From Average to Exceptional: Achieving Industry Benchmarks in Home Care

Most home care agencies are not underperforming because they lack effort.
 They are underperforming because they lack benchmarks.

In our January 14, 2026 GoCarePro™ Mastermind, we walked through what actually separates average agencies from exceptional ones and it is not hustle or luck 

_GCP Mastermind January 14, 2026

It is measurement, systems, and consistency.

This session focused on real, operational benchmarks across the entire agency:

• Sales and marketing activity that drives predictable referrals
 • Scheduling and client services metrics that protect revenue
 • Caregiver recruiting and retention numbers that stabilize operations
 • Weekly KPIs that prevent surprises instead of reacting to them
 • Why dual-channel marketing matters: strong online presence plus boots on the ground

We also covered the most common traps that keep agencies stuck:
 • Not knowing true conversion rates
 • Relying too heavily on one referral source
 • Slow or inconsistent follow-up
 • Trying to do everything alone
 • Growing on broken systems

The core message was simple but uncomfortable:
 You cannot improve what you do not measure.

Top agencies are not guessing.
 They know their weekly numbers.
 They review them consistently.
 They fix systems before they scale.

This Mastermind was recorded and is available as a video for members who want clarity on where their agency stands and what to fix first.

Exceptional agencies are not lucky.
 They are intentional.

If you want growth that does not collapse under pressure, benchmarks are not optional.

#HomeCareBenchmarks
 #HomeCareAgencyGrowth
 #HomeCareSales
 #CaregiverRetention
 #OperationalExcellence
 #GoCarePro
 #HomeCareLeadership

Continuum Mastery Circle Intro

Visit our website at https://asnhomecaremarketing.com
Get Your 11 Free Home Care Marketing Guides: https://bit.ly/homecarerev

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year Kickoff And Intros
• 4:43 Why Benchmarks Matter In Home Care
• 6:59 Dual-Channel Marketing Strategy
• 10:54 Field Activity Benchmarks And Referrals
• 16:29 Booking And Signing Ratios That Convert
• 19:44 Timelines And Tactics For New Or Solo Owners
• 24:04 Scheduling As A Revenue Engine
• 29:09 Lunch And Learns That Win Referrals
• 31:44 Missed Shifts, Language, And Retention
• 35:49 Recruiting Funnel And Ad Strategy
• 41:39 Fast Onboarding And 90-Day Retention
• 46:19 Systems, KPIs, And Avoiding Pitfalls

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:09

Hello everyone. Welcome, welcome. 2026. Wow. Holy 2026.

SPEAKER_02: 0:19

It came quick.

SPEAKER_04: 0:21

It did come quick. Fastest holiday I ever had, I think. Welcome everyone. We've got a few more coming. We'll just give them another little bit more time.

SPEAKER_05: 0:35

We get a lot coming in last minute here.

SPEAKER_02: 0:37

Yeah, we've got the new link, but I think everybody got the message. So I think that's a good question.

SPEAKER_04: 0:40

Yeah, the link seemed to work. All of you got the new link and registered. We do this every year. Okay, we're gonna go and get started and we can let people in if they come. So welcome to Master Go Care Pro Mastermind. We changed the name just a little bit so that it makes more sense. So we're happy you're here today. We are gonna do introductions. We won't do them every time. I guess because it's a new year, maybe we should. I am Don Theola. I have been with the Proof Senior Network now close to four, I think May will be four years, long time. I've been in home care for close to 20 years. I've worn several hats in home care. I was operations manager at home and stead senior care. I was there for 10 years. I love to grow the private pay side of the business. I was able to, with the help of a team, of course, get to 3.5 million in private pay in under four years. And so we share all of that with you here in Mastermind and in our sales training, which that's a great leading to Annette. She's our trainer. Go ahead, Annette, introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44

Hi, everybody. My name is Annette Ziggler, and I will be with ASN two years in April. I just I can't believe it. It's time flies when you have fun. I too have had over 20 years home care marketing experience, done everything, been out in the trenches, and I teach the sales training classes. I love doing what I do, giving you all the tips and tricks how to get those private pay referrals. So welcome and happy new year.

SPEAKER_03: 2:12

I like that in the trenches. It's a good one. I'm Lisa Marcella. I was in home care forever and a day as well. I wore every single hat imaginable. And I've been here for now three years. Coming on three years, my anniversary is coming up. And I just love to be a part of your journey on this end and help you guys throw everything that you're experiencing out there. So thanks for letting us and for being here.

SPEAKER_01: 2:41

My turn, yes. Well, I'm Valerie Van Bouben. I'm a registered nurse and the founder and co-owner of Approved Senior Network. And these ladies are the stars of the show. I've been here for 18 years. But these ladies are what makes ASN great. My forte is more in along the lines of the digital marketing and online stuff. So once in a while, they will let me run one of these meetings and talk. But we know that the most important thing you can do is listen to them about the in-person piece of this and how to put the online and the in-person together. And we try to talk about that all the time. Both are very important, but these ladies really know their stuff. So leave it up.

SPEAKER_04: 3:31

Um, Ballard, you want to do the housekeeping?

