A Note from the VP, Jim Greatorex: October 2021

Published in Home Modifications on October 27, 2021

Select Member Program Update

Do you wonder why we seem to talk about the aging in place market so much? Many members have significant revenue coming in from state programs, workman's comp, and the VA, and many find the private pay market to be a tough nut to crack. In our view, those revenue platforms are great and will continue to provide work, but the market that will see substantial growth in our industry will be the private market as seniors look to age in place. While the other will grow modestly, the private pay market will experience substantial growth and has a transaction process that your company controls, not a third party. We want our members to be considered the companies of choice for consumers to get our fair share and more of this segment of the industry. That’s why we have been working on our Select Member consumer lead program for the last 18 months. We are finding that many national senior service companies are glad to learn that there is a national network of home access contractors that they can educate their clients about.

Many of you are likely wondering whatever happened to our Select Member Consumer Lead program we kicked off last year. Here is the short story. We started out with several agreements with potential referral sources that held much promise. Then March 2020 happened! We also realized that our original plan for marketing to seniors was not effective in reaching them. We were marketing a home safety assessment performed by vetted and certified home access contractors, and we now know that message does not work in a market where most transactions are reactive. Consumers are not going to engage in our services until they need it, whether it’s reoccurring falls or a family member who has had a traumatic health incident. We realized that we needed to partner with referral sources who were already in the home.

In the last six months, we have connected with and are building a referral program with new partners, Senior Home Services and AAG. Both companies have unique offerings to seniors in which they are able to bring consumers to our network who need and want our services.

Senior Home Services (SHS) had a webinar on Oct. 26 that explained how they are getting into seniors homes and introducing them to home modifications that would help them successfully age in place. The SHS program was tested in the Northern VA and DC markets and produced quality leads with consumers who had interest and need. They are now starting to scale nationally, and they are only going to use members in our Select Member program for leads that they generate. They also have a very unique revenue-share affiliate program that has potential for your company to get recurring income simply, and it will not add any added expense to your company. Senior Home Services is a company that will be successful and we can also share in their success.

Now that we have some lead producing partners, we need more select members! To qualify, you need to be a full-service home access company and get a customer-facing representative Master CEAC certified. If you already are a Select Member, we will be contacting you in November with some simple tweaks to our contract that remove the unnecessary items. A full service home access contractor needs to be able to perform home assessments and provide solutions in the following six categories:

Stairlifts
Vertical Platform Lifts
Residential Ramps
Grab Bars and Handrails
Bathroom Remodels
Overhead lifts

If you are not able to perform all of these services but would like to, we can help you. If you perform some of these services but sub out some others, we can still talk. Please contact either Jessica Barber or myself by email or phone if you have interest in this program. We cannot be successful unless we have dedicated, professional, ethically-sound members providing these services. If you feel that providing meaningful home accessibility solutions to seniors so they can continue to safely live in the home they love is important, then you are who we are looking for. Reach out and let us explain the whole program to you.

Thanks for your membership!

Jim

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