We call thousands of senior communities & centers in the course of our sales & updating processes. We shake our heads when what we hope is a resident or client (untrained senior) answers the phone. It becomes a task to get to the person you are calling, especially if someone has changed positions and you need the new person! We usually get a story that they are just a volunteer or helping out, then like in one of my calls yesterday, they clutch the phone to some body part & either walk (you can hear the rhythmic swishing) to an office to ask who should get the call, holler for help (get ready to yank the phone away from your ear), or hang up on you while they place you on hold or try to transfer you. And that’s if you don’t get the easily frustrated person who gets grumpy that you don’t have the correct name & refuses to help you without a large dose of attitude, if at all! Or even better, the hard of hearing person in loud surroundings, so you have to repeatedly holler your request or question.

Do your business a favor & pay a trained receptionist. If you must use volunteers, train them & all back-ups on the importance of answering the phone. They are the first impression of your business. They need to know what they are doing, have the information they need, and know how to professionally handle all situations. A bad receptionist can cost you business & clients. Don’t let an un-trained person answer your phones & lose a tour for you, because they can’t answer questions pleasantly! Be picky about who answers your phones. It can effect your bottom line!

Last month, we expounded on the photographic talents of Donna Miller, this month, we need to shine a light on Cynthia Daniel, a long-time member of our production staff and her very creative talents.

Here is an excerpt from an article on her in the Dallas Morning News:

Cynthia Daniel keeps a gangly old muffler in her carport, a silent lump she communes with, waiting for it to talk.

With age comes patience, says Daniel, a graphic artist for a Dallas publishing firm and a constant dreamer of trash.She’s more than a dreamer. In recent years, this late-blooming welder has twisted, fired and honed a colony of eye-popping yard mates, some migrating to local sculpture shows, others charming their way into admirers’ back yards.

Her lively characters morph from the lowliest of throwaways, “found metal” she lifts from country lanes, junk yards and on quests through East Dallas for “big trash.”

Scraps speak to her, and she listens.

“I look at them every day in my yard, and they become something,” she says of her procedure for turning tractor springs, grilles or saw teeth into fish, flamingo or duck.

“Lately, I’m into fan blades. They become petals on flowers.”

The quiet-spoken Daniel, 58, plies her metallurgy from an updated ranch house in the Barbaree neighborhood, which is packed with small eccentricities that only gradually meet the eye.

Artichokes straddle her front door: She snatched two bulbous light fixtures off a curb in Lakewood and flipped them upside down. Toward the street, a toppled tree trunk hunches like a guardian bear. “I knew it was some kind of creature,” she says. “The next thing I knew, I put eyes on it.”

Around back, monster pansies hang from trees – all satellite dishes in previous lives. A giant carp spews into a koi pond, near cattails and caladiums cobbled from appliance parts. Aquatic plants are part of the welder’s series called Forever Plants – plants that never die.

Fellow welding enthusiast Lottie Minick says she is blown away by her friend’s vision with castoffs, recalling how she turned a boxy steel hulk into mother-and-son giraffes, a.k.a. Greta and Girard.

“I don’t know how, but she saw two giraffes in that humongous metal thing, and she brought them out,” says Minick, who took a welding class at the Creative Arts Center in East Dallas with Daniel. “Cynthia is good. She’s talented, and she evolves.”

Does Your Senior Living Sales Team Need Sales Training?

Donna Miller is one of the hardest working employees here at New LifeStyles.  She runs an airtight distibution operation, making sure seniors, their families, care providers and others receive copies of the New LifeStyles guides promptly upon ordering.

She is also a great nature photographer, winning numerous awards at this year’s State Fair of Texas.  If you have a couple minutes, here is a link to her fine work, www.donnamillerphotos.com/ , enjoy!

With the Olympics drawing to a close in London, time for a little Olympic fun.

What Olympic event best describes your community, job or working environment?  Suggetions:

- the relay, a well oiled staff working together to accomplish a victory or people that like to “pass the baton”

- synchronized swimming, trying hard not to drown

- fencing, exchanging strategic pokes with potential residents

- balance beam, balancing responsibilities or work and personal

- hurdles

- decathlon

- marathon

Choose from this list or come up with your own!  Let the games begin!

Came back from vacation on Sunday and actually felt like I got some time away.  Had great support from others to take care of things while I was gone, only checked e-mail once per day to clean out the junk and kept the phone locked away.  I had made the mistake of keeping the phone by my side on a family trip last year and after two days, I realized I just took care of work stuff (most of which could wait) or was thinking about work and never relaxed.  By the time I figure this out, I only had one day left!

