In this episode of Raising Tech, our host, Patrick Leonard, has a great conversation with Rob Bills and Marc Cherabie from SiteStaff Chat, about how SiteStaff Chat offers a human-powered and empathetic approach when communicating with website visitors.
Discover more about the benefits SiteStaff Chat provides Senior Living communities by offering a personal touch in interacting with potential residents, their family members, potential employees and more.
Raising Tech is powered by Parasol Alliance, The Strategic Planning & Full-Service IT Partner exclusively serving Senior Living Communities.
In this episode of Raising Tech, our host, Patrick Leonard, has a great conversation with Rob Bills and Marc Cherabie from SiteStaff Chat, about how SiteStaff Chat offers a human-powered and empathetic approach when communicating with website visitors.
Discover more about the benefits SiteStaff Chat provides Senior Living communities by offering a personal touch in interacting with potential residents, their family members, potential employees and more.
Raising Tech is powered by Parasol Alliance, The Strategic Planning & Full-Service IT Partner exclusively serving Senior Living Communities.
Welcome back to Raising Tech, a podcast about all things technology and senior living. I'm your host, Patrick Leonard, and today we're gonna talk about live chat on your Senior Living community's website. This is a technology that's isn't necessarily new, but something that's continuing to be a topic of discussion as we dive deeper and deeper into the digital world, prospective residents looking more and more to do their research online and in particular your community's website. So with that, I'm gonna introduce you to the experts on this topic who'll be able to dive much deeper. Today, we have with us Rob Bills and Marc Cherabie from SiteStaff Chat. Rob and Marc, welcome to the show.
Rob Bills:Hi Patrick. Thank you so much for having us. We're very excited to talk about our service and the industry in general.
Patrick Leonard:Awesome. So before we dive into this topic, guys, if you don't mind, could you just introduce yourselves, your background a little bit and your specific role with SiteStaff?
Rob Bills:Absolutely.
Marc Cherabie:As Patrick said, my name is Marc. I'm the Director of Sales here at SiteStaff Chat. We've started together in the same class. We've actually been here for just over three years and just, you know, working in this, in the sales division, business to business. My background's always been in some sort of sales role, whether it been sunglasses, in a sunglass kiosk, used to have a sunglass business, telecom, you know, basically you name it, I've worked in it. So I'm always been a sales guy, but been thrilled to, to be here and, you know, love the people I work with and super passionate about the industries that we serve and, and the product that we sell. So thanks for having us.
Rob Bills:Yeah, absolutely, and I'm Robert Bills and I've been with the company as Marc said, we started the same week together about three years ago, and I come from a background of real estate and finance and so sales as well. I was real estate broker for 15 years and in finance for just over five, and so coming into to SiteStaff, here, has been an amazing adventure because we really are a family here and we really are team atmosphere and really we all want to lift all boats and make sure that everybody's succeeding. If we're succeeding, our clients are succeeding, our partners are succeeding, and it's just very welcoming and warm place to be.
Patrick Leonard:Awesome, love that. Thanks for that background and, and a little bit about the SiteStaff family. It's really cool that I didn't realize you all started it the same week. That's pretty awesome, and then on this journey, the last few years together, and who better to talk about this powerful sales and marketing tool than some sales and marketing folks like yourself who've been in different industries over the years. So that's awesome. As we dive in, I'm familiar with your tool, I've been exposed to it over the last five or six years as I've been in this Senior Living technology space. But for our listeners who aren't familiar, can you give us just a high level overview of SiteStaff and what it hopes to accomplish as it relates to senior living?
Rob Bills:Absolutely. So SiteStaff, we've been around, this is our 13th year and really the impetus for the company came from our CEO, Bill Jennings, who said the buying process is changing and things are starting to be bought online, and he saw that even high-end items, things like senior living where it's a very high ticket item, but also a very emotional item. They're also being purchased online, and so he saw the need to make sure that the human element is always captured in that communication online. And that's why he started the chat. It's, it's now been, you know, 13 years. We've done over a million chats in senior living. We're currently on just about 3,000 websites around North America, and it's about giving the very best website experience to that end user. And whether they're looking for customer service, whether they're looking to actually move in, whether they're looking to volunteer employment, there really is nothing that we cannot capture and talk to them at that human level, give them the information that they need and really make it a human connection that is tremendous for our clients as far as capturing that information, capturing that client at their highest level of interest in their community and then creating that lead that becomes, you know, better lead than any other lead they can get besides a personal referral.
