135. Building a Better Senior Living Sales Engine with CCR Growth

Families are researching senior living communities long before they ever submit a form, make a call, or schedule a tour. By the time a prospect reaches out, they may already have compared websites, read reviews, and formed an impression of several communities.

Host Matt Reiners speaks with Jerry Vinci, founder of CCR Growth and a senior living sales and marketing strategist with nearly 30 years of industry experience.

Jerry explains why outdated lead-management practices, disconnected systems, delayed responses, and poorly configured CRMs can quietly cost communities occupancy and family trust. He also shares practical guidance for using automation and AI without replacing the human conversations that matter most.

Listeners will learn:

•  Why digital presence now shapes the senior living buying journey 
•  How response automation can prevent inquiries from falling through the cracks 
•  What a properly configured CRM should accomplish 
•  Which sales moments should and should not be automated 
•  Where AI can make a practical difference today 
•  How to build a realistic 12-month technology modernization roadmap 
•  Why communities should work toward owning more of their lead pipeline 

Key Takeaways

• Families form an opinion before contacting the community
  • Websites, reviews, search visibility, and response processes now influence the decision journey before a salesperson enters the conversation.
• Lead management must become a system
  • A pipeline stored in one employee’s notebook, inbox, spreadsheet, or memory cannot be consistently measured, transferred, or improved.
• Start with response automation
  • An immediate acknowledgment helps keep a family engaged until a salesperson can respond personally. The goal is not to automate the sale; it is to make sure no inquiry disappears.
• A CRM does not have to be complicated
  • It needs to reliably capture inquiries, log interactions, show pipeline status, support follow-up, and match the organization’s actual sales process.
• Automate operational moments
  • Appointment confirmations, reminders, acknowledgments, and document collection can often be automated. First calls, tours, care discussions, financial conversations, and closing conversations should remain human-led.
• Build the foundation before adding AI
  • AI can strengthen follow-up sequencing, content development, lead scoring, and search visibility, but it should be added after response processes, CRM configuration, and attribution are working.
• Modernization should happen in phases
  • Operators should diagnose the current experience, fix costly gaps, configure core systems, establish attribution, and then expand into AI-assisted tools.

00:00 Introduction to Jerry Vinci and CCR Growth
01:40 How senior living occupancy growth has changed
03:30 Lead management and marketing attribution
05:30 Why communities must modernize now
08:00 The hidden cost of slow response times
10:45 The danger of managing leads in notebooks
14:45 Which technology should communities implement first?
17:45 Response automation and CRM best practices
21:40 Practical AI applications in senior living sales
25:40 How AI is changing online search
27:50 Where AI should not replace people
30:20 Operational moments versus relational moments
34:20 A 12-month modernization roadmap
40:40 Why communities should own their pipeline
42:20 How to connect with Jerry Vinci

More About Parasol Alliance:

Parasol Alliance is a full-service technology partner exclusively serving the senior living industry. We help senior living organizations transform their technology culture through strategic planning, managed IT services, cybersecurity, infrastructure, business systems optimization, resident technology support, and innovation consulting.

Learn more at www.parasolalliance.com and explore more episodes of Raising Tech at www.raisingtechpodcast.com.

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Transcript

Matt Reiners: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of Raising Tech. Today, I'm very excited to sit down with Jerry Vinci, who is a senior living marketing strategist, industry veteran, and the founder of CCR Growth. With nearly 30 years of experience in sales, marketing, and operations, Jerry has built CCR Growth into the go-to demand generation agency for senior living providers who want to increase occupancy, retention, and profitability.

His firm specializes in creating modern, data-informed marketing systems and replace outdated methods with strategies that actually work. From digital advertising and SEO to CRM automation and lead nurturing, his clients have seen measurable results, including moving from 55% to 100% occupancy in under a year.

In [00:01:00] 2024, Jerry launched From Leads to Leases, which quickly rose to become the number one senior living marketing and sales podcast on Apple Podcasts. So Jerry, awesome to have you on here. It's always great to bring on someone else who does their own podcast because I feel like the bar is really high from my end, but I appreciate you making some time here for us today.