My advice, make sure you do the same!  We are all trying to do more these days with the same amount of time.  When we get a break, whether its around the house or out of town, we really need to make it a clean break.  Some tips:

 - Go over all pending issues, advise external people of your upcoming trip and make sure that anything that can’t wait is addressed

- Advise internal people of important, timely issues and make sure they are given guidance on how to handle

- If people have things to address with you when you return, make sure they don’t send an e-mail while you are away that you will read.  The delayed e-mail is a beautiful thing

- Most of it is on you.  Prepare for your trip and decide how things will be handled while you are gone.  Getting on e-mail once a day to clean things out and make sure there is no emergency is not a bad thing, just don’t get sucked in.

Any other advice for a true vacation?  Make sure you enjoy yours, you deserve it!  df

Here at New LifeStyles we are continually looking for ways to encourage our team to be healthy.  As a company, we have particpated in the statewide corporate fitness challenge, done numerous Alzheimer’s walks and other challenging physical endeavors.  Its also hard to not find a salad around here during lunch. 

Recently, when we renewed our insurance plan, they brought forth the idea of an actual wellness program for the company.  If feasible, we would like to install such a program to further help and incent our employees to live a healthy lifestyle.  We feel it is a direct benefit to them and their families and is also good for the company in a number of ways.

Does your company have such a program?  Would love to hear the benefits or any drawbacks as we work to make this a reality.  What are other ways your company encourages a healthy lifestyle?  Thanks for your feedback!  df

As part of the month long celebration of Older Americans, today is focused on Senior health and fitness.  I cannot commend enough those activity directors and employees that make sure the residents in their communities stay active.  You are doing a great thing that pays benefits to that person, their family and your community.   No matter what your age, staying active contributes to bettering all aspects of your life.  It has been proven that staying physically active improves your mental health.  If your community doesn’t do a good job of promoting activity, get involved!  No matter how minor the exercise, it is better then nothing and for those communities that are feeling the effects of the economy, you can do a lot of fun and healthy activities with very little equipment.

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I will apologize now to anyone I may offend. This is not directed at any one person, but a reminder to all of us as marketers…

Why is that people feel compelled to answer their phones when they are in a meeting or appointment? Then act like you have disturbed them & they have to call you back. Really??? Then why in the world did you answer? It’s not like most phones don’t show the number the call is coming from… If I was the person you were meeting with, I would feel really unimportant if you answer an incoming call while we are talking!

I have been making sales calls this week & at least 3 people have answered their phones (office or cell) and then whispered to me that they are in a meeting, seminar or appt., so they will have to call me back. We make a lot of calls in this office, some sales calls, some follow-ups, and an equal part returning calls. And we all have the same experience.

As marketers, we should be even more cognoscente of impressions. So as a courtesy to those you are meeting with and those calling you, please don’t answer your phone if you are not in a position to talk. I understand when people are busy or driving and can’t take down a number, so they ask you to email the information, or refer you to someone else that can help, but answering the phone just to say you are unavailable & hang up is not only rude to the caller & whoever you are meeting with/listening to in person, but a waste of time for everyone! Let your voice mail answer & handle when you can do so properly. 

Think before you answer! Thanks!

A constant debate has always seemed to rage in the business world:  How many meetings should a company have?  Of course, that is too broad of a question, since company-wide meetings are few and far between, while units and teams involved in specific projects might meet daily or even multiple times during the day when a deadline is near.

There are many facets to the pro and con debate about meetings:

-          Meetings are expensive.  People will point to all of the resources that are tied up in a meeting when they could be performing their regular duties.  True, but not as extreme as a literal view of tying the hours to 100% lost productivity.  In many companies, those involved in the meetings will get the same amount of work done, just stretching the day to meet deadlines and catch up.

-          If you meet too often, people tune you out.  This is one reason I tend to fall on the side of meeting less.  You always want to have fresh things to discuss, new topics and some experiences since last meeting  to fuel new thoughts.  If a regular meeting is held too often, de ja vu kicks in and the audience will be unfocused.

-          Don’t involve too many people, unless it is a brief informative meeting.  Smaller groups encourage better back and forth and sharing of ideas. 

-          Meetings are a breeding ground for ideas.  With many people working at home, in other locations and generally being on the go, getting the team together at the proper interval can turn into a great opportunity to learn from each other. 

-          Meetings are communication.  Other forms of communication work very well, but in a meeting you can get a better sense of acceptance and understanding.

-          If you are communicating important, detailed plans in meetings, make sure you provide this detail in written format.  Listening skills can be great, but an hour later things can get lost and a week later, you might find the same meeting happening again.

Just a few thoughts on meetings.  Overall, be flexible, don’t feel like meetings need to occur on a scheduled/regular basis.  If there is nothing to discuss, don’t meet.  Also, don’t be a slave to the clock.  If you end the meeting in 20 minutes, great, if it goes an hour, it was needed.  Keep meetings under an hour and a half, or take a break.  One more important thing – supplying good food helps most meetings succeed!  

What are your thoughts on meetings?  How often do you find yourself in a bad meeting.  Are the meetings interactive?  What steps do you take to encourage the sharing of ideas?  Appreciate your feedback, thanks, Doug