Patrick Leonard:Awesome. Thanks for that! You know, I heard some key words come out as you were talking there and the biggest one was human. Obviously in senior livings, that's an important one and, and one that we're all impacted by. It's a human business, it's we're taking care of Senior Living residents and the staff of the communities as well. And I love how you touched on the different use cases at a high level. It's not just for the prospective resident, but it could be for a job applicant or some anybody looking to volunteer you mentioned. But going back to that human piece, it brings up a topic of conversation when I think of chat on websites between the live chat, the human aspect, and then everything going on with AI right now. And I know and more of the automated bots that some people are utilizing on their websites. So can you talk a little bit about those two? What are the differences, how do they kind of work together, if at all? I noticed on your guys' website you have two solutions, kinda the live chat versus the SiteStaff Chat AI. So it sounds like you all are, have entered into that space as well. So can you talk a little bit about those two different solutions?
Marc Cherabie:Yeah, absolutely. You know, so for us, as Robert had just touched on, it's, it's really all about that experience, right? And I think that that's a big shift that you see in the Senior Living industry is experience as a whole, and we always think that the experience definitely starts on the website. There's a lot of emphasis on experience when the resident comes in for a tour or what it's like to live their life there. So it's always about that experience, and so furthermore on, on the live chat versus the AI side, I think we were in a really unique position because we started off as a live chat company. We were really well versed, very well experienced. You know, I've done it for so long, built out our own software, so we had a really great foundation as a live chat company. And then, so developing the AI was just a way for us to expand the experience but also give our clients or our prospects an an additional option, right? Because it's all about options now. So when you really break down the difference between the two, you know, on the AI side it's, it's more of a convenience factor. It's a little bit more geared towards people that might be a little bit more tech savvy or maybe they want questions answered a little bit more quickly and if that's what some of our clients are really adamant about or it just resonates a little bit more with their sales process, they have that option. And whereas on the live chat side, it's gonna be a little bit more of that personal approach, right? It's might result in 8, 10, 15-minute conversations, but those are really meaningful, powerful conversations because a lot of the times, you know, we see visitors come on the website and begin a chat because there's just so much uncertainty. It's not so much about they don't know if they can afford it or they don't know if it's gonna be a right fit, but it's just like what the expectations are, talking them off of that ledge and delivering that experience. So by having both of those, it's just really about being able to be more well-rounded and serve an array of different clients on an array of different websites. And we also have a really unique solution that combines the two together. So you have the ability to have the conversation start off a little bit more automated on the AI side, very easy, just one click through, you know, if somebody's asking maybe about a job application or just a little bit more simple questions of I need a phone number to call or a fax number or whatever it might be. The bot might be able to take care of that, but at any point of the conversation they can click on a button and be connected to a live human right away immediately, within, within 10 seconds. So it, it's a way for us to merge the two great solutions together and create an experience that really just falls in line with whichever the visitors is wanting, whatever works better for them, really give them an option to choose.
Patrick Leonard:I love that. Thanks for clarifying! That makes a lot of sense. I can perfectly see the two use cases separately and how they work together and it makes a lot of sense because I know there are certain things that AI automation, robotics, just the whole concept could sometime it's still new, it can seem scary to some people, but I think there are some very specific use cases like you just mentioned, that it makes a lot of sense and still having the option for the human elements to talk to someone live one-on-one is the best of both worlds in my opinion. So thanks for shedding some light on that.
Marc Cherabie:Yeah, absolutely.
Rob Bills:Yeah, it's really just about giving that end user every option that they want for communicating, and if we're able to do that, then you're able to capture that user at a far more efficient rate than what you're usually getting with other calls to action.
Patrick Leonard:Definitely. So along that same vein, taking a look at the live chat side of things, from my understanding, if I'm a Senior Living community and I want to engage with SiteStaff live chat, we'll be leveraging the power of your team to engage with visitors to the website directly. So how are you ensuring that your team is set up for success to offer kind of a personalized solution and responses as an extension of the senior living community operator?
Rob Bills:Absolutely. Great question, Patrick. And it's one we get often and it really is about creating what we use is called a knowledge base. And we work with the community to build that knowledge base out and it really gives us all the answers that we're looking for. You know, after 13 years we have a really good understanding of what these visitors are, what type of questions are going to be asking. And so we really mold that knowledge base to give us every answer to the majority of questions that are gonna come across that conversation, down to, you know, floor plans, pricing, amenities, even cross streets, you know, nearest churches, nearest hospitals, things like that. So that when we start that conversation with that visitor, that visitor has no idea that we're a separate third party that's not actually sitting at that community because we have so much knowledge, we really are just like a receptionist sitting at the front door of that community. We're just the virtual receptionist at their website, which we could really consider their new front door and their virtual front door. And oftentimes the problem is that a lot of these communities and the operators don't view their website the same way they would a physical location. They don't see the power in treating it the same as that physical location, and by treating it the same and by engaging with that website visitor, you're really giving yourself far more opportunity because you're going to get a lot more website visitors walking through that virtual front door than you'll ever dig walking through your physical locations.
