51. Engrain- Interactive Mapping & Virtual Community Exploration to Enhance Sales at Your Senior Living Community

In this episode, Mary Greer, Director of Sales at Engrain, sits down with Parasol Alliance's Founder & CEO, Amber Bardon to talk about Engrain's tech products like TouchTour, TouchTour for iPad, and Sitemap, catering to Senior Living communities, improving sales processes with innovation and accessibility. Engrain's TouchTour facilitates in-person sales experiences, while Sitemap provides online community maps.

Find out how Engrain collaborates with various sales and marketing technologies, integrating seamlessly with CRMs and resident engagement apps by tuning in for the full episode!

You can learn more about Engrain on their website and also on LinkedIn.

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Welcome to Raising Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Amber Bardon. Today, our guest is Mary Greer from Engrain.

Engrain's suite of tech products is improving the sales process of senior living communities with innovation, integration, accessibility, and they have the results to prove it. Communities all over the country are using TouchTour, TouchTour for iPad and Sitemap, not only to showcase amenities and lifestyle, but to convert prospective residents to residents.

Mary, welcome to the show. 

Hi, thank you for having me.

So Mary, tell me everything about you. Where were you before you came to Engrain? How did you come to Engrain? What's your role there? 

 I came over to the Engrain team in 2016. I had been a client for many years and both the multifamily sector and also in senior living.

So having utilized the products over the years, it was a smooth transition to come over to the Engrain team. And when I did part of my experience in the past was in senior [00:01:00] living and being very passionate about this market, I felt that we had a tremendous amount of growth opportunities that we could add more value into the senior living market.

So we've expanded and grown over the last almost 8 years serve close to 600 communities. we work with some of the top providers and consultants within the industry. Some of our clients include LCS, Graystone and Greenbrier are wonderful advocates of ours.

We work with Sunrise Senior and Atria and many others that put their trust in us to provide some really wonderful technology sales solutions for their teams. 

Congratulations. It's a lot of growth. 

So high level explain what is Engrain? How does it work? Give us all the details on that.

So the Engrain umbrella encompasses interactive solutions and what we call data visualization tools. In layman's terms we have a couple of different products here. It's our TouchTour solution, which ultimately was probably the 1st that drove heavily into the senior living market, given the focus on that in person sales experience within the communities TouchTours and interactive touch screen, sales enablement tool that lives in discovery rooms and sales centers.

And it gives a counselor essentially everything they need at their fingertips to paint a picture of lifestyle within a community, give everyone all of the aspects of what sets them apart and makes them special and take them through the full discovery journey in identifying the best option for that perspective, resident, or in many cases, it's an adult child

that's helping a family member with this choice. And so we help with TouchTour and narrowing down that search to find the right home and create a sense of urgency as well as they're working through this decision and making sure that, yes, it's a big decision for them, but helping them.

In feeling confident in that decision that it is the right move for them. So that's our TouchTour solution. We have it in an iPad format as well for a wonderful walking tour compliment. I always say it replaces that big binder of floor plans. If they're walking a community that can have everything that TouchTour offers essentially in the palm of their hands.

And then we offer interactive community maps. That's our site map product, which is a solution that is designed to add a community map to any website. These can also be utilized on site by on site sales team members, and it's a component of our TouchTour product as well. But the site map is ultimately, a great way to give a prospective resident some context, some additional context on the website as to the community or the campus as a whole. So where are the amenities that they would participate in? What homes are available that they would be interested in exploring and ultimately getting them to schedule that appointment and come in the door.

So it's great for that empowerment for perspective residents and their families to do a little bit of digging, which they want to do ahead of visiting the community and giving them enough of a taste to entice them to come in. So with that product, we are able to explore whatever level of transparency our clients are comfortable with. Some show inventory on the map, so they will show everything that's available or reserved and even pricing details while others maybe tease information and don't necessarily show the inventory or they may not show any pricing detail and they want that

customer to engage with a counselor before exposing that. So that's something that we can work through with each community and identify what the best representation of them would be within the sitemap.