Jerry Vinci: Yeah, no, thanks for having me, Matt. That was a, that was a great intro too. I appreciate it. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah. And so Jerry, you know, I know I said it in your intro, but you've spent obviously 30 years in senior living sales, marketing, and ops. I'm wondering, like, what are some of the biggest ways the industry's approach to occupancy growth has changed, and where are the communities, where are communities really just still stuck in the past?

Jerry Vinci: Yeah, I mean, I think this industry, I, in my opinion, I feel like this industry's a little bit more antiquated than, than some others and has a harder time adopting tech, uh, than some others. And, you know, I, you said 30 years, so I guess I can date myself here. But when I started in this [00:02:00] industry you know, the competitive playbook was kinda simple.

It was, you know, show up in a, in the Yellow Pages, or show up on a billboard or a postcard, you know? And then wait for the phone to ring, answer the phone, and then, you know, give a good tour. That was essentially the formula. But the, that world is gone, but I think a lot of those habits have kind of, you know, persisted even though that's the case, and they're kinda still running the operation.

What's different today is that families, they're doing most of the decision-making before they ever even contact a community. One data point that I saw, I think it said something along the lines of families are already 60 to 70% through their research before they ever even make contact. Um, you know, they've already read reviews, they visited the website, they compared all their options.

So by the time they actually fill out a form or speak with a chatbot or even pick up the phone, you know, they're, they've formed that impression already. So your brand is already kind of top of mind. Um, so, you know, your community either showed up or they didn't during that research phase. So, you know, I think that's probably [00:03:00] one of the biggest changes that have happened.

But that changes everything about how occupancy growth works too. It's not just- It's not just the marketing piece. You know, the we used to be really salesperson-led, right? You know, that a, a community could thrive with just a great salesperson and even if they had, like, a weak marketing operation.

And then today, that digital presence, it's first and foremost, so that does most of the qualifying work before that salesperson ever even ent- enters the picture. So communities who haven't built that digital infrastructure now they're gonna really see it in the next couple years their, when their competitors are just outshining them in every place possible.

You know, and in terms of, like, where communities are still stuck, I think in my, in my, you know, marketing and, and demand generation space, it's always about lead management. You know, there's this kind of, like, mental model that is kinda still active where the lead arrives and then a human handles it, and then something else happens.

And, and [00:04:00] yeah, it's, it's fine in most cases, but but the idea now is can we build a system that would guarantee what happens next? You know? Regardless of who's at the desk, regardless of which salesperson is, is on you know, at that particular time, doesn't matter what time it is, doesn't matter how busy the team is.

What if there was a, you know, a system that you could build that instead of it's just responding to leads, you actually have a system that guarantees a response and a way to follow up. So that's kind of, that's probably one of the biggest areas. And then the second would just be attribution. We see a lot where, um, you know, and, and for your audience that, that doesn't know what att- attribution is, it's essentially how you figure out which touchpoints, uh, within your marketing are actually producing results.

So, you know, can I, can I see that this lead came in from a Google search or Facebook ad or a Google ad campaign or our newsletter? All of those things play to, to attribution, and that ultimately will help, uh, an operator make more informed decisions so [00:05:00] they're not, they're not basing their budget decisions on feel, you know.

Uh, they're, they're focused solely on, you know, what the evidence and what the data is telling them. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah, it's a great point. And, you know, to your point about this industry being antiquated, you know, I find it so many times, man, especially from the, the marketing and sales side. I remember I was talking to my friend the other day who's a VP of marketing at a, a small multi-site.

And, like, right now- Mm-hmm ... their website lead form's not even set up to their CRM, which you think would kinda be some 101- No-brainer. Yeah, like some 101 stuff. Yeah. Uh, sorry, sorry to that person. I won't call you out by name. But it's just like those little things that you're like, like amazed by of like, uh, you know, of, of just not getting with the times.

'Cause it, and I know with you, Jerry, like one of your themes, right, is like modernize or miss the moment. And why is this, like right now in time, just such a pivotal moment for some of these senior living operators? And what's at risk for those communities that are just off-putting and delaying their tech adoption?[00:06:00] 

Jerry Vinci: That, yeah, I mean, that's, that's probably the question, I think. And, um, you know, when I talk about this, it's not just, this isn't just like a, a conference theme or, or a talk about being, like, future ready. You hear people talk about being future ready all the time. Um, but there's a big gap between the operators who've built a modern system already and the operators who haven't even started.

