Covid-19 | DCM Institute

There are understandable concerns about village sales, especially the refundable deposits and longer-term potential buyers who may think to pull out as they try to sell their homes. Have you got a plan?

I had the opportunity this week to interview Alison Abel. She is Sales Director at the leading marketing agency Marketability, but also the on the ground Sales Manager at the new village The Gracewood, at Kellyville in Sydney, a BaptistCare village.

I’ve always admired Allison for being a “doer”, a relationship builder, a fellow customer-experience junkie, and a lover of “all things retirement living”. But even more so now that I have uncovered her “WHY”.

Alison’s “why” is simply, “to provide the best customer journey to her clients that is possible”.

Long before COVID-19, Alison and her team focused on relationships, education and customer experience as a key part of her sales solution.

This included hosting information days and education sessions for potential clients; individualising client experiences (e.g. by hand-writing name cards for designated car parking spaces); and welcoming clients to The Gracewood.

In fact, Alison and her team typically have five touchpoints with clients – before they arrive for their first onsite inspection.

These strategies have allowed Alison to begin her “coping during a pandemic” journey, with an engaged database built on trusted relationships.

Coping with COVID

As soon as COVID-19 hit, Alison and her team decided to up her focus on supporting The Gracewood’s 100 incoming residents. They set out to deepen their existing relationships with prospective clients on their database.

Allison immediately instigated:

a weekly EDM to her depositors and database, to continue engagement
Zoom interviews with incoming residents to uncover their real-life stories, which were then shared with others
Five-minute videos with guest speakers around topics of interest to her prospects, which she then shared with her prospects
All of these activities have served to build on her existing relationships and are ensuring that communication channels remain open.
They also further develop the trust that has been established in The Gracewood and BaptistCare since day one.

So far, the feedback on these initiatives – from prospects, depositors and families – has been overwhelmingly positive. Many have enjoyed the opportunity to share their own stories.

Check out this example of one incoming resident, Helen, HERE.

Remember, it is a lot harder to find new buyers compared to the real buyers who already know and trust you.

The Prime Minister has clarified the level of testing taking place in Australia, following media comments that we are falling behind. This is what he said in a press conference yesterday:

PRIME MINISTER: “There is some important information I wanted to relay on testing. My morning brief this morning has Australia at 162,747 tests for Covid-19. Now, to put this in perspective, the tests by 100,000 population for Australia is five times, almost five times, 4.7 in fact, what it is in the United Kingdom, it is 25 times what it is in the United States. It is even higher now than in the Republic of Korea and puts Australia right at the top of that leaders board in terms of the amount of testing that we’re undertaking in Australia. This is a very important statistic because it shows that those testing resources we are securing and we are continuing to deploy”.The Health Minister, Greg Hunt reaffirmed that aged care workers are ‘at the forefront’ of people to be supported with testing and PPEs (personal protection equipment).

At the same time the Department of Health warns aged care providers of delays in receiving PPE due to increased demand – and only masks available.

The Department says it can only provide masks at this stage with other PPE to be provided “when available” – raising questions about the PPE stocks available to providers and aged care staff.
In an email to providers, the Department says it has introduced a new process for aged care providers to access PPE supplies – asking aged care services and staff not to approach the Primary Health Networks (PHNs) but instead email agedcarecovidppe@health.gov.au for all requests.

The Department says it will then triage the requests – with priority given to facilities, programs and workers where there has been a confirmed case of coronavirus.

“It is important to remember that if you do not have a confirmed case of COVID-19 within your facility, program or service you should expect delays in receiving your PPE due to the increase in demand,” it reads.

The letter also asks providers to list in their request the details of the suppliers they have attempted to source PPE stock from – and the types and quantities of PPE required, but adds: “please note, only masks are available at this stage and other PPE will be provided when available”.

The Government had assured the sector at the previous Friday’s aged care forum on the coronavirus in Canberra that it would make the availability of PPE to aged care services a priority.