When you receive a call, e-mail or visit from a potential new resident or client you focus on selling your community or service, getting all the important facts and benefits to the person and then setting up a plan for the next step in the process.  Sound, basic strategy that should be used by you, your marketing team and all individuals working with potential new clients or residents.  But, do you include listening and observing in your strategy?  Gathering useful nuggets that can help you improve your next tour or your approach with the next inquiry?  You should, as you might be able to learn something from every interfacing you have with a prospective new resident/client and their family.

Here are some things to observe/listen for when receiving a call or e-mail, guiding a tour or meeting with a senior and/or their loved ones:

1. What questions do you receive via e-mail?  Are these answers that should be on your site or marketing materials and if they are there, do they need to be emphasized? 
2. Listen to the tone of the caller.  Are they stressed and rushed?  Are they more in an information gathering mode?  Try to glean this from the conversation to help you determine the timing of your next step.  Can you answer all questions?  If not, are the answers easily accessible?
3. Write down some of the questions asked by callers and e-mailers.  Go over these with other individuals that come in contact with prospective new clients or residents.  Make sure they are consistent and confident with their answers.   Most of all, make sure your community or business has the right answers.  If not, do your programs need to be expanded?  Does the meal plan need to be updated?  Is it time to upgrade your common areas, rooms or computer systems?  If it’s important to the client, it better be important to you and your staff.
4. When touring your community, where do people pause and really their surroundings?  When looking at a specific room or apartment unit, what details do they spend time on?  What rooms are gone over in detail?  What questions are they asking?  Listen for emotional shifts after a question or tour of a specific area.  Follow-up questions after your answers are very important.  Does their pace pick-up or questions cease after a certain point?  Remember where this happened, as something may have turned them off to your community or business.  Don’t be afraid to ask.
5. When talking to current residents as part of a tour, observe the interfacing between current and prospective residents.  That’s where the little details that are important may come out.  Also, listen to the answers of your residents.  You may sense underlying issues with them or things that need to be improved if their answers are short and evasive.  They might not say something negative, but their body language and hesitation may speak volumes.

While the primary goal of a tour, consultation, phone call or e-mail response is to succinctly present the selling points and lead to the next step toward closing the sale, don’t forget to be planning for future marketing plans, looking for ways to improve your community or honing your presentation to prospective residents or clients.  Listen and observe, you’ll see and hear volumes!