And you know, it's not about prepping for tomorrow, it's about understanding what's actually happening today. Because I just feel like tech moves so fast, people don't even get a, get a handle on it before we're already onto the next thing. So within senior living, I think, you know, it's easy to miss tech adoption because it's, it's kind of al- always felt optional for this industry.

It hasn't been something that, that's really just been universally accepted across the board, you know? You can get a, you can get by without a CRM if you have a great salesperson or get by without the digital marketing piece of it if your networking was strong or, you know, if you've got a great referral system set up or, [00:07:00] you know, you can even get by without reputation management.

But now those workarounds, they're, they're not as reliable as they used to be. You know, like I said, families are making those decisions and doing the research before they ever even reach out. And who is making the decision has also changed too. You know, the families making decisions today, they're the young adult children, right?

And many of them are millennials, and they default to digital research. They want fast responses. They read reviews, you know, the way a previous generation might read a brochure, for example. So they're, uh, they have a much lower tolerance for, for, like, a clunky intake process. And so the community, communities that impress people today, they're not necessarily the ones that, that have the nicest lobby.

It's gonna be the one that answered their inquiry the fastest. You know, if, if somebody's inquiring at 9:00 PM and they don't hear from the community until, say, noon the next day, they've most likely already made a choice or they're already scheduled a tour to other communities. So I think that's probably one of the biggest [00:08:00] challenges in terms of why modernize.

And then for risk, I, I actually think there's three, there's three things that are at risk if communities are delaying. And I think first and foremost, it's gonna impact families You know, families are active searching, and they're forming those impressions pretty quickly. So if a community's, again, taking nine hours or 12 hours to respond, or, or maybe they have Google reviews that are, like, five years old, you see that a lot, or or somebody has to pick up the phone and call just to get, like, basic info about pricing and availability, they're definitely gonna lose to, to their competitors.

And the problem with that is that it's not really measurable. You know? Like, that loss is kind of like a silent loss, that they're not sending an angry email breaking up with the community. They're not telling them that they're moving in somewhere else. They just, they just moved on to another community.

So how often is that happening when someone doesn't have proper digital infrastructure? Happens more than, than people might think. The second area that's at risk, I think, is the staff, because they're spending [00:09:00] time with, like, disconnected systems. They're still... A lot of them are still handling spreadsheets, dealing with email inboxes, and, like, uh, even doing, like, paper intake and things like that.

So they're doing a lot more manual work than they need to do. So if they can modernize their system, that's gonna free up capacity, and then the staff can obviously spend time on, like, the conversations that require a human, which is the whole reason why they, they probably are passionate about this industry to begin with.

And then I think third is just from, like, a competitive position, right? The operators that are building it now, it's gonna compound. And I, I know Matt, not... Last time you and I spoke, we talked about atomic habits and, like, that 1% improvement. And I think, like, even with digital infrastructure, I see that, you know, if you're, if you're able to implement it properly and add to it over time, those results are just gonna compound and compound to the point where you're completely just outshining your competitors.

You know? There's, it, it's not... It's like a night and day. Like, your occup- your [00:10:00] occupancy could be you know, f- you could be full and stay full where your competitors are struggling to even hit 80%. And, and it could all be because of digital infrastructure 

Matt Reiners: Yeah, you know, it's funny you mention the millennial.

And as a proud millennial myself, I'm, I'm amazed by how much I trust complete strangers' opinions on every review that I read. Whether I go somewhere- Yeah ... or food or Amazon purchases, it's just I'm blown away by... And obviously some of those times you can fake some of that stuff. But, you know, to your point, I, I see, too, you know, some of these people or some of these communities have acted in this way of, like, you know, we've never had to do that before, so why do we now?

I, I will say I have seen some, like, "Hey, I know we're at 100% now, but we gotta start building some stuff out for the resident of the future, 'cause a lot of these things are gonna matter to them." Um, and it's so true of, like, what that can look like. And I imagine in your 30 years, you know, you've seen communities manage leads in notebooks and other outdated systems.

