Home Care Marketing & Sales Mastery by Approved Senior Network®

SCI Netcast: Bobbie Crocker, ADARA Home Health Care

March 09, 2022 Valerie VanBooven RN BSN Season 3 Episode 165
Home Care Marketing & Sales Mastery by Approved Senior Network®
SCI Netcast: Bobbie Crocker, ADARA Home Health Care
Show Notes Transcript

SCI Netcast: Bobbie Crocker, ADARA Home Health Care

https://www.asnmarketingplan.com/bobbi-crocker-adara-home-health-care/

Bobbie Crocker has been a Customer Relations Manager since 2015. As a CRM, Bobbie is often the face of Adara Home Health within the communities the branch serves, participating in community events, increasing awareness of the services that we provide and providing education about our services and how they can help individuals stay in their own homes safely. She works very closely with hospitals, clinics, assisted living facilities and other service providers to ensure that their patients and residents receive the care that they need and deserve, within the comfort of their homes. In addition, Bobbie is also a Certified Caregiver Consultant and Family Meeting Moderator through Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging and Minnesota Board of Aging.

In her free time she enjoys spending time “up north” at the cabin with Keith and their family; children, their spouses and eight grandchildren as well as friends and extended family.

Customer relations managers (CRM’s) serve the surrounding communities of our branch office locations by promoting awareness of our industry and company while emphasizing our capabilities to provide a full range of home health care services. CRM’s provide liaison and discharge support to the facilities and professional referral sources they serve.

 

 

Social Links

 

Website: https://adarahomehealth.com/

 

 

Today on Bobbie Crocker The Senior Care Industry Netcast

 

●      Introduction of Bobbie Crocker as the Customer Relations Manager of Adara Homes

●      The best thing about serving aging adults for Bobbie

●      People/organizations that means a lot to Bobbie

●      Working in Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging

●      Difference of home health and home care

●      Partnership with St. Croix Hospice

●      Changes in marketing due to the pandemic



●      Bobbie’s piece of advice to other senior healthcare providers

●      When and how does Bobbie celebrate

 

 

 

 

Bobbie Crocker’s Words of Wisdom/ Tweet-ables

●      “The best thing [about serving aging adults] is being able to help them remain as autonomous as possible and within the place that they call their home.”

 

●      “The difference between home health and home care: Home health is actually hands-on care. So we do provide the nursing, the therapy, home health aids to assist with activities of daily living and such. Now, while a home care agency can also assist with those activities of daily living, they are not in a qualified position to actually perform hands-on care. They can observe a client or an individual performing these activities, but they're not able to actually help them with them.”

 

●      “We as healthcare providers, our clinical staff is able to go in there and facilitate some of those telehealth visits and things. And that has just been a saving grace for a lot of folks and a lot of facilities as well”

 

●      “After these past couple years [due to the pandemic], you have to clear your mindset. What used to work, what we used to do, how we used to help, that's all changed].…]And you have to actually be very objective when looking at everything and be the solution to the problem. It may be a problem that you never had to deal with before, but now, here you are.”

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

This is Valerie VanBooven with the Senior Care Industry Netcast, where leaders with three or more years of experience in the senior care market share their advice. So let's get to it. In a few sentences, tell us who you are and what you do.

Bobbie Crocker:

Well, how hi, Valerie. My name is Bobbie Crocker and I work with Adara Home Health here in Minnesota. Thank you for having me. Adara Home Health is a Medicare certified home health agency. We are family owned, been in business since 1989 and our leadership is made up of all RMs , which is something that you don't usually find in a home healthcare agency. We serve 60 of the 87 counties in Minnesota, so approximately the bottom two thirds. My title is customer relations manager, and what it basically is a liaison. My purpose is to help connect individuals with home health and home care services within their community. And so I work with hospitals in short-term stay units, assisted livings and right within the community. So that's a little bit about me.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Well, that's awesome. And serving that many counties is a huge job.

Bobbie Crocker:

Yes.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

So are you the only one to serve all the counties? Are you the one?

Bobbie Crocker:

I am not, there is no way I could take care of that. Right now, I am wearing the hat of two CRMs, I have two branches. And so all in all, I serve about 14, 15 of those counties. And my branches are Hutchinson, Granite Falls, but we also have branches in Mankato, Rochester, Mendota Heights, Blaine, St. Cloud and Buffalo. So it's pretty expansive, obviously to cover 60 of 87 counties.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Yes, very much so. So yeah, and even 15 counties, to be honest with you, that's a big territory.

Bobbie Crocker:

It is.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

So that's great though. And I'm sure that you're out there, you're seeing folks, we're going to get to pandemic stuff in a minute. [inaudible 00:02:26] talk about marketing in a pandemic in just a second. What is the best thing about serving aging adults?