SPEAKER_01: 3:33

You're housekeeping in person. So for these meetings, we like you to mute your lines unless you're speaking, because we know there's other things going on in your life besides this meeting. But share stories and experiences and tips. If you want to speak up and tell folks about something you've experienced or something that made a difference for your business or your marketing, please don't hesitate. There's also a chat, and I think Lisa probably has said hi in the chat or somebody has. So chat with us there, and we can always relay your information or answer your questions. Be sure to ask questions there or unmute your line, make recommendations, and tell us what you want to know. I can tell you that two years of video recordings of all these meetings are located inside our platform, and you all have access to that. So we'll talk about that later, but you can see everything we've already talked about.

SPEAKER_04: 4:31

Yeah, that's a great way to go back and watch some of those. Okay, today's agenda from average to exceptional, achieving industry benchmarks in home care, the benchmarks that define a successful home care agency, how top agencies consistently hit their target, and common pitfalls that keep agencies below the benchmark. So we want to achieving industry benchmarks in home care, how high performing agencies drive growth, quality, and profitability. The first thing that we are really been pushing the last year or so and will continue to push this year is that there is a dual channel to your marketing in today's day and age. To be successful in home care, you need a strong online presence. Modern families start their search online. Even if a social worker gave them your brochure and said, check out this company, they are going to look at your website, they're going to look at your Facebook, they're going to see if you're involved in the community, they're going to go to your Google Business Profile and read your reviews. So it's very important that you have a strong online present, a powerhouse website. All of that has to be happening in addition to the boots on the ground. Both have to be happening, and you have to be doing well at both. The boots on the ground, so the digital presence opens the door, but the personal relationships close the bills. This is a trust industry. So those face-to-face stops with referral partners, social workers and skilled nursing and community organizations, that builds that trust to convert to consistent referrals. So the agencies that are hitting these benchmarks are doing a great job at both of these things. So I wanted to address that first, and now we'll get into the benchmarks. So what why do benchmarks matter? They give you clear performance targets. If you don't know what good is, we're going to talk about sales and recruiting scheduling. If you don't, if you think 20 marketing stops a week out in the field is good, and that's what you do consistently, but you don't know what the industry standard is or the industry benchmark that your competitors are hitting, then you don't know what good is. You have nothing to compare it to, and you have no goals to go after. So it's important to know what the performance targets are so that you're hitting those benchmarks because your competitor probably is. Data-driven decisions, once you know what the benchmarks are, you know where you are in those benchmarks and you can make data-driven decisions instead of guessing by your gut. It seems like when I went to the SNP, I got a referral seven times later or something like that. You're just guessing by the gut that it's better to have data-driven decisions and make data-driven decisions. Predictable growth, strong benchmarks that you're hitting consistently create stability. They help you forecast and plan and scale with confidence. And then it gives you the competitive advantage. Understanding industry standards positions you ahead of your competitors who operate blindly. So, yes, you have some competitors that know the benchmarks and they're striving towards them. You probably have more that don't know what they are and they're not hitting them. So this will give you a competitive advantage. So the benchmarks that define a successful home care agency, we're going to start with sales and marketing. We're heavy in that in this group. For your marketing rep, or if you're the owner and you're out in the field, you should be a full-time marketing person is making 40 stops a week, 40 to 50 marketing stops a week. That's eight to 10 a day. They're not all face to face. Out of these 40 to 50, 15 to 20 of these are face to face. What are you doing with the rest of them? You're leaving something behind. The leaf behinds need to be intentional. They need to have something tangible that someone can hold on to and remember the leaf behind, and they need to be connected and focused on your business. And Lisa's going to go into that with you a little bit later. So 40 to 50 stops a week out of those 40 to 50, 15 to 20 are face-to-face. You should not get a face-to-face with your referral sources more than once a month. Unless they request you to come in, that's very different. If you expect to see their face every time you go into that building, you're calling them up to the front. They're not going to refer. They don't have time to see you every time you come by. So you're going by, you're seeing every referral source every eight to 10 days, once face to face a month. The rest are leave behind. And that's why out of the 40 to 50, 15 to 20 are face to face. From that, you will eventually, it's not going to happen overnight, but you will eventually get five to seven referrals from your referral sources every week. So these numbers are all weekly numbers. And so eventually 40 to 50 stops, 15 to 20 face-to-face, and you're seeing everybody every eight to 10 days. That consistency is really important. You're making sure you're getting at least one base, you're getting that face-to-face monthly. You will get five to seven referrals from your efforts in the field every week. Annette, Lisa, do either of you want to chime in. I think it's important to mention here that I'm from Arizona. Annette's from New York. Lisa's from California. And we all have different experiences, except this seems to be the same. Annette, we're on top here. Why don't you go first?

SPEAKER_02: 9:43

Yeah, everything ditto to everything you say. You you want to get to see that social worker at least once a month. But yeah, every time you go in, they're not going to come out and see you. That's why Lisa at the end of the program here is going to give you all these really cool, fun leave-behind ideas that we make for you to hopefully maybe get them to come out and talk to you. But yeah, you definitely, it's I had somebody in one of my sales training classes the other day. I know sometimes when I show this in our training, people are like, what? I can't do all this. But I had somebody in my class the other day that said, I'm not, I've been making, I went, I did eight to 10 stops every day, and it really wasn't that much because yeah, because not every single person is coming out to see you. So if that's all you're doing is full-time marketing, it's very doable.