Yeah. Maybe even just, like, writing on the back of their hands. What, what does this kind of fragmented process actually [00:11:00] cost operators in terms of that occupancy response time, and really that family trust? 

Jerry Vinci: Yeah. Un- unfortunately, and I say unfortunately 'cause it, it happens a lot, but that notebook is a true thing.

I've seen that happen in a lot of communities. And it's, uh, it's not a problem as much as it is, like, a system, right? It represents a community where the pipeline lives in, like, one person's head. And there's gonna come a day where that person leaves and, and when they leave, the pipeline's gonna leave with them, and I think that's one of the most...

That's probably the biggest risk I think a lot of communities that haven't implemented some type of tech across their, their team is, is facing. You know, there was one, one community in particular, I... There was a sales director who had, like, a spiral notebook with a yellow highlighter, and she'd been managing their entire inquiry pipeline that way for, like, seven years.

You know, and she was great at her job. She knew every family. She, she remembered, like, the context of every conversat- You could ask her anything about any prospect or any [00:12:00] resident, and she knew all of the information. So she wasn't the problem, but the problem was that that knowledge you know, it wasn't a system.

It meant that, like, it couldn't be reviewed. It couldn't be handed off. It couldn't be measured. And so the day that, the day she gives notice, if she ever gives notice, you're not just gonna lose the salesperson, you're gonna lose that entire pipeline and, and, you know, even that person's follow-up history and all of those things that matter when it comes to, like, a m- we're living in a, in a time where there's multi-touches in every single lead.

You know, they're getting touched six, eight, 10, 12 or more times throughout that sales process. So are those, you know, if those aren't being recorded into some kinda system, it's just kind of chaos all, all across the board. So, you know- That's probably one of the biggest risks that I see. And then, and then I think it's just, like, the fragmented process that people have.

You know, they have a, an inquiry system that's kind of working but you know, they have gaps, right? Like, they can go maybe 12 or 13 hours before responding to, [00:13:00] to a prospect or something like that. That can be, that can be a major problem because all that time that you're just... That person's sitting and waiting, they're not just waiting for you, they're probably speaking to two or three other communities at the same time.

So that, that's kind of where that, that notebook story comes in. And then I think occupancy and response time the costs there are definitely quantifiable. The, the biggest one I think that's hard to measure is, like, the family trust because- Mm ... you know, it's, it's damaging over time when that family, when that family's looking for an answer right away and they don't hear until the next day.

You know, they're not just choosing another community, they're actually they're actually forming an opinion about the community, uh, that they wanna work with. So, you know, they're not gonna, they're not gonna even consider a, a community where if they can't get any knowledge. A- and this goes back to, like, brand, you know, brand visibility and, like, every single touchpoint someone has with your community, whether it's with front of house, with sales director, with [00:14:00] a, you know, a, an activities coordinator doing a tour.

All of those things, those are all touchpoints that are gonna represent your, your brand. So it's gonna... If people don't feel good about that right from out of the gate, they're just, they're not gonna go with that option, you know? Um, because what happens when there's a care issue, uh, you know, or, or there's a safety issue with their, their mom or dad?

I mean, they, they need to feel 100% resolute with that choice before, before that ever happens. So yeah, I think, I think those are probably the biggest, the biggest risks that, uh, that we see. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah, makes sense. I wonder where that notebook is today. I feel like we need to, like- I couldn't imagine ... put that into a museum or something.

Um, but, you know, to your point too, right? All that tribal, tribal knowledge is with somebody in that one piece of document, and it's hard to digest and kind of analyze and all that fun stuff with it. And, and it begs the question, so, like, when a community does start modernizing, you know, which tools tend to make the biggest immediate difference?

CRM, automated follow-up, digital intake, [00:15:00] family portal, something else? And I'm curious on why. 

Jerry Vinci: Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing most people probably jump to is a CRM just because it sounds like it's kind of like an all-encompassing solution. But for me it's really, you know, if you have to start with one thing, it would probably be response automation.

And even like a family portal I think is probably, uh, you know, an afterthought. You've got a lot of foundational systems that have to be built in order for th- these other systems to be successful. Within this space, I think a lot of operators, they look at tech and they're like, "Okay, we're, we're woefully behind.

