The majority of residents (68%) who moved into a senior living community sometime in 2022 said they were happy with their first 90 days in the new community, but customer service responsiveness and dining could use some work.
Florida-based senior living marketing consultants Bild & Co. surveyed more than 100 residents across the country on their move-in experiences. Employee communication and responsiveness was rated highly by 87.5% of respondents, and 87% of participants said that they were happy with their unit choice.
Better dining operations or service (cited by 58.1% of respondents), improved efforts in acclimating new residents to established residents (30.2%), a more quality customer service experience (27.9%) and more or better social offerings (25.6%) topped the list of areas for improvement.
When it comes to customer service, survey participants said that improvement is most needed in the areas of staff communication (21.4%), staff responsiveness and housekeeping (both 17.9%), and dining, clinical services and maintenance (each 14.3%).
Menus and dining experiences also could use some help, residents said. The most important factors for the dining experience were choice and variety of menu (78.8%) and healthy options (50%). The top complaints were about the quality of food, lack of flavor and limited choices or repetitive menus.
Family visits received high ratings, with 83.3% of respondents indicating that no improvements were needed for the experience. But common feedback related to visits included food not meeting expectations, limited front desk hours and long sign-in processes, resident care records not being updated, and impatience with mask restrictions and COVID-19 vaccination requirements.
The survey also touched on care experiences, friendships and the ability of a community to make residents feel at home, all for which the majority of respondents indicated high satisfaction levels.
The white paper can be accessed on Bild & Co.’s website.