That sounds really interesting. I know that's something a lot of our clients have asked for us. It's really great to know there's a product out there. So Mary, I think when it comes to senior living sales and marketing, we've seen so much change in the way this is handled. We've gone from a lot of referral based and just being in the community to really this huge shift. A lot of sales and marketing is a lot more website based and SEO and driven more by possibly the families.

And I think this has been a slow shift for the industry in a lot of ways. A lot of communities still rely on relationships. So from your perspective, what would you say over the last five to 10 years? How have you and Engrain see this technology evolve as it relates to the sales and marketing process?

Yeah, that's a great question. So I think that a big shift happened ultimately one that we don't like to think fondly of in other ways the shift with everything as it relates to COVID. I think that was a big impact on the communities in general, and the mindset of this exploring of more technology and more innovative ways that they can sell that

extend outside of sitting at that table and having that in depth conversation within the community. I think that it was forced upon communities to have to go outside the box of the traditional way of And in doing so I think communities were really tested in that. They had to see what was out there.

And I will say that clients that had already taken that step towards technology and were using our solutions were able to pivot easier because they already had the TouchTour, for instance, which could be shared via zoom. So they were then hosting zoom meetings and remote consultations with perspective residents.

They didn't see as much of a halt in many cases. We're serving new developments or expansion projects where they are under a very specific deadline to hit those conversion goals. And fortunately, they didn't have to pause in many ways that other communities did because they weren't necessarily prepared or didn't have the tools to be able to consult remotely.

So I think a lot of it shifted with that and ultimately hasn't really changed a lot. We see a lot of communities still hosting a lot of remote meetings, having family members in all different areas of the country. You have to be To accommodate the needs and not expect someone to fly in for a visit.

I think technology has shifted a lot because of those reasons. And then from our perspective, if you had asked me 5 or 6 years ago about transparency and our interactive maps on the website, for instance, I would have said. Clients are very hesitant. Our clients don't feel comfortable in putting on the website any pricing details, especially not their inventory.

They're even hesitant to show floor plans sometimes. I would have said that 5 years ago. Today, we are seeing a massive shift in this mindset of everyone understanding that today's consumer, seniors included in that, they expect transparency. They expect immediate gratification and being able to get the information that they want and need.

Anytime they want it and whether, an adult child is using her few minutes at the end of the night to watch Netflix and search for a place for her mom. She should be able to find out the information she needs without necessarily calling a sales counselor during business hours when she doesn't have time to step away.

And a senior in that regard also wants to. Dig in and do their research themselves and they're getting more comfortable being online and going website to website and I'm hearing from industry leaders that they are seeing a significant increase in qualified leads and activity when they expose a bit more.

And they're seeing far less bounce rates when people are frustrated by not getting the information that they're looking for when they need it. So that, I think, is the biggest shift here is going more flexible in the touring and discovery conversation process, but then also that exposure of more information online earlier.

COVID definitely had a major impact with that. But like you said, this goes back to even further than that as communities make that transition from in person tours and having that in person relationship. So like you're saying, where you can browse and buy anything on the internet these days and Engrain seems like a really vital tool to help with that transition.

Tell me a little bit about how does Engrain work with the other sales and marketing technology out there such as CRMs and I'm really interested actually to know do you also integrate with resident engagement apps because I'm thinking about that as you're talking lot of resident engagement apps are used for prospects or maybe some of the way finding with the map.

So can you talk a little bit about that? 

 We want to partner with anyone who will partner with us. Ultimately, we play nicely in the sandbox with everyone. So we encourage vendor partnership in terms of content sharing is 1 good way that many communities are investing in a lot of virtual content, like virtual tours and even in, of course expansions or new developments they're engaging with wonderful renders that are creating these conceptual images and videos.

That's a perfect compliment for our software because we ultimately can add all of that into our experiences. And so that collaboration is wonderful. For communities that are making that investment we can utilize that even having rendered views from the apartments, goes the long way when you're trying to paint the vision of someone's life in a community that doesn't exist yet.

