What next? Online consumer reviews for senior properties?

It’s happening now in the US so it will be here in Australia too, very soon. We’re all accustomed to the benefits of online consumer reviews influencing our buying decisions on travel and online shopping sites, and while retirement villages and aged care facilities may resist, the reality is that - like other types of social media marketing - they’ll have to embrace it sooner or later.

Online transparency is going to happen one way or another, so senior living operators will need to look for ways to ensure their reviews are mostly positive, as there’s nowhere to hide when they get a negative review.  Like travel operators, they’ll need to fix any problems quickly and publish a response online to avoid damage to their reputation, and also encourage their satisfied customers to publish their reviews too so the rankings are balanced.

Yet another example of the shift the internet has created in favour of the consumer!

Web-based technology is developing so fast that just a few years ago not many operators even had a website. Now they are actively engaging consumers with social media marketing campaigns, using Facebook pages, Twitter and more. The logical next step is consumer-driven activity, like online reviews. It’s already happening on corporate Facebook pages and elsewhere in an ad-hoc and piece-meal way.

So the question becomes how do you centralise this information, standardise rating criteria, verify the reviews and know they are genuine? How do you manage this information or provide a meaningful platform that consumers can access easily and trust?  One young man in the US has been working on these issues since he helped his grandmother find an aged care facility and became frustrated with the lack of transparency and difficulty finding practical information. (Precisely the reason the Seniors Housing Online website was established in Australia.)

The US Silver Living website officially launched in December, but they have been collecting information on communities for months from a variety of sources: the community itself, residents of communities, and mystery shoppers. It currently has agreements with three major senior living chains and report a range of reaction among communities the start-up has approached for partnership.

Tal Ziv the website founder says “we’re coming at it from a totally different perspective than anyone else. This transparency is going to happen, whether we do it or someone else does. Our best partners have been ones whose marketing departments have seen this [sort of model] in other industries,” he says. “They see [this information] is available in other industries and how it’s helpful in terms of conversion rates and getting the word out, and recognize it will also happen in senior care.” (Senior Housing News Jan 2013).

See Senior Housing News article.
Link to Silver Living website.
Link to Seniors Housing Online website.

What do you think?  Comment below:

Retirement hotspot - the NSW Central Coast.

The NSW Central Coast area is very popular with retirees, due to a beautiful coastal location with easy access to many beaches, lakes and waterways offering fishing, boating and many other recreational activities. Traditionally a popular holiday spot, it is within easy travelling distance to Sydney, with good transport links, and generally offers more affordable property in attractive surrounds. For those who've experienced many happy holidays on the central coast, it is a popular location offering a relaxed holiday lifestyle in their retirement, with proximity to friends and family.

Many Sydneysiders sell up their Sydney home and make a permanent move to the Central Coast, taking advantage of the many well priced retirement properties available. There are many retirement villages and over 50's communities with a wide range of villas and apartments and access to more support services and health facilities if needed. The Central Coast's status as a NSW regional city makes it a centre for many government services. The largest city area is Gosford, with surrounding areas including The Entrance, Wyong, and many other regional centres offering all the benefits of city living at a more relaxed pace.

There are many central coast properties featured on the SeniorsHousingOnline website, and new handy regional directories on the front page: (click here to view).

One such property is the Valhalla Over 50's Village located in Chain Valley Bay, close to the shores of Lake Macquarie and Munmorah State Recreation Reserve. Set on 40 acres, Valhalla provides resort style living in peaceful surrounds, with a community atmosphere and many daily activities on offer, with individual 2 and 3 bedroom homes available at an affordable pricepoint. In addition to the community facilities and social and recreational activities available, the village also offers a 24 hour call system and security, access to public transport and a community bus wich makes regular shopping trips, and there are shops, clubs and health services nearby. For more click on this link to homes currently available.

New search options for babyboomers seeking retirement property.

Keeping up with the babyboomers’ rapidly growing demand for high quality over 50’s retirement property, leading Australian retirement property website www.seniorshousingonline.com.au has overhauled the site to dramatically improve search functionality, incorporate google maps and state of the art optimization with a fresh, modern look.
 “It is now much easier to locate suitable retirement property for sale or rent”, explains website co-founder Amanda Graham.  “Visitors have the option to select features such as waterfront, golf course and pet friendly living, with or without care services to suit their circumstances. They can tailor their search to match their personal preferences and needs.  Most of our website visitors are the young retirees – the babyboomers - active over 50’s, searching for lifestyle properties with resort facilities, but we also feature senior rental properties and aged care facilities too,” Graham says.
Since May this year, Seniors Housing Online has been working with Classified Ad Ventures on a technology review of the website, and the changes were put in place by Redback Solutions.  CAV chief information officer Chris Vulovic explains: “like most property websites, seniorshousingonline.com.au had a standard location based search.  Retirees are more interested in the facilities of a retirement village and the general location than they are the specific suburb. So we added 25 features that a retiree can filter properties by, including property features, support available, onsite facilities and location. This level of classification is a massive benefit for the users of the site allowing them to quickly find properties in areas that have services or features that are critical to them.”
Vulovic says traffic to seniorshousingonline.com.au should increase dramatically as a result of this property classification, as it allows the site to optimise its content for specific long tail search phrases for search engines.  “When a user types in ‘Retirement Properties with Low Level Aged Care in Sydney,’ the optimised content on the site will ensure that the portal is in the top of the results, driving traffic to the site,” Vulovic says.
Along with these changes to the website’s search, new ad products replace banner ads with the opportunity to buy contextual ads, such as those showing similar properties on property details pages. “These types of ads are highly effective because they are related to the visitor’s current search,” says Vulovic.
Visit website: www.seniorshousingonline.com.au  and see also: http://www1.propertyportalwatch.com/2010/10/cav-overhauls-seniors-portal

What sort of accommodation do seniors want?

Seniors Housing Online, Australia’s leading retirement living website welcomes the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) research findings that many seniors want larger homes during their retirement than has previously been assumed.

The AHURI report on “How well do older Australians utilize their homes?” confirms what our website surveys are already telling us – 85% of seniors searching for retirement property want two or more bedrooms. We have more than 20,000 seniors a month searching the website for retirement accommodation to buy or rent, and the reality is that while people may want to downsize the mortgage or access their equity in the family home, they don’t actually want to downsize their lifestyle in retirement.

They want enough space and facilities to be able to enjoy their retirement, and when they spend more time at home they need to be able to accommodate home based activities and visiting family and friends comfortably.

The benefits of downsizing to age specific housing include the security of knowing support services are available in the future should they be needed, as well as providing a resort-style environment, a sense of community and security and freedom from household chores and property maintenance.

Our surveys show seniors are overwhelmingly looking for independent living, with 75% saying this is essential and 21% saying it is desirable. 80% want a village setting; 67% a clubhouse or recreation centre; 59% a swimming pool and 49% a gym. 88% still want garages and parking spaces; and 58% want pet-friendly accommodation.

People are even prepared to move away from family and friends to achieve a better lifestyle in retirement at a price point they can afford, with 43% saying remaining in the same area doesn’t matter; 35% saying it is desirable and only 22% considering it essential.

These are the factors influencing housing choices which need to be recognized by government and private developers to cater for the babyboomer generation as they retire from full time work.

For more see http://www.seniorshousingonline.com.au/