Bobbie Crocker:

I don't even have to think twice about that, Valerie. The best thing is being able to help them remain as autonomous as possible and within the place that they call their home. A lot of people think that when they're calling their home, it's a single family structure. It is not always that, it's an independent living. It's an assisted living, sometime of a communal living space. And helping them be able to stay in that environment for as long as possible with the main goal of their safety, of course, is just the greatest thing of all. The looks on their face when they're getting just that little bit of help that they need, whether it be laundry or setting up their medications, therapies, any number of things. It couldn't be any more rewarding than that.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Oh, absolutely. And you're right. It doesn't have to be much, a conversation is sometimes also somebody needs to have a much brighter day. So you're right. It's so rewarding and I'm so glad that you guys are family owned and operated and serve 60 of 83 counties. That is a huge organization to still have and all RN operated and all that stuff. That's a big organization to have family and operated, but that's, to me that makes a lot of sense because this is such a personal business.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

And I know that the folks that own Adara are very much personal people and this is why they got into this business. So let's talk about leaders and organizations. I would imagine that in your lifetime and in your career, you have run into organizations and leaders that have really meant a lot to you that you think have done a really good job in your areas. Who are those people or are those organizations?

Bobbie Crocker:

Yeah, thank you for bringing that up because there are quite a few. Some of them or one of them that I work very closely with, and I know that my counterparts are now starting to work more closely with are the area agencies on aging. I work with the Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging within my counties, but there are several throughout the state and they're phenomenal. They are with the Minnesota Department of Health, and so they provide so many different programs with senior linkage line and meals on wheels and there's all sorts of resources.And some of the gals that I connect with have just been of tremendous help in helping our field staff that see a need in you greater Minnesota for food, for transportation, for things like that.

Bobbie Crocker:

They have just been so instrumental in helping us line that up. So they're one of my very favorite organizations and thank you MDH for funding them and providing these services. They're fabulous. We also work with a lot of the private duty home care agencies. Now, the difference between home health and home care, I should probably clarify for anyone that may not know that. Home health is actually hands-on care. So we do provide the nursing, the therapy, home health aids to assist with activities of daily living and such.

Bobbie Crocker:

Now, while a home care agency can also assist with those activities of daily living, they are not in a qualified position to actually perform hands-on care. They can observe a client or an individual performing these activities, but they're not able to actually help them with them. So we do work with a lot of private duty agencies, home care agencies. We also work with a fabulous group of hospice providers, and one that we do work in partnership with a great deal is  . And they are located I believe in three states, it may be more. I don't want to speak out of turn here but they are all over Minnesota and they are just absolutely fabulous at what they do so we appreciate them. So those are a few of the biggie that I work with.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Yeah. Integrating hospice and home healthcare is an amazing service. When people are able to access those hospice benefits, I know it's a rough time, but it's amazing how hospice serves us. And when a home health care agency partners with and works at a hospice, makes it so much nicer too.

Bobbie Crocker:

It is.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

It's a great partnership. Yeah.

Bobbie Crocker:

It really does. It really does. The word hospice is very scary to a lot of people. And I think one of the things that St. Croix Hospice does so very, very well is make that word not as scary. They use transitions, they use different words for that so very much appreciated.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Absolutely. Yeah. It doesn't have to be scary, yeah, you're right. I could talk all day about that, but you're right. I'm glad you that you pointed them out and also area agency on aging. No matter where you go, usually there is some area agency on aging. Everybody's a little bit different county by county, state by state, but they're a wealth of resources and the social workers and just the people that work there, they pretty much know everything that's available.

Bobbie Crocker:

Yes. Yes, they do. I just cannot even believe the wealth of knowledge that comes out of those agencies.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Oh yeah. Oh, that's awesome. All right. So let's talk about marketing. The last 18 to 24 months has been tough on everybody, we all know it's because of COVID basically. So some states are wide open, some states have been very closed. I'm not sure where Minnesota is, I don't know where you guys are. But I would say that things, and of course, I've said this for like the last year. I see the line at the under of the tunnel. So, yeah. So anyway, but I do think that things are starting to ease up a little bit, not every assisted living's going to invite you in. There's probably still some rules in place, rightfully so. But how has your marketing changed or what have you been able to do differently in the last 18 to 24 months?

Bobbie Crocker:

Well, Valerie, I've gotten very good with email cadence and on the telephone, has everyone else I'm sure. Yeah. When all of this first started, it was a total about phase for me. I have never done any inside sales and marketing whatsoever. And so it took a while to get my groove pretty much in doing that. But the emails were very, very welcomed at the onset of this because everyone was so locked down and everything was so uncertain. And so just emailing to check on my referral sources was super important because they were it right in the heart of things, I'm on the periphery.

Bobbie Crocker:

And so being able to bring a little bit of information to them about what we're doing with COVID, how we can help them with COVID, but also at a more personal level, checking on them, checking on their families. There is no one I know that has not been affected in some way, shape or form over this pandemic. And so, I developed a lot of skills and I won't fool you, I was a little bit nervous about it, but it worked out well. As an agency, there were a lot of programs that were put into play. We did a community calls, kind of a program where we could do closed circuit TV, and whatnot through the ALS, and any connection that we could make we did. And so that's where we're at.