It's not tangible. So that's something we would encourage is, we would love to work with those providers to enhance our product, of course, and the customer experience, and then CRM integrations. We work with the majority of the major CRMs within the industry. So from an inventory management perspective, it makes it really seamless for on site teams because there's no extra step for them.

We can integrate with WelcomeHome and Align, Yardi. Even Salesforce integrations have been possible in the past. So we're willing to connect those dots through integrations to really make it a wonderful and seamless process. We also have an exciting feature in our TouchTour product that allows the sales counselor to actually take a reservation right from the screen.

So it holds that apartment off the market. It creates excitement, of course, when they decide on that apartment, they're able to commit to it right there allows them to take a little bit more ownership. I think of the decision and then we, of course, again, true up with that CRM to make sure their inventory

all connected. And that main source of truth is the CRM. In terms of resident engagement apps, we again are very open to collaborating with different vendors and different providers in the industry. We see a lot of CTAs. Also utilized or a call to action buttons on our sitemap product that would call out that chatbot would call out whatever that communication that they're initially having there, even integrating something like HeartLegacy, where you've got that communication back and forth, we're more than happy to partner and champion those relationships.

That sounds really great. So if a community is interested in implementing and Engrain, what do they need to know? What type of technology do they have to have in place? What are the prerequisites? What would they need to do to get set up with the system? 

Sure. So first of all, they need to contact us for a demo, because we would definitely want to take them through all of the different nuances of the product.

But in terms of getting it set up. The most important things are we need some kind of level plan map. So we create, we can stylize them. We can make them look pretty, but we need some kind of either architectural files, something that shows where the communities are located. Because that's the most important part of what we do here is that mapping visualization piece to show where each home lives, and then the floor plans that are attributed to that home.

We can make them look nice and stylized and add additional context for amenities and things like that. And then we would need the floor plans, of course, that reside in those homes. And then any extra content is gravy, right? As I mentioned, if we have virtual content views from the windows, finish packages.

All of that can be utilized to only enhance the products more and help with that visualization of each home and what sets it apart. And then in the TouchTour solution, we often want to speak to really that provider, who they are, what makes them special, what Is really a major component of someone moving into a community is understanding what type of service and care they're going to experience.

So [00:15:00] we also play very heavily on that as a big portion of the TouchTour experience and setting the stage for expectations that future resident would have moving into the community. Photos, videos, all of that can be added for extra. And we even focus on the surrounding area. So local points of interest can be highlighted too.

So you can literally dive into all aspects of that property and the attributes. 

Yeah, that's such a great idea, especially if it's a family member who lives in a different area and they're not that familiar. I can see how that would be really helpful. So Mary, earlier we spoke about where have we been coming from, how things have changed in the past five to 10 years.

Now I really want to get your insight on what does the future hold? Where do you see the industry going in the next five to 10 years as it relates to sales and marketing? 

Sure I think we're going to definitely stay on the tech train. I think that nothing about that is going to change. If anything, it's just going to grow.

Their communities are already adding more technology across all aspects of their communities and their campuses from robots delivering drinks to, of course, interaction and resident engagement with technology as well, and communicating with those family members. I don't think that that is

going to go away. If anything, it is going to just grow more and, we're going to continue on our end to build in features and update our solutions to make sure we are. Ahead of the curve of anything that we anticipate a counselor might need in their conversation that a resident or future resident may want in their search as they're utilizing our solutions.

I think that it's just trying to stay ahead of the expectations that are coming our way because we have the boomers. That are coming strong and we have to make sure that the communities are prepared for that as they're considering the experience that they have from the moment they engage with their website.

All the way through the end of their time, really within a community, and they need to think about how they can impact their life and make things easier and technology. While we put up a fight, sometimes, you It's intended to do that. So I think that we're just going to see more and more growth there.

As we will with everyone's life, right? We're very spoiled right now, but we're going to get even more spoiled as time goes on. 

