The Challenge
Senior living communities are required to conduct satisfaction surveys with their residents and staff to ensure quality services, care, and meet regulatory standards. However, the traditional methods present numerous challenges:
Survey by Mail
Mailing surveys to residents and family members often results in low response rates due to the time required to return them. This method fails to engage respondents effectively, leading to limited and unrepresentative feedback. Additionally, the lack of digital integration isolates the collected data, complicating comprehensive analysis across the organization.
In-Person Surveys
Some communities have staff conduct in-person surveys with residents, which can boost participation but is time-consuming. With around 100 residents per community and each survey taking 30 minutes, this process can take multiple workdays. Additionally, the presence of staff often leads to “neutrality bias,” where residents provide neutral or less honest responses to complete the survey quickly or avoid hurting staff’s feelings. This reluctance limits the usefulness of the results, making it difficult for management to derive genuine, actionable insights.
Market Intelligence Companies
These companies offer ready-made survey templates but face the same low response rates and biases as the methods mentioned above. Their surveys focus on quantitative results, lacking the qualitative depth needed to fully understand residents’ experiences. While some offer phone interviews, these services are expensive (starting at $25 per successful call) and rigid, with employees reading questions without follow-up. These calls are only conducted during business hours, which also reduces the response rate.
Accessibility
Another significant issue is the accessibility of survey data and resident information. During admissions, new residents are interviewed about their routines, hobbies, and interests. Unfortunately, these interviews are often recorded by hand and stored in paper files or buried within an EHR system, making it difficult for staff to access. Additionally, this information is rarely updated, despite changes in residents’ lives and interests, limiting the community’s ability to personalize care and services effectively.
Organizational Insights
Feedback collection across different communities within the same organization is often inconsistent. Each community may use its own method, leading to a lack of standardized processes and results. This inconsistency silos data within individual communities or departments, making it difficult to aggregate and analyze comprehensively. As a result, the organization misses opportunities to identify broader trends, address systemic issues, or implement solutions that could benefit the entire organization.
Summary of the Problem
The primary issues with the current survey and admissions processes include:
- Time-consuming: Traditional methods like paper surveys and manual data entry are labor-intensive and inefficient, with little integration between systems, leading to redundant work and delayed insights.
- Quantitative vs. Qualitative results: Existing methods often focus on quantitative data, such as scores, with little room for qualitative feedback that could provide more context and depth to the results.
- Reaching respondents: Surveys conducted via traditional methods or market research companies struggle to engage residents effectively, leading to low response rates and incomplete data.
- Accessibility of information: Critical resident information is often stored in inaccessible formats or outdated, making it difficult for staff to use this information.
- Lack of individualized insights: Survey results and resident information are often not updated or accessible, making it challenging to gain specific insights into each resident’s experiences and needs. Without regularly updated profiles, staff are unable to tailor care, services, activities, and other aspects of daily life.
- High costs: Traditional survey methods and market intelligence services are expensive, and do not always deliver the insights needed.
Project objectives
To address these challenges, Wingate Living Needham and Wingate Living Providence implemented MemoMate’s AI-driven profiling and survey modules. The profiling process, based on the admissions form, was conducted via phone to create comprehensive digital profiles that staff could easily access to tailor services to individual needs. Following profiling, satisfaction surveys were conducted over the phone, capturing both quantitative and qualitative feedback. These surveys were designed in collaboration with Executive Directors.
This research, conducted in August 2024, included a sample of 50 residents from both independent and assisted living.
The objectives were:
- Achieve a response rate of over 90% for phone-based surveys
- Achieve an 80% willingness rate to participate in future surveys from the residents
- Provide department heads with actionable insights that not only highlight individual resident preferences but also offer community-wide trends and benchmarks to enhance the overall resident experience
Implementation
MemoMate was integrated into the daily operations at Wingate Living’s Needham and Providence locations. The Executive Director selected a group of residents open to participating in new initiatives. After obtaining their After obtaining consent, MemoMate conducted phone-based satisfaction surveys and profile-building interviews. These automated calls were completed without any need for staff intervention.
Key Outcomes
Resident Profiles
The profiling calls created detailed profiles for each resident. These profiles captured essential information about their backgrounds, preferences, routines, and personal histories. When combined with the survey data, these profiles provided a holistic understanding of each resident, enabling the staff to deliver more personalized services. The powerful combination of profiling and survey insights allowed Wingate Living to not only respond to current concerns but also proactively anticipate future needs. On average, the calls lasted 20 minutes.
Data-Driven Decisions
Integrating profiling data with survey results enabled us to create a dashboard that highlighted individual preferences, like a resident’s aversion to certain menu items or preferred room temperature. At the community level, aggregated data revealed broader trends, such as 70% of residents finding portion sizes too small or a desire for more varied afternoon activities.
These insights were compiled into actionable reports shared with the management team. This approach ensured that changes were not only broadly applied but also customized to individual needs, leading to targeted improvements like adjusting meal portions, introducing new activities, and tailoring services to better meet preferences. It was invaluable for understanding resident needs and preferences. On the other hand, certain information was already known to the management team, giving them a sense that they were on top of things.
Increased Response Rate
The implementation led to a significant increase in survey response rates, jumping from 30% to over 90%. On average, residents spoke for 15 minutes during the survey. The survey ended by asking if residents wanted to participate in future surveys over the phone, and 100% of the participants expressed a willingness to do so.
Quality of Responses
MemoMate’s AI calls resulted in surprisingly honest feedback. Many shared their thoughts and experiences more freely than expected, and they stayed on the line for longer durations. This provided richer, more detailed insights that were invaluable for understanding resident needs and preferences. On the other hand, certain information was already known to the management team, so it gave them a feeling that they were on top of things.
Reduced Workload of Staff
MemoMate’s automated calls eliminated the need for staff to manually distribute surveys, send mail, or conduct in-person interviews. Previously, this process could consume multiple working days. By automating them, MemoMate allowed staff to redirect their time to more meaningful activities with residents.
Sentiment Analysis
MemoMate’s AI analyzed the sentiment of resident responses, identifying patterns and trends in both satisfaction and emotional states. This deeper understanding enabled Wingate Living to address concerns proactively and tailor their approach to meet the residents’ emotional and social needs, further enhancing the overall resident experience.
What’s Next?
The successful implementation of MemoMate at Wingate Living demonstrated the immense value of centralized, actionable data on resident satisfaction and preferences. Encouraged by these results, Wingate Living plans to roll out MemoMate’s features across all eight of its communities to further enhance operational efficiency and resident engagement.
Looking ahead, MemoMate will integrate predictive analytics to anticipate resident needs and introduce real-time feedback loops for more responsive care. We’re also committed to working seamlessly with third-party systems, ensuring that resident data is accessible and actionable across all platforms.