SPEAKER_04: 10:26

So that's all you have to get. It is doable. And I think people freak out when they see 40 to 50. But a leave behind, I do want to clarify when you leave something behind, you are also, when you get into your car, going to call, text, or email that person, hey, I left something for you at the front desk. This is what it is, and this is why I left it there. This is why it's important, whatever the reasoning is, whatever it is you left behind. So yes, you are leaving it there, but you do need to alert them that you've left something for them up front, or they may never see it. Definitely.

SPEAKER_03: 10:59

Yeah, just make sure that you do that follow-up, that consistent follow-up. Yeah, all the same. Every once in a while you have that friend, social worker that will come out and see you every time, but you can't expect that for everyone because they do have work to do. They've got to get people home, they're busy. But yeah, everything that you say is true in San Diego, California. And New York as well as Arizona. Yeah, I can attest to both. I worked home care in both states. So, yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_04: 11:29

That's true. You worked in Arizona and California. It's funny because we didn't none of us knew each other before we worked here and we compared notes when we all started working together and we had been doing the exact same thing. And we all grew the agencies into the millions of dollars very quickly in private pay, doing what we're showing you today, what we show you every time in the Mastermind and Sales Turney. So, in addition to this, if these things are going well, right, you have some service inquiries coming in. Calls that are coming in. This also includes a referral source handing you or sending you down the hallway. They're also giving you referrals. You should be booking, turning those 70% of those into assessments. So if you get 100 phone calls, 70 of them should be assessments. You get 10 calls, seven should turn into assessments, but that also includes those direct referrals. When you go on an assessment, 90% of those should be signed. And this is sometimes we schedule assessments to do like a safety check, right? That may not get you to the 90% signing because it wasn't a qualified lead to begin with. But I'm talking true, qualified, was sent by a referral source, can in a website lead, something like that. Those assessments that you go out to, 90% of those should be signed. Based on all of this, you should be getting three to four new clients a week just from what you're doing out in the field. But all of these numbers have to be happening. You have to hit them all. You will probably get some other signed jobs from paid leads, maybe that you're doing, website leads that you're getting. There are other places where leads come from. This is we're talking just about your marketing out in the field. Another thing that successful home care agencies do is they keep track of their weekly revenue. So decide what your goal is for the year in private pay revenue, divide it by 52, and that's your weekly revenue rate, your run rate. It's really important to see where you are in your weekly run rate. You should be checking that weekly. All of these numbers should be checked weekly. If you're not doing the marketing, even if you are, you should sit down with yourself or whoever's doing the marketing and run through this. Did you get 40 to 50 stops? How many were face to face? How many referrals did you get? What's your booking ratio? What's your signing ratio? How many jobs did we have signed? If those aren't all yeses, you have to figure out where is the problem, what happened, because it's very easy to break it down. Maybe they got 60 stops and face-to-face. It's probably why you didn't get five to seven referrals. Or maybe you've got 40 to 50 stops, 15 to 20 were face to face, and you got five and five to seven referrals, but you didn't get three to four signed jobs. Why? Maybe the booking ratio is at 20%, or maybe the signing ratio is at 50%. There's a breakdown in the system somewhere. So when you look at the numbers every week, you've got to find what's broken and fix it. The weekly run rate, if you're not hitting that weekly run rate goal that you've set for yourself, you have to figure out what's going on. It could be sales and marketing, it could be you're not you don't have enough caregivers. It could be that your scheduling team isn't staffing those quick starts fast enough. But we're going to get into that too here in just a minute. So it's really important. Take your revenue goal for the year, divide it by 52, and keep track of that weekly run rate as you go. Don't wait till the quarter is over. It's too late. You can't fix it. Don't even wait a month. Look at it every week. Look at all your numbers every week. You should know your numbers the top of your head at all times. Lisa, did you have something? It looks like you have something to add.

SPEAKER_03: 15:03

Yeah, I yeah, I just had a couple of questions that came in. So I wanted to make sure while we're here on the subject. One question was, how long would it take on average to get to these figures? And the other question is, how should an agency that doesn't have a dedicated salesperson adjust these numbers to be realistic? So I think they go a little bit together because it depends, right?