Patrick Leonard:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I love that analogy of your new front door or your virtual front door. I've never heard that before. That makes a lot of sense. And it's so true the day and age, given that it sounds like this solution makes sense for everybody, but if I'm a Senior Living community who hasn't dove into this yet, how do I know if it's a right solution for our use case? What does that process kind of look like?
Marc Cherabie:That's a great question. I mean, really on the basis of it, it's if you're not at 100% occupancy and have a really long wait list, we're a really great fit for you. But what I always tell a lot of the prospects that we speak with is, you know, not all live chat is the same, right? I mean, live chat on the surface seems like it's a great fit for everybody, but really about implementing the right life chat solution, just like it's about hiring the right CSD at the community, having the right employees, you can hire somebody who you think is gonna be a really good fit for your team, but if they're not, it could be very counterproductive. It can affect your, you know, your brand, the overall experience and do the exact opposite. And that's what we always talk about is making sure you're hiring the right solution. And the reason that we feel like we're the right solution is because we are very industry specific, which is extremely important because we could bring over our level of expertise, we could bring a lot of experience that we have and act as kind of a, almost a consultant for a lot of our clients as well. But ultimately we do work for them, we are trained by them. So you're never gonna get the same experience with, you know, one client that we serve with another client because those two communities are so different. So just being pliable and and being able to make sure that we're trained by them and mimicking their process, we can all sprinkle in a little bit of what we think. I think that's really what makes us unique and allows for us to be very successful. But we can also speak with the proper verbiage, obviously showing that empathy, understanding that what the visitors going through, what their families are going through, and be able to connect that way and then really be able to, you know, move that conversation forward. And we can do it at all hours of the day, right? I mean, your website never closes. You can access it at 24/7. So we want somebody available there at 24/7. We think that that's really what puts that community above everybody else if they're able to deliver that service and you know, set them up for success. So, you know, really in a nutshell, if you're looking at, especially in this day and age, right, where staffing is such a challenge that so many communities, so many businesses in general are really going through, you know, allows for us to, you know, at a fraction of the cost, have somebody that's there at all hours to really alleviate a lot of the stresses that those employees at the community levels face. So we really want them to focus on selling, that's ultimately what their job is. We don't want them focusing so much on follow ups and trying to get a hold of these people, let our team take care of all that on the forefront, deliver only the qualified leads, and then pass along the rest elsewhere. So hope that answers your question. I know I can kind of go on a tangent a little bit sometimes.
Patrick Leonard:No tangents are good! That's where we get best nuggets of information and it just sparked another question as you're talking, given that everybody's using this a little bit differently as far as the information that's going back and forth in these chats, it sounds like, you know, your team is answering questions obviously on the community's behalf, but are they going as far as actually booking tours or visits? Are they doing anything post tour or post conversation to nurture these leads? What does that whole lifecycle look like?
Rob Bills:So yeah, some of our technology, we do have the ability to, we integrate it with your CRM system so the leads are sent into your CRMs coded exactly how you want them to code. They are, the transcript is also included in that, which is very important for the sales team to be able to get an understanding of the story behind that individual. But yeah, the other technology that we have is through that integration. We can schedule tours obviously for the communities, but we also have what's called Call Connect. So during our conversation, during our chat with that visitor online, if we've taken that conversation to the point where they're ready to talk to somebody internally at the community, we can connect them directly with that point person in real time through the chat to the community so that they can continue that conversation really capture that hot lead at that point.
Patrick Leonard:Thanks for the clarification there. And so going back again to these different types of use cases and each community utilizing the chat function a little bit differently, can you tell me, and you touched on a little bit before the different use cases from prospects or potential job applicants volunteers, can you tell me a little bit more about the breakdown of what are you all seeing as far as, I don't know if it's a percentage, but just general allocation of who is engaging with chat most frequently. Is it a good mix between the prospects, the family members? Tell me a little bit about that, the audience if you don't mind.