Yeah. Along those lines, do you imagine a time in which someone in another part of the country could actually make a deposit and select their apartment using your technology without ever speaking to somebody at the site.

In fact, they do it all day, every day right now in multifamily. So the multifamily market is ultimately where senior will go at some point, not anytime soon. It's not going to be an immediate thing and it won't be all aspects of senior living for a while, but active adult and 55 plus. They are basically compare them to, of course, your 20-30 somethings again, they're wanting fast, efficient, easy to use.

So I don't think that there is anything stopping an active adult or 55 plus potential resident from going online and leasing online today. I really don't. We work with providers. Graystar is 1 of the leading providers in that 55 plus market. We work with Sparrow. We work with many others that are already

opening that door for them to go ahead and apply. We have integrations with application and CRMs right now in the multifamily space where to your point, they just go on, they pick their apartment, they don't talk to a soul, they find what they're looking for, and then they drive their moving truck on up in a few weeks.

So I definitely think that is on the horizon, depending on the segment of the senior market, it'll come sooner rather than later, but it's definitely going to come at some point in the future for everyone. 

I imagine that is a little bit scary for some of our listeners who really like that personal touch 

having come from the industry, it's scary for me too.

Because my favorite thing was sitting across from the perspective resident. I loved that conversation and that discovery. And I do think it is an intimate conversation. So that said, I tread lightly saying that will come eventually, but people still want the personal touch, and that's not going to change in the senior space at all.

We can still have a personal touch, but incorporate technology. So I was still able to have an in depth discovery, connect with people, but have my screen there to support me. It didn't do my job for me. It was just there to tap and touch through photos and let them touch it and let them move around the images and add their furniture to their floor plan.

Like it was fun and it was engaging for them and I didn't lose that connection. When you spread floor plans across your table, you may lose a connection, but I didn't. I had them put their furniture in it. So it's a different way of looking at it again. It's not scary. It's good. 

Yeah, I agree. I think it's exciting at the same time for sure to think about how we can improve the process and capture a market that we can't today because of needing that personal connection.

So definitely something to look forward to and see how that evolves. I know. Mary, is there anything that you haven't told us yet about Engrain that you think our listeners should know? 

I think that we offer these tools that I've talked about today are really those sales enablement tools.

They're the ones that are more prospect facing that are strictly to the sales side of things. We also offer data visualization from an asset management perspective as well. So if someone were to explore our website in more detail, you would see that we can also take data and put it into a map format to provide great context.

As to really anything you would want to factor in location into a property kind of visualization tools. So where is occupancy higher? Where is it lower? What views? Maybe are we missing? Should we have an amenity premium on that 1? because those are all leased up very fast, or they've sold very quickly.

So we can provide really great data insights within our visualization tools that far extend beyond the in person or digital world of the prospect journey, but also aiding those on site or asset managers and those kind of coaching and managing their teams to help facilitate all of that and fill up the buildings faster, of course, is always our goal or keep them occupied, retain that occupancy.

 Thank you so much for coming on our podcast. And please let our listeners know, where can they find you? Where can they get more information?

Yeah, you can visit our website at Engrain.com. That's E N G R A I N dot com. It's not bread. So if you find a bread website, that's not us. We're data visualization. So, you can look at Engrain.Com and there are demo links scheduled on there. You can also reach out directly to me if you'd like, and I can facilitate that conversation.

So Mary@Engrain.Com and you'll reach me and I can connect you and schedule a call to talk through individual needs and what someone might be interested in exploring with us. 

Mary, thank you so much for joining. It was so nice to meet you. And for those of you who did not catch our last thought leadership series, it's also on YouTube and you can hear more from Mary on that as well.

Thank you so much for having me today. 

You can find us online at RaisingTechPodcast. com where you can see all of our episodes and contact us to provide feedback or submit an episode idea. We are on social media everywhere at Raising Tech Podcast. If you enjoy Raising Tech, please leave us a review and share with a friend. Music is an original production by Tim Resig, one of our very own Parasol Alliance employees.

As always, thank you for listening.