SPEAKER_04: 15:25

So I would say that it can take up to six months to start, but you have to be consistent. 40 to 50 stops can happen tomorrow or this next week. This week, Monday's already, or Wednesday is kind of gone because we're sitting in your half the week's gone. But next week, you can do 40 to 50 stops and 15 to 20 can be face to face. And you have to be seeing the same people every eight to 10 days. It's consistency. You're proving that you're reliable, you're proving that you're showing you're showing up, you're there every eight to 10 days. Super important. So I would say if you're doing those things and you're building relationships, I mean, in our self-training class, we're teaching you how to get past the gatekeeper, what to say, what to bring with you. You need to know all of those things as well. But I would say it can take up to six months to get those five to seven referrals from the field. You also have to have a good way to book assessments and a good signing ratio. All this has to be working together. But I would say about six months. That's what I expect a new marketer when they start. I expect them to be able to be doing this within six months. But I'm helping them. I'm looking every week. Oh, it looks like you didn't hit your face-to-face. Let's fix that next week. Let's talk about how we can fix that. If you're not able, you're a new agency and you're doing everything, you're the owner and you're doing everything, and you can't make this many stops. The best replacement, and I think Lisa and that agree, is to go to skill nursing facilities, rehab hospitals. Your odds are just in your favor there. Like they're recovering from something that happened. They shouldn't go home without help. And they're discharging maybe seven to 15 people a week. It just increases your odds that you're going to get more from those places. So I would focus on skilled nursing facilities and rehabs. And I would pick maybe 15 of them if there's that many in your area and go consistently. You never miss. So pick an amount that you can go to consistently every eight to 10 days and do that until you could you grow enough to be able to hire someone to do it for you. Does that answer both the questions?

unknown: 17:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 17:27

I think so. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Okay. Oh, we have another one. Oh, yes. They said thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 17:33

Okay. All right. Scheduling. Scheduling has a lot to do with revenue too. I think people get hooked up on the well, sales and marketing is where the revenue's coming in. We got to hire the best person. And you do, and it's important. But it's not the only place. Scheduling also affects revenue. Um, so your scheduling department person, whomever is in charge of that, should be able to staff a quick start. Now, this is a larger company, three to four quick starts a week. What I can tell you is when you get a marketer out there that's doing a really great job, if you're the owner and you're doing a really great job, they will test you. And I know Lisa and Annette will tell you this as well. Oh, and you say you can do a quick start. Okay, I'm gonna call on you on Friday and say I've got some, I need an overnight tonight. You need to be able to do that. So your scheduling team needs to be prepared and ready to do that. Maybe you have some caregivers on call. Uh, we always had lead caregivers so that they could jump in and do this. They're going to test the waters a little bit. When you say you can do a quick start, you need to be able to do it. So they're gonna throw you some, they're not bad jobs, they can be harder jobs, right? Because you've been coming in and they want to give you a chance. A lot of times that's the chance they give you. Your scheduling, scheduled person should also be staffed ahead. So when you're small, a job comes in, let's say it's Monday through Friday, seven days a week. When you're small, you staff the whole thing, right? It comes in, you staff all seven days done. As you grow, that's not how it works anymore. And this is good for you to know ahead of time because I didn't know this is how it was gonna be. As you grow, you staff your Monday, Wednesday, Friday caregiver, and then you staff your Tuesday, Thursday caregiver, and then you staff your Saturday, Sunday caregiver. So always on your open shift sheet or screen or whatever it is you're looking at, there are always going to be jobs there forever and a day. And then someone calls off for tomorrow, that's another open shift. So there are open shifts on open all the time. Your scheduling team should be staffed ahead 50 to 70 percent of the time. Staffed ahead means 48 hours out. When you're small, not as big a deal. As you get big, it's a big deal. So on Monday, before they're done with work, everything is staffed through Wednesday. Yep. Everything is staffed through Wednesday. The smaller agencies are probably thinking, of course we're staff. Why wouldn't we be staff? I'm telling you, as you grow, Lisa and most fake and that as you grow, it doesn't work that way anymore. So they need to be staffed ahead 50 to 70 percent of the time. They leave Monday, they're staffed through Wednesday. What does this do? This frees them up for quick starts when they come in. In on Tuesday, staffed and done. So they're dealing with call-offs. So they're free to do that because they're not still staffing for Tuesday. And if your marketer calls and says, Hey, I have this shift starting tonight, can you do that? They have time to work on that because they're not working on staffing today or tomorrow. Those are already done. So you need to be thinking if you're new to this and you're growing and you're trying to think ahead, you don't always know what that picture looks like. I'm painting the picture. This is what it looks like. So this is an important piece for revenue. If you can't do that quick start and that social worker finally referred after your marketer had been out there and out there, out and finally referred, and now we can't do the quick start, they may not refer again. So that's gonna upset your marketer and it could ruin the relationship. So being staffed ahead is going to help a lot. And it's just gonna make them be more relaxed. It's very difficult to come into work, not Tuesday night's not staffed, and it's Tuesday morning, and now you have a call off. What are you supposed to work on first? What are you gonna do? So they have to stay staffed ahead. The other thing is shift coverage. Reliable staffing maintains client trust and service quality and reduces billing drops. So we are kidding.

SPEAKER_03: 21:18

Can I stop you? Yes, sorry. I'm sorry. Brian had has a comment for face-to-face numbers, hitting those numbers. And so I wanted to give them the floor for a second.

SPEAKER_05: 21:29

Oh sure, go ahead. Oh, are you still there?

SPEAKER_03: 21:41

You might be on mute. Brian, Brian?

SPEAKER_00: 21:44

I'm here, I'm here.

SPEAKER_03: 21:48

Yeah, give us your call.

SPEAKER_00: 21:50

I'm on Pansi Home Care in Connecticut. I'm developing a new territory for us. Nobody knows us. And I found some success in doing what I'm calling like an in-service or a lunch and learn.