Marc Cherabie:Yeah, definitely something that we're always deep diving into. We would say the big majority is definitely the adult child, especially on the chat side, and for a lot, a lot of reasons, a lot of the times, you know, if it's an adult child, you know, coming in crisis mode, they're like, I need to pull my mom in a new home, I have 48 hours to do it and I live across the country. I mean, there's so many different scenarios, but typically we do see that it's an adult child, but now we are seeing a lot more seniors just chat on their behalf and doing a little bit more of their shopping there. So it's definitely a big mix between that. But I would say definitely the adult child is probably the majority, but we've almost seen it all I would say.
Patrick Leonard:Talk to me a little bit about if I'm a community ready to put this on my site and start chatting today, what does that process look like from implementation? What resources need to be involved, timeline, training and ongoing support needed? Can you walk me through a little bit of that so our listeners can understand if they're not using this already, what that might look like?
Rob Bills:Yeah, absolutely. So our onboarding process, we've made as simple as possible, and it's very streamlined as well, but it's a two or three step process where first thing we're gonna do is we're going to actually have an interview session with some C level executives where we go through, ask a set of questions that we've developed over the 13 years to really begin the process of understanding their brand, their culture, and how they want to express that while communicating with the general public. So we record that, choose about a 30-minute interview, and we share that with our chat host so that they really have an understanding of that brand, of that, communication, how they want to be represented. Then we build that knowledge base that I spoke about. The knowledge base on a per community basis takes about 15, 20 minutes to do. Again, you know, in a form that is very quick and easy to fill out, especially if you're working day-to-day at the community level there. Once we have the knowledge bases all put together, then it's really as simple as API code, JavaScript code that gets put onto the header footer of your website and you're up and running. And so best case scenario, I mean obviously it depends on the size of the communities, how many communities we're onboarding and such, but I've onboarded somebody as fast as three days with, you know, three or four communities. But generally I like to say, you know, if you're five to 10 communities, we could probably have them up and running within 7-10 days. If you're a larger operator, then usually it's within that two to three week period where we can have the up and running in going.
Patrick Leonard:Wow, that's pretty clear.
Rob Bills:and then to follow that up, sorry, Patrick, but so we have a monthly review reviews, we have a whole client success team here because we have 96% retention rate of our clients. It's very important for us to make this all about a relationship, not a a one-time, let's check us out, see if you like it, but we really want to become a integral part of your operations, of your sales cycles so that we really do not become any kind of budgetary item. We really become a revenue generating item and really an appendage of what your systems are already doing. And so through our client success team, we're gonna have monthly reviews where we're constantly going through transcripts, we're making sure that our messaging is correct, we're reviewing our leads sent over, we're making sure that they are actually closing and going places. So it's a process, it's not, you know, one and done type thing. We really do value our clients, and we want to be always in a relationship with them. And that knowledge base that I spoke about, you know, it's a living document, it's always changing. I mean, they're gonna have staffing changes. They may be having a move-in special of some kind or some big event. Those are things that we want to know about, and so they have the ability to go in and make those changes on their knowledge bases as well as just obviously communicating with us and getting those changes done. But it, like I said, that living document, it's gotta always be reviewed. Our data, our stats, our success always needs to be reviewed as well because we wanna make sure that we're adding value at all times.
Patrick Leonard:Yeah, I love that it's true partnership and that makes sense. There's probably so many little nuances in communication changes happening, you know, so frequently in a Senior Living community obviously that of course you want your people on your front line, on the SiteStaff team who are responding, answering questions through your website to visitors to be up to date and all that, to be able to provide the best possible service. So yeah, I'm sure we've only scratched the surface on the depth and having to be proactive about that. So that's fantastic that there's such a, a great process for that. So, what's next as far as the world of web chat? I mean, it's come such a long way over the years, but from you all's perspective, you know, where is it going next? What can we expect? Anything exciting or, or new and innovative we can be expecting to see coming down the pipeline in the future if we're looking at the crystal ball?
