainly is not ill intent on anyone’s part. 

Think about the example provided below, however. I think it may help people working in the senior living space better understand how requesting free, high-quality product samples today can make a big difference for residents’ tomorrow.

If incontinent resident “Betty” awakens every morning wet, and her sheets need to be changed each morning, unfortunately, this easily can become part of the daily tasks that community caregivers “just do.” Patterns are developed, and those daily patterns often turn into daily habits over time. Habits are difficult to break, and the habit of changing wet sheets for residents every day goes back to the same statement from my chicken finger story: “I guess that is just the way we have always done it. I hadn’t really thought about doing it any differently.”

Changing Betty out of her soiled clothes, and changing Betty’s sheets each morning, “fixes” the short-term problem at hand. More than likely, however, multiple residents within a senior living community will have experience similar issues to those of Betty. Or even worse, they may experience pressures sores, falls related to bladder leaks, urinary tract infections, etc., until consideration is given to changing brands, style and/or absorbency levels of incontinence products that are not working.

If we think about the importance of person-centered care, waiting for multiple residents to experience negative outcomes related to using inferior incontinence products is not fair to a single Betty, nor is it truly providing person-centered care at all. Why wait to ask for free product samples for even just one resident who is struggling with incontinence related negative outcomes?

Sometimes, a change in product may seem like a trivial small thing when it actually is a very big thing. In fact, it is a very vital component to providing person-centered care for residents living with incontinence. Using high-quality, fully breathable incontinence products can reduce skin rashes, UTIs and falls for incontinent residents. If a resident stays dry and comfortable and can sleep uninterrupted through the night, then he or she won’t get up. If the resident doesn’t get up, then he or she doesn’t fall. And thus, the resident is less likely to end up at the emergency department due to a fall during the night. 

How can communities create positive change immediately for residents struggling with urinary incontinence related issues? Ask your current suppliers, distributors and/or incontinence manufacturers for free, high-quality incontinence product samples. Most incontinence products manufacturers, who are laser-focused on providing high-quality incontinence products in conjunction with stellar customer service, will encourage people to “try before they buy,” and so most will provide free product samples and even include free shipping.

Free. Yes, free! Why wait? Ask for samples of high-quality products that are fully breathable, super absorbent, have inner leak guards and are made of soft materials for comfort.

So why do so many community staff members wait to ask for free product samples and wait so long to explore looking at alternative incontinence products for their residents? Changing products is difficult within senior living communities for many reasons, including product review, cost analysis, purchasing policies, lack of time and lack of staffing. Another reason may be that established contracts with manufacturers or formularies only permit certain sizes, absorbency levels and styles of incontinence products can be ordered by community staff as per corporate mandates.

Have we systemically made things too complicated? I often ponder “What if?” What if more senior living communities requested product samples immediately for those residents like Betty who are struggling with wet sheets, soiled clothes, skin rashes, UTIs and being awakened at night due to bladder leaks? What if a product sample was ordered, and the new product worked extremely well for residents like Betty? What if skin rashes were decreased, UTIs were decreased and a community’s subgroups of Betty-like residents remained dry and comfortable? What if all of this started with taking action to obtain free product samples? Can you imagine the positive ripple effect for incontinent residents nationwide?

Why wait when this action of requesting free product samples can be done immediately, has no cost associated with it, and potentially can significantly improve the life of a single community resident at a minimum, if not more residents? 

Taking the time to think about “What can we do today?” and then acting on our thoughts just may be part of the answer to improving the quality of life for many people as we age. After all, aging is common ground shared with literally everyone in our country. What are we waiting for? If a current product being used is not performing well, why are we waiting 10 months to “take it off the menu?”

Deanna Vigliotta has 30 years of experience in healthcare sales and is the national sales manager for Seni USA Inc. She joined Seni in early 2019 to help educate people about the importance of choosing high-performing, effective adult incontinence products.

The opinions expressed in each McKnight’s Senior Living marketplace column are those of the author and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Senior Living.

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