SPEAKER_05: 22:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 22:03

And I'm getting in front of the whole team. Like my first month out in the field, I think I scheduled something like 15 of them.

SPEAKER_03: 22:11

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 22:11

And I've been averaging, I don't know, one or two to three a week since. And before I leave, I establish what's appropriate for me to come back. Because I said part of my staying top of mind is making regular visits. So be it bring you guys donuts or coffee or whatever. Is there days? When can I do this? And I establish that so they know I'm coming. And I also shoot emails out, hey, I'm in the area today. I was planning on stopping by. What can I grab for you guys the day before? So that I'm popping in, but not really. And they're expecting me. And it's now got to a point where people are looking forward to me coming. And it makes those visits just a lot easier and really makes the relationships a lot stronger.

SPEAKER_04: 22:53

That's fabulous. And the lunch and learns are a great way to get referrals and for them to get to know you. And we do teach that in our sales training class that we do give you two lunch and learns that you can use at skill nursing facilities and you can use anywhere. And Brian, that's fabulous. I'm so glad that you're scheduling those lunch and learns. You have the floor, they're paying attention, they're listening to you. I have found that to be a great way to. Are you getting referrals from the lunch and learns?

SPEAKER_00: 23:22

Yes, we are. And when I go in, I'm not even really, I'm like, you guys all know what non-medical home care is, and they all laugh. That's exactly right. Yep.

SPEAKER_04: 23:30

And we can teach our training classes.

SPEAKER_00: 23:32

So I'm like, I'm not here to talk to you about that. I'm here to talk to you about what are the pains? What are we doing differently? Why are we somebody you want to refer to versus everybody else? And the to get an opportunity is like not really that hard. And then obviously segueing into what you're talking about now is really not the key to doing what you say you're gonna do.

SPEAKER_04: 23:51

That's fabulous. And that is those of you in sales training right now, and you've heard Annette say that you have to have a differentiator. They don't care, they care about home care, they have to care about it, but they know what it is. They know we do bathing, they know we do med reminders. You don't want to bore them. And with Brian, it's really great that you started that way. I'm not gonna bore you with what home care is. You know what that is. This is about why we're different, how we're different, why you want to work with us. So fabulous. I'm so glad you spoke. It really helps someone to be doing that out there and saying the same things and then training every week, right?

SPEAKER_02: 24:24

Yeah, for those of you, my sales training class members on the call. What am I always saying? Did you book a lesson? Did you book an in-service? Let's book them.

SPEAKER_04: 24:33

Yes. Oh, this is take this little bit of the recording and put it in your sales training. They can all say what it's doing and it's working. So it's fabulous fine.

SPEAKER_02: 24:42

Thank you very much, Brian. I mean, you did scheduling all those, it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00: 24:46

I'm available for freelance, by the way.

SPEAKER_02: 24:50

Okay. No.

SPEAKER_04: 24:52

And you're with Pansi, Brian? You're with Pansy Home Care?

SPEAKER_00: 24:55

Yes, I'm the I'm the newest member of the team. I'm the director of sales. So I'm going to be developing and then building teams, hiring folks to take over once we have a foundation and fabulous.

SPEAKER_04: 25:06

Yeah, Jonah does a great job too. Wonderful. Okay, shift average. Less than 10% of your shifts missed. So again, when you're smaller, not as big a deal. It's still a big deal. So I will tell you, we had this guy where I worked last and I could see my weekly billing in the beginning of the week. So I'd get in there on Monday. I would have lots and lots of billing hours sitting there scheduled to go. And then Wednesday, Thursday, it would drop. And I'd think, did somebody go to the hospital? What happened? Why didn't my billing drop so much? And sometimes it was something like that. But what I found was people, the caregiver would call it sick. The scheduling person would call this client and say, your caregiver's out sick. And then she would say, Do you want coverage today? Do you want me to find a replacement? That is not a question anybody should ever be asking. First of all, the senior doesn't want coverage. The senior doesn't want the care at all. They don't think they need it. That adult child is going to be so bad that we asked mom and dad that question. That should not be a question that ever comes out of anyone's mouth. It should be instead, your caregiver is out sick. We will have somebody there by this time. I know that is a scary thing to say because they have to find the somebody. Again, this is another reason to have lead caregivers on staff or on-call caregivers, whatever you call them, so they can go cover these ships. We lost a huge amount of billable hours because of the language that was being used. So check that you don't want to miss less than 10% of your ships should be missed each week. And when you get bigger, that's a big number. So it was really affecting our billing. Client growth down on here on the bottom left, increase existing client hours by 10 to 20 hours a week. So we always had people out in the field checking up on the caregivers, checking up on the clients. That was my lead caregivers. That's what they did when they weren't covering shifts. And it was a pop-in visit. We told the client when we signed them up, these lead caregivers who didn't come by checking in, making sure everything it's a pop-in visit because we want to see how the caregiver is doing. We want to see how the house looks. We will come when they're scheduled to work. Most of them did the clients didn't care. If they did, we would say, okay, we will let you know before we come. Some of them wanted notice. Either way, when that lead caregiver is there, they're looking for cues with this client. How are they? Are they do are they the same? Is the care plan the same? They're also checking that the care plan against what's actually going on because we want to update our care plan. If they see something off and this person now needs more care, they're going to come back to the scheduling team and say, hey, I know we're doing overnights three days a week. We probably need them every night now because of XYZ. Can you call the daughter and talk to her about that? There is room to grow with current clients. They usually need more services. Train your caregivers to call their scheduler and tell them if something seems off or doesn't look right. They need, they are our eyes and ears out there. It's a really an important role. And so we need to hear from them, or you have a caregiver supervisor out there doing that kind of thing. But your scheduling people have a lot of power there to increase shifts for safety first, revenue second. It's just a really important thing to do. The care plan is not always going to be accurate as people age. If they go to the hospital, still nursing facility and come home, new care plan. Somebody needs to witness how they are now because usually things change a little bit. Client research.