Marc Cherabie:Yeah, I mean definitely there's always, I mean there's always innovation, right? There's, you know, our CEO always says,"if you're not growing, you're dying." So there's always ways for us to, you know, create new products. What's really wonderful is that we've completely developed our own technology, our own software on the back end. So it's completely proprietary and that gives us a lot of options and ability to, whether it be create new products that are, you know, customized for whatever, really whatever, the industry needs or to be able to integrate alongside other software, we have the ability to do it. But, you know, for us the the most important thing is the feedback that we receive from our clients, right, you know, what do they need? We're going into more of a mobile world, right? So we're working on a lot of changes on the mobile side to be able to implement a seamless mobile experience, be able to continue messages via text messaging, right? Or WhatsApp messaging or, or really anything in social media is another part where I think the Senior Living industry is gonna continue to head in. So, we want to make sure that we can manage those leads too, whether it be on Instagram, Facebook Messenger, which we do now for clients and really just be able to continue changing with the time. But for us, we always are gonna stay true to our beliefs and true to our core value. Meaning it's not just going to be about being the new shiny toy or be able to have all these products that just to be able to charge our clients more. We want to make sure that everything that we're offering has a tangible value and a way to measure it, you know, so that starts off with, with the leads that we send, right? It's not just about,"hey, we have this new product that can generate you a thousand, a thousand more leads a month." That might sound great on the surface, but it's something that I think, you know, we know that not really going be more productive. It's not gonna ultimately result in more move-ins a better experience and ultimately more top line revenue. So we'll always have you know, our core basis for how we do and how we help our clients. But in terms of advancing with technologies and, and finding different ways to be able to, you know, work alongside call centers, marketing teams to create really an all-encompassing solution, we'll do it. We're also working on a really great marketplace as well. The marketplace is gonna, you're gonna look at it as kind of a one-stop shop. So not only would it be like a directory listing service where clients can go and view all the different clients, their pages, the amenities, but it's a way that different vendors of all of all sorts. So it'd be, you know, food vendors, medical device equipment, anything can all go on there and, and have a marketplace where they can share a little bit about their company, share about their prices and kind of create that competitive atmosphere. But that's a little bit down the road. If I tell you more, I might have to kill you. So, I won't shed too much of those secrets, but that definitely a lot of really great changes that are coming in the pipeline for sure.
Patrick Leonard:Awesome. I appreciate that. We don't have to spill all the beans, but thanks for a little sneak peek. Well guys, any other final thoughts before we sign off today? This has been great information and I know I personally learned a lot. I'm sure our listeners will as well. Is there any other final thoughts before we part ways?
Rob Bills:Really, I just like to always talk about the fact that one of the reasons that we're so very important is because a lot of your clients, a lot of clients, a lot of these operators are spending a lot of money in marketing right now to drive that website traffic. And often times they're very successful in that. It's wonderful to see these clients, you know, 5K, 6K, 10K or 15,000 monthly unique visitors coming in. And what I like to talk about is that is wonderful, but now it's time when they get to your website, it's time to turn that monolithic number into that individual and be able to engage with that individual and tell their own story and really let them experience a little bit about what your community's all about. And so that's why I think we're so very important is we're able to turn those big numbers into that individual, which just creates, like I've said before, the highest quality lead that you can get besides a personal referral.
Marc Cherabie:Yeah, I would say for me, just to kind of spend on that a little bit, you know, a lot of, a lot of Senior Living communities are, they're tied up. They're so busy, they think that they don't have the time to be able to implement this, and we totally understand that. I think for us, what we always ensure for our clients is that we will make the onboarding as seamless as possible. We'll take care of with as much as of it as we can to really limit the amount of time that you're spending. But even that small investment of time that it might take for the, you know, seven to 10 business days at an onboards is going to save you a lot of time in the long run. It's not nearly as time consuming as a lot of our prospects think that they are. And another thing is, how can we entrust another vendor? We can sit here and talk all day about, you know, why you can trust us and our experience and all that kind of good stuff. But for us it's really about hear it from our clients, test it out yourself, you know, see what it's like and allow for us to have that opportunity to prove it. You know, we really are about guaranteeing an ROI and making it as risk free and as painless for all of our clients as possible. If they're not finding any value, if they're not getting a return on investment, they won't pay anything until they do. So we really make it as simple as possible to, you know, make the entry point, very seamless, and so for us, it's just about if you allow for us to earn that opportunity, if we can earn that opportunity to serve you, we can guarantee and and be very confident that you will be happy in all aspects of the service. So that would be just another final thought for me.
Patrick Leonard:Awesome. The personal guarantee, you heard it here!
Rob Bills:First written into every contract, it's literally written into every contract ROI guarantee. So we're not producing, we turn off our billing.
Patrick Leonard:Love it. Well, thanks again guys, for taking the time to be here with us today. This was a lot of fun, it was super educational for someone who personally thought they knew a thing or two about this topic, I certainly learned a lot. So I know our listeners will as well. Thanks again for being here.
Rob Bills:Thank you for the opportunity, Patrick. Great seeing you.
Marc Cherabie:Thanks so much. We appreciate it.
Patrick Leonard:And listeners, thanks for tuning into another episode of Raising Tech. Hopefully you all picked up some valuable information today. Is there any topics or you want to hear about anything in particular or be on the episode here yourself? Please feel free to reach out on our website at www.ParasolAlliance.com. Have a good one!