Bobbie Crocker:

Now, Minnesota right now, it's kind of a hit or miss it. It just depends on where the levels are and whatnot, and what's happening and in the individual facilities. Because we do have some smaller ones up here in our rural communities that aren't the same as the big cities. They have different rules under a hundred employees, that kind of thing. So it's just we're doing what we can, we're getting out and seeing people whenever we can, and it's working out pretty well. Yeah.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Good. Now ,that's good to know. Yeah, I think things are getting a little better, but knowing that we can use technology to interface with each other, check on each other. I think our marketing did get a lot more personal for those that we were used to seeing every other week or every month, and those faces suddenly disappeared for a long time. You want to know how are things going, not just in your facility, but how are you, your family. You know that they have two kids in [inaudible 00:11:48] school districts and you know, so I think marketing got a lot more personal.

Bobbie Crocker:

Well, it did. We got a little bit more in depth too with telehealth was something that's always kind of been out there, but it exploded and it needed to. We've got families that can't go in and assist now or bring their family members to the clinics or to the hospitals. We as healthcare providers, our clinical staff is able to go in there and facilitate some of those telehealth visits and things. And that has just been a saving grace for a lot of folks and a lot of facilities as well, so that has been something. And I don't think that's something that's ever going to go away and I'm quite happy about that.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Yeah. I was just talking to somebody today about telehealth and how remote patient monitoring and virtual caregiving. If there are any good things, this is a thing that pushed that to the forefront and will become growing, there's going to be more and more competitors in the industry and it's going to become more streamlined, the more easy to access for people who've never heard about it or who aren't internet users there's definitely going to be ways that they can participate in that. I'm very happy that it's come to the forefront.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

And we were just talking about our rural communities, what a great thing for rural communities who they may have lack of services in some areas or may lack of transportation or whatever. In those cases, it's great to be able to set them up with some remote monitoring and teach them how to use it. And that way, family, friends and healthcare providers can see that things are okay or maybe not okay. So I think this is going to continue to be part of our lives more regularly, right. All right. What piece of advice would you give to other senior care providers out there?

Bobbie Crocker:

Piece of advice? You have to, after these past couple years, you have to clear your mindset. What used to work, what we used to do, how we used to help, that's all changed. The apple cart it's not just upset, there's apples everywhere. And you have to actually be very objective when looking at everything and be the solution to the problem. It may be a problem that you never had to deal with before, but now, here you are.

Bobbie Crocker:

So make sure that you're really keen and you're not tunnel vision in what you've done in the Past. I'm a little bit older perhaps than some of the people that may be watching me, and so I do get set in my ways. And so I've had to be very cognizant of how I'm doing things, what I'm doing and not saying, "Hey, we've never done it that way. I don't know about that." You have to try. Yeah.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

Yep. You had to try new things all the time. I swear that the technology is driving a lot of the differences in how we're delivering care, how we're monitoring care, how we're monitoring. Yes. So there's going to be all kinds of different things that are going to come up. And maybe this isn't the last pandemic we see, maybe this isn't the last, whatever it is, we're going experience more and more differences over time and how we provide care, how people receive care. So it's always good to keep an open mind around [inaudible 00:15:22].

Bobbie Crocker:

Yeah.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

All right. My last question is supposed to be a fun one. When you celebrate, when you celebrate a great day, a great week, a great quarter, a great month or maybe it's a wedding or a birthday in the office, or whatever, how do you all celebrate?

Bobbie Crocker:

That's changed too, as you well know. We all used to be able to go out after work or gather and have large gatherings. So we've had to adapt, but we still gather, we just gather differently and not all at once. We've done a lot of for different like appreciations of hard work and whatnot, some drive by lunches and I'll dress up in some goofy costume and stand out the back door and hand them their bag as they drive by, things like that. We've done some virtual events, we've done some challenges, anything that we can do as a group is how we celebrate.

Bobbie Crocker:

We do a lot of shout-outs. We try to do a lot of Facebook shout-outs, things like that. Naturally, we still all like to be able to get together and do more of that. But since we can't, this is the next best thing and engagement with your colleagues, there's nothing better, especially through the past couple of years. So whatever we can do, we're going to do.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

That's awesome. Yeah. Celebrating whatever way you can is great. I think drive by lunches are a great idea, oh my goodness. That's fun. Just drive up and grab your bag and go. [inaudible 00:16:58] me. So yeah.

Bobbie Crocker:

Yeah.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

I think that all those things... We love to celebrate with food. So next time we can do a hot luck and everybody brings something in and that'll be great. But thank you. Thank you for your advice. Thank you for your time.

Bobbie Crocker:

Yes.

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:

And I appreciate everything you guys are doing out there, so I want to thank you for being on the show.

Bobbie Crocker:

Thank so much for having me. It was a pleasure. I appreciate it.