SPEAKER_03: 28:31

Yes, sorry, we have a question. Just on the scheduling, this has been our sorry, this has been our hot topic lately. We're a small agency and sometimes have a hard time keeping staff and growing our roster. Do you have tips for hiring, maintaining staff? And then also they are in Buffalo, so it probably gets really cold. It's probably freezing right now. Um so that is a huge factor as well.

SPEAKER_04: 28:53

Okay, yeah, we will get into recruiting and retention next. And so we'll talk about some of that. We do some masterminds on that topic all by itself too, but we'll get into that a little bit also as we go through here. So client retention, keep client loss below two to three a week. Now, again, if you're a smaller agency, losing two to three clients in a week is horrendous. That's terrible. That would really hurt. Losing two to three a week when you're bigger can also hurt if it's a 24. So train your scheduling team to be watching for signs. Your caregivers too. Are is there discussion about moving into a group home? Are they on hospice and the hospice nurse is here all the time now and saying it's getting close? There are cues and are they interviewing other home care agencies? I've had caregivers call our scheduling team and say, hey, there's a home care agency interviewing the family. So it's important that everybody is looking at that. Of course, if somebody dies, there's nothing we can do about that, right? It's just it's just attrition, usually happens in December, but we can keep that below two to three. If the caregiver has been late three days in a row, the client seems okay, they're probably not okay. If that happens, I train my scheduling team. Let the marketer know that the caregiver's been late three days in a row. Just have them call the adult daughter or the client, depending on who signed the agreement and who started this whole thing, and just see how things are going. Don't call and report the caregiver's been out or late three days in a row. Just like, how are you? Oh, I'm doing good. I checked in on your mom, she's doing great. And then you're going to hear caregivers been late three days in a row. Teaching the scheduling team to understand the adult daughter, the adult son, whoever the loved one is, or even the client themselves, that they're not okay with that. The caregiver showed up. No, that's not always enough. It depends on the family. Just showing up isn't enough. If they're always 10 minutes late, that's annoying, especially to older people. They're very rigid with their schedules. Teaching the scheduling team to realize that three days late in a row is probably upsetting somebody, even though nobody's saying anything. And you can get ahead of it and stop it from happening and just get put your feelers out there. And the marketing person who got that adult daughter to get the job signed and done is probably the best person to make that call. Establish a KPI for your weekly billing run rate, review it consistently. This is the same thing. Be watching that weekly run rate, watch it and make sure you're hitting your goal or you're taking the steps to get there. Already, caregiver recruiting and retention benchmarks. So your ability to attract, hire, and keep quality caregivers directly impacts every other metric. Top agencies treat recruiting as a continuous system, not a crisis response. So what I found in recruiting is these numbers. If you look at these numbers, you have four to six, and then it doubles eight to twelve, and then it doubles 16 to 24. If you need to hire four to six people, you need 16 to 24 leads a week. Because you're going to lose half with every stage. So this is something I've just noticed through the years. So if you need to hire four to six, maybe you need to hire, I don't know, I'll have to do math here, but if you only needed to hire two to four, then this number would be four or two. What would it be? It'd be four to six, and this one would be eight to twelve. Are you guys following? These numbers cut in half. So leads, caregiver leads come in from your ads, you'll have 16 to 20. Out of that, only eight to twelve will get interviewed. And out of that, you'll only hire four to six. The attrition just cuts. And yeah, I don't know why it works that way, but it's been this way from the day, beginning of time. It's important to refresh your caregiver ads every single week. Doesn't mean you have to change the whole ad, but you need to go in and change the headline every single week. Your headline should have pay range ranges, not we pay$18 an hour. Do a range, have a pay range and put it in the headline. I know that Indeed will tell you, and ZipRecruiter will tell you that's gotta mess up the algorithm. It does not. I got into it with one of the reps at, I think it was Indeed. And I said, let's run the same ad. Exact same ad. You do one, I do one. I'm putting the pay range in it. You don't put it in there in the headline. He said, Okay, I got double the inquiries he did. It didn't mess up the algorithm. You put it at the end of the headline and it's a range. People are scrolling headlines. What's gonna make them click on yours? You have a heart-wrenching kind of headline, something that's gonna grab their attention. Help a senior near you stay home. That's your headline. If you want to hire people with a heart who really care about seniors, you have to pull up their heart strings in the headline. Yes. So caregiver, not caregivers, don't put an S on it. Caregiver, space, dash, space, headline. Help a senior near you stay home, space dash, pay range. That's your headline. It's worked for me for years. Lisa, did you have a question?

