For many home care agencies, business development has traditionally focused on finding referral sources.

Hospitals. Rehabilitation centers. Physicians. Skilled nursing facilities. Senior living communities.

These are important relationships because they regularly encounter older adults at the moment home care is needed.

But there’s another group of professionals surrounding older adults and their families that home care agencies sometimes overlook.

….Estate and elder-law attorneys.

….Wealth managers and financial planners.

…..Trust officers.

…..Private fiduciaries.

…..Aging Life Care Professionals.

…..Long-term care insurance professionals.

…..Senior living advisors.

These professionals may be involved with a family months….or even years….before a traditional home care referral occurs.

And that creates an interesting opportunity for home care agencies.

The goal shouldn’t simply be to turn these professionals into another group of referral sources.

The bigger opportunity is to become a trusted professional partner they feel comfortable introducing to the families they serve.

There’s an important difference.

Professional Advisors Have Something to Lose

Imagine you’re an elder-law attorney who has spent 10 years developing a relationship with a family.

Or a wealth advisor managing several million dollars of a client’s assets.

Or a private fiduciary legally responsible for helping oversee an older adult’s affairs.

When you recommend a home care company, you’re putting something valuable on the line….

….Your reputation.

If the agency doesn’t communicate….

If caregivers repeatedly don’t show up….

If the family is constantly dealing with different caregivers….

If concerns aren’t addressed….

If billing becomes confusing….

Or if the advisor can’t get information when a problem occurs….

The family doesn’t necessarily separate the home care agency from the professional who recommended them.

They may think:

“Why did you send us to these people?”

That’s why approaching professional advisors with a traditional sales pitch often falls flat.

…”We provide great caregivers.”

…”We’ve been serving the community for 20 years.”

…”We provide compassionate care.”

Those things may all be true….

But they don’t necessarily answer the question running through the professional advisor’s mind:

“Can I trust you with my client?”

Trust Is Built Through Systems

Professional trust isn’t created by a brochure.

It’s created by demonstrating that your agency operates in a way that reduces uncertainty.

That generally means being able to show structure in several areas.

Communication is one of the biggest.

If something changes with a client, who communicates it?

How quickly?

Who is responsible?

How does information get documented?

If the family has authorized communication with an attorney, fiduciary, care manager or other professional, how does that person stay appropriately informed?

Then there’s continuity of care.

Professional advisors often work with families dealing with dementia, chronic illness, complicated family dynamics or significant financial resources.

Constant caregiver turnover can create stress and risk.

An agency that can explain how it matches caregivers, monitors those relationships and responds when a match isn’t working is demonstrating something much more meaningful than simply saying:

“We have great caregivers.”

It’s showing the process behind the promise.

Accountability Matters

Professional advisors are accustomed to documentation.

….Attorneys document.

….Financial advisors document.

….Fiduciaries document.

….Care managers document.

So when they’re evaluating another professional organization, they often appreciate similar discipline.

Home care agencies should be able to explain things such as:

How care plans are developed.

How caregiver visits are documented.

How changes in condition are communicated.

How incidents are escalated.

How family concerns are handled.

How caregiver performance is monitored.

How the agency knows whether the agreed-upon care is actually being delivered.

The point isn’t to overwhelm a professional advisor with operational details.

The point is to demonstrate:

“We don’t leave important things to chance.”

Technology Can Help Make Your Systems Visible

This is where technology can play an increasingly important role.

Technology doesn’t create trust by itself.

In fact, introducing another app, dashboard or platform without a clear purpose can simply create more noise.

But the right technology can make an agency’s existing standards of care, communication and accountability much more visible.

For example, a platform such as CareLink360 can potentially help an agency organize and demonstrate how information surrounding a client’s care is communicated and monitored.

The important part isn’t the technology itself.

It’s what the technology enables the agency to demonstrate:

Structure.

Transparency.

Continuity.

Communication.

Accountability.

Instead of simply telling a professional advisor, “We’ll keep everyone informed,” the agency can explain the actual process it uses to do that.

That makes the conversation very different.

Stop Asking Only for Referrals

There’s another shift home care agencies should consider when developing relationships with professional advisors.

Don’t make every conversation about referrals.

Instead, become useful.

….Ask an elder-law attorney what problems they repeatedly encounter when clients begin needing care.

….Ask a fiduciary what makes managing home care difficult.

….Ask a wealth advisor what concerns arise when an aging client begins losing independence.

….Ask an Aging Life Care Professional what separates the home care companies they trust from the ones they don’t.

You may discover that their concerns are very different from what you expected.

Then ask a better question:

“How could our agency make your job easier when one of your clients needs care?”

That’s a much more powerful conversation than:

“Do you have anyone you can refer to us?”

One is asking for something….The other is trying to solve something.

And that’s how professional relationships are built.

Become the Agency They’re Comfortable Putting Their Name Behind

The professional-advisor market can be extremely valuable for home care agencies.

But it’s not simply because attorneys, wealth managers, fiduciaries, care managers and other professionals may know people who need home care.

It’s because these individuals often occupy positions of tremendous trust with families.

If they introduce your agency, they’re extending some of that trust to you.

Your job is to prove that trust was well placed.

That means delivering excellent care, of course.

But it also means creating systems around communication, documentation, caregiver continuity, responsiveness and accountability.

Technology such as CareLink360 can help support and make those systems visible….but technology is only part of the equation.

Ultimately, the question every home care agency should be asking isn’t:

“How do we get more professional advisors to refer to us?”

It’s:

“What would our agency need to consistently demonstrate for a professional advisor to feel completely comfortable putting their reputation behind us?”

Build your organization around the answer to that question….And the referrals have a much better chance of following.

Fernando Reinoso
Carelink360