Your Safety Net program: An annual revenue stream

Want to engage clients earlier in the process?

Not sure how to highlight your services to referral sources?

Interested in getting paid to be on call?

Looking for a new referral networking program?

Seeking opportunities to provide consultations as a precursor to longer term engagement?

Want to even out the peaks and valleys of your cash flow?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might consider adding a Safety Net program to your services.

This service is geared for the young-old, what we call “proactive planners.” They are older adults, typically boomers, who are currently in pretty good health.

Proactive planners who are attracted to this service recognize that their independence can be easily sidelined in one fell swoop by a fall, a car accident, a stroke ….

The features of a Safety Net program can include:

• An initial assessment “lite.”
• Creation of an Emergency Medical Document folder with all the information and paperwork they would want to bring to the ER if something happened.
• Quarterly phone calls solely to update medication lists, physician lists, contacts, and diagnoses.
• Your promise to come to the ER if the client has a situation that sends them there.

Solo agers (and their attorneys) are particularly attracted to a Safety Net program, as are snowbirds, older adults who are new to town, and people with family members who live far away.

Clients, families, and referrers receive peace of mind. Even on a Saturday night, these older adults will have access to an advocate who knows their conditions, medications, goals of care, and the people to call within the family (or a guardian).

The advantages for you

An annual revenue stream. Many care managers are already on call, so this is extra income to acknowledge that service, which is often invisible to clients.

A new way to market with/to attorneys, wealth managers, guardians. These referrers are focusing on the young-old, clients with the longest lifetime revenue. To be able to refer their clients to a peace of mind program like this is a dream come true for your referrers. Long-distance families, solo agers, and retirees new to town will also appreciate the relief such a program can offer.

An on-ramp for other services. Those quarterly calls are an ideal opportunity to suggest ways that an hourly consultation might be of help.

Some care managers make this program a requirement for all ongoing clients, literally following the model of a concierge doctor. Since clients with intense care-management needs will need to have medical information on file and a promise to show up in emergencies, this is simply part of their intake. True, some clients just want an initial assessment and plan and then the family takes it from there. But if a client converts to ongoing support, then they get enrolled in the Safety Net program, with perhaps a discount since a more comprehensive assessment has already been performed.

Promoting your service

If you build it, they don’t necessarily come. You need to market this service to the community: The young-old as well as your referrers. To do this, you should

• create a flyer to include in promotions and in prospective client folders
• send a letter to referrers
• blog about the service
• post social media updates about the service
• add the service to your Google Business Profile under Products
• send an email to clients announcing the offering
• include it in any presentations you make to referrers, solo agers, or other proactive planners
• create a web page (ideally a landing page) specifically for this service

A landing page is a unique format designed to be a destination page for a specific marketing campaign. It lacks distractions and concentrates the viewer’s attention on the one service you are promoting. (You may think it’s good to encourage people to browse your other services, but for a targeted campaign like this, what you want more than anything is for them to schedule an appointment to talk, or at the least, give you their email address so you can begin a conversation. You don’t really want them to get distracted and lose momentum.)

• Want help creating a marketing package and landing page?
• Looking for easily updatable files for your Emergency Medical Document Kit?