SPEAKER_03: 33:54

No, I was just saying, yes, you want people with hearts.

SPEAKER_04: 33:57

You need people with hearts because they're not going to become millionaires being a caregiver. They've got to care about this. It has to matter to them. That also helps with retention because if they care about this, they get the job they want, and they get to fulfill their heart every single day. It's going to help return them. You need to get them in quickly. We have a whole recruiting program here where when they apply, they get a text immediately saying, Thank you for applying. Please schedule your interview. They can schedule themselves. It could be two in the morning and they're looking for a job. They can schedule their interview with you all by themselves. It's automated. This gets them to quit talking to other companies. And so if you can text them and you have some automation, you're going to get more people. Caregivers are very much in the moment people. I'm looking for a job right now. I'm thinking about looking for a job right now. Tomorrow I may not be. So get me where I am. Give me the actions I need to take right now and get me an interview. And I will stop talking to their companies. That's the caregiver mindset. So when you're interviewing, you need to connect with them at the heart. You need to talk to them about how they're going to change people's lives. You also need to get at their that they're doing it for this reason, also. And then from that, you have four to six hires. It's going to be really important to that and get them to work right away. You can hire 50 caregivers. If they're not working, they're not going to stay, they're going to start ghosting you. When I bring a caregiver into the office, which is only one time, I only bring them in once. If you're making them jump through hoops and this huge long application, and your competitors aren't making them do that, they're going to go work at your competitors. Really important that what I used to do was a phone interview. Anything I needed to know that was from an application, I would ask during the phone interview. I did not make them follow the application yet. Do the phone interview, have them come in for orientation. They're not hired yet until they get through orientation. I don't want a bunch of unemployment stuff going on because I've had that happen. While they're there at orientation, they complete the application. I do my drug test while they're sitting there. I do all of that. I find out their availability. I send it over to my scheduling team. I'm training them, and scheduling is looking for a job. They do not leave my building without some kind of job, something. Maybe they're covering a shift. Maybe they want 40 hours a week, and I'm just able to get them 15. The deal is, I will get you all your hours you want within the next two weeks. When they spend a day at your office being trained, even if they're getting paid, they feel like they failed, they wasted their time when they leave without an assignment. So while they're getting trained, you are looking for an assignment for them and you're telling them within two weeks, you will have all of your hours. That's a super important part. All of this helps with retention, all of this helps with the churn, all of this helps you don't have to have as many ads. It saves on costs with the ads because the people that are coming in care, they're getting work right away, they're gonna stay with you. In their first 90 days for retention, they need weekly touch points from you. Again, we have a system that texts them every single week. We are not texting them, can you work Saturday? That doesn't count. That's not retention to say, can you work Saturday? Or I need your TV or your CPR is expiring. None of that is retention. The questions that we text them are, how was your first shift? Is there anything I can do to make your job better? How are you enjoying your clients? Those are retention questions. They get the text message, which is automated. Every week they get one from you, and then they respond to it. It's going to be important that you respond back because that part's not automated. For the first 90 days, if you can get a caregiver to stay 90 days, they're going to stay however long a caregiver stays. You have to get them over that 90-day home. It's a difficult time because other companies are still calling them. They filled out a bunch of applications, maybe, or applied to a bunch of jobs. Those first 90 days are going to be crucial. They need to hear from you every week, and they're heart people, so you have to meet them where they are. What you're asking them are heartfelt questions. Ongoing monthly recognition, check in with them monthly after that. Happy birthday, them. Happy anniversary, them. They need their heart people. The hardest part about this is caregivers are heart people. They need to feel like they're part of something bigger, and we send them out to the client all by themselves. It's just, it's the way this works. The only way they're going to feel like they're a part of your office or a part of something bigger is if they have communication from you. And the communication can't be all one-sided. It has to be two-way communication. Also, the recruiting retention person, whoever that is, should be shouting out in a monthly newsletter to the caregivers or in a texting system that you have to all the caregivers, three to four recognitions about caregivers every single month. Something somebody has done spectacular. So every month, three to four caregivers, or every week, three to four caregivers are recognized for something that they did publicly, right? Out to everybody. That will make them feel like a bigger part of something bigger. So I know somebody asked a question about all of this. So all of these things are going to help. I hope that I answer your question. We do some bigger things on recruiting and retention in some of ours, but this is a pretty good piece of it. So how top agencies consistently hit their targets? They track the right metrics. So weekly KPIs become routine. You're meeting with recruiting, sales, whoever these people or teams are every week and you're making sure they're hitting their goals and you're watching your run rate and you're identifying problems weekly. You don't get through the quarter and go, oh, we don't really have a process for when we sign a client. We don't have a good process for that. Quarterly is too late because now a whole three months have gone by. So identify problems every single week and fix them immediately. They build systems, not chaos. There should be a standardized intake. Be a clear hiring workflow. There should be documented procedures. All of these things will stop the putting out fires. Do it ahead of time. If you're not real big yet and not real busy yet, this is the time to do it. And I'm gonna tell you, as you grow, you're gonna still find things that need fixing. I can't tell you how many times we grow to another level, and I'm like, oh my god, we gotta go back and fix ABC. This didn't work now that we're big. It worked when we were small, but this process isn't working now that we're big. So we're gonna have to go back and put a layer in here. And that's normal. You're gonna be, that's already gonna happen. But if you do this, it won't happen as often. They invest in sales and relationships. They treat sales with a discipline, not something that just happens when things slow down. You have to be on, you have the 40 to 50 stops, 15 to 20, face-to-face, lunch and learns, all of this, follow-up systems, answer your phone calls live, your website, your Google business profile, your SEO, your person out in the field. All of that is to get the phones to ring and then you don't answer it live. That's crazy. I can tell you, we have several clients that are not answering their phones live. Everything you're doing is to get that phone to ring. Answer the phone live. Super important. Have dedicated relationship focus, build trust with discharge planners and social workers, be consistent in your activity and have professional follow-up. Focus on that caregiver retention, have competitive pay and hours, strong onboarding, recognize and communicate with them. All of this will generate better outcomes and get them work right away. That's going to be really important. The common pitfalls is they lack visibility into their numbers. They don't know their numbers. If you don't know your numbers, how can you make changes to get your numbers to be better? You have to know your numbers. You should know what your booking ratio, your signing ratio, how many caregivers you hired, how many ads did you run? What did that generate? How far out are we staffed? Are we staffed out 48 hours? All of that you should know. Over reliance on one referral source or referral type. You don't want to be 100% Medicaid business or 100% private pay business. You need a mix. If you're 100% private pay, mix it up. Have some skilled nursing facilities, have some VA, have some long-term care insurance. You don't want all your eggs in one basket because then you are dependent on what they're doing. If you have one hospital sending you everything and then they change the rules, that you don't have anything. So it's gonna be really important. You don't want to be vulnerable to market changes or sudden revenue drops or no control over overgrowth. So be sure that you are mixing up your referral sources and referral types. Poor sales follow-up systems. Again, answer your phones live. If you can't answer them live, return them within an hour. Must be the same day. Saturday at two o'clock, return it Saturday by three. Professional follow-up schedule assessments are confirmed. So with me, when I'm on the phone with a service inquirer, I'm making the assessment today. I'm gonna be in your area by at three o'clock. Does that work for you? Even if I'm clear on the other side of town, I'm gonna be in their area at three o'clock. Why? Because it's an assessment, takes priority over everything. So if though you're scheduling out because they have to schedule out, confirm with them 24 hours beforehand. And then systematic tracking, every prospect logged and followed up on until signed or lost. And so you need a CRM for that. The owner trying to do everything alone. Owner burnout is the silent killer of home care agencies. They get bottlenecks, inconsistent execution, staff frustration, owner burnout, and growth stalls. So exceptional agencies build leadership teams and document systems that allow operations to run smoothly without constant owner intervention. That doesn't mean the owner is not involved. It means they are focusing on strategy and growth instead of the daily firefighting. So among them from average to exceptional. Know your benchmarks, track performance consistently, fix systems before you start scaling, and build a business that runs. Exceptional agencies are not lucky, they are intentional. They make deliberate choices about what to measure, how to operate, and where to invest their time and resources. So where does your agency stand? Are you above benchmarks? Do you need to work on that? Don't try to do it all at once. Pick one thing and work on it for 90 days. Get that going. Pick another thing, work on that for 90 days, get that going. Don't try to do all of it at once. It's just too much. All right. Annette, you're up to talk about the sales training. And we don't left Lisa a lot of time. Sorry about that, guys.

