Things I Think

I love technology. I’m using some right now. It’s technology, after all, that translates brain waves and finger twitches and makes it possible for me to tell you how much I love technology. Though my advancing age makes our relationship adversarial at times, I’m definitely a fan. 

But as with every good thing in life, there’s always a dangerous counterweight. Drinking too much water can kill you. Even kale isn’t healthy if you bake it into the shape of a pointy object and stick it in your eye. 

That’s true of long-term care marketing technology, too. These days, there are all kinds of ways to spend big money to showcase your capabilities and campus online. It’s easy to become enamored with 720-degree, 18-dimensional video tours, holograms that offer virtual coffee while singing your mission statement or touch-sensitive screen icons that emit a fresh-baked cookie smell whenever they’re scratched. * 

I get it. It’s all very exciting, and you can talk about how to leverage the wonders of the Web to grow census until the digital cows download home. But meanwhile, your greatest sales tool of all is completely analog and often underutilized — the persuasive passion of your people for the job they do and those they serve. 

Whenever I talk to someone who really cares about her residents or his facility, I’m transfixed by the sincerity, and reminded that nothing can possibly replace the power of that personal interaction. Your whole purpose in life, and every penny you spend on online marketing, should be with one goal — to get prospective residents and family members on campus talking to you and your most articulate and dedicated people. 

Technology is wonderful. So use it to drive visits, not to replace them. Because it’s professional passion, delivered personally, that really closes the deal.