unknown: 44:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_05: 44:58

Okay. We'll get it.

SPEAKER_02: 45:00

Hi, everybody. We have our Go Care Pro Sales Training Program, which is 12 weeks, a 12-week program once a week via Zoom. We I how do I want to say this? Dawn, myself, and Lisa again, we're all from different states. It doesn't matter where you live, it's the marketing, and we may have some different rules and regulations for your straight states, but it's all getting out there, creating those relationships. We give you tips and tricks. We cover every referral source. We make leave behinds for you. I have to say we spoon feed you week by week. I we just, it's a great, even if you're an experienced marketer, you're going to find some golden nuggets in our training. So these are the dates. I have, I think I have one or two spots open. And for January, I have openings for February dates. If you're interested, please let us know. Sign up. We'd love to have you. Okay, Lisa.

SPEAKER_03: 45:48

Yeah. Oh, I just wanted to touch really fast on the last slide. You can come up with a referral program as well for your current caregivers that you love. Ask them if they're great folks, but they had no life people just like them, and then offer maybe some sort of an incentive for after they get through X amount of hours or 90 days or something like that. So I think that's something to keep in mind. All right.

SPEAKER_02: 46:11

Time for Lean Behinds. Let's have one more question. Oh quick question, Jessica Daly. I love the information. Thank you. Do you have a reference list of appropriate KPIs each agency should know?

SPEAKER_04: 46:24

I do. I will include that. I'll send it to you Annette, and you can include it with the email when it goes. Perfect. All right. Okay. Thank you, everybody. We'll see you in two weeks.