We need to implement these five or six things, and we're gonna do it all at once." It, it just becomes total chaos rather than it being more of a methodical plan to, to knock out one by one. You know, you need a, a system... And I say the the response automation first and foremost just because that way you have a system that guarantees that no inquiry disappears ever.

It's not, [00:16:00] it, you know, it doesn't go in- into silence regardless of when it arrives or who's manning that desk, you know? The it consistently, if you consistently implement that, I've seen census movement and significant census movement even within 90 days just by doing that one thing. But- You know, I, I think I don't just wanna give, like, a it depends answer.

Like, it depends on the community or it depends on who's, who's running it. What's actually useful when answering that question, I think, is probably the tools that produce the fastest measurable occupancy impact. You gotta, you gotta do those in order. Mm. So, you know, if low-hanging fruit's another way, another way to look at that.

So, I m- the, the inquiry response automation, do that first. Second, I would look for, like, a properly configured CRM. And a lot of operators, small operators will, will push back on the CRM piece 'cause they're like, "We're small, a small team. We don't necessarily need a CRM." But a CRM does not have to be complex.[00:17:00] 

It just has to be a place where you can measure and track every, every interaction, every activity that's happening around those leads to make sure that nothing is falling through the cracks. I would say the third thing would just be, like, the digital intake an intake workflow. So, like, when somebody's moving into a community or about to move in and, and we have questionnaires and all these other things, is that a smooth process?

Is it clunky? Like, how can we improve that? And then I think after that, then it's, like, looking at, like, a family portal or some other way to, to keep people engaged. But that's, like, way down the track, you know? That's, like, if you were doing, like, a 12-month plan, I'd say that's probably, like, month 12 that you would worry about that.

Matt Reiners: So Jerry, you, you mentioned a lot of really good things there, and I'm wondering for those that, you know, this might be new terms to them, whether, like, you know, we're thinking about CRM, which I'd be surprised if someone hasn't heard about CRM today, but are some of this, like, automation follow-up.

Like, what does that actually look like in the weeds, and, like, w- what are some of the best practices when it comes around those? 

Jerry Vinci: [00:18:00] Yeah. I mean, again, like order of operations is gonna be everything. And I always say, like, fix the top of the funnel first. That's the first place you have to look, and that's why we, we talk about the, the, uh, inquiry automation piece of it first and foremost.

So inquiry response, all that is, it's just a layer that essentially as soon as somebody reaches out, as soon as an inquiry arrives, whether, whether it's a web form, a chat, a missed call, anything, regardless of the hour, you know, an immediate acknowledgement is sent to that prospect. And then there's the expectation in that response that a human being is gonna follow up, you know, as soon, as soon as humanly possible, essentially.

Yeah. And then, you know, it's not... The purpose of that isn't to close the sale. Obviously, we all know that senior living is a long sales process. No one's expecting one automation to solve that problem. But, um, but that just keeps the family in the conversation long enough for the human to show up and, and do what they need to do.

So I think [00:19:00] that's probably why that piece is most important and comes first. In terms of, uh, you know, a CRM you know, the word there I think is, is a properly configured CRM because you see there's a lot of CRMs out there where there's... You, you were just talking about one where, uh, there was a web form that was filled out and it wasn't even connected to the CRM.

So that's a perfect example of where does that go? Whose email address does that go to? Is anyone else seeing it or is this one person's inbox, you know, handling all of that? And if that person decides to call in sick for the day, you know, nothing happens with those leads. Yeah, so when, when a CRM's done right, then, like, every inquiry's cha- tracked, every touch point gets logged.

You know, there's a follow-up cadence that can be automated in there. And then, you know, a, a sales director can see, like, in 30 seconds exactly where every pros- prospect is in the pipeline versus having to have, like, you know, staff meetings and things like that. So it's just, it's just such a, a time-saver.

So [00:20:00] those, those would probably be the two biggest piece. If you can get those two pieces dialed in in that order, I think you're, you're well on your way to implementing tech that's actually gonna be useful and helpful to, to the community as a whole, but also, you know, to the operator as in terms of increasing occupancy or maintaining occupancy.

Matt Reiners: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, as someone who's helped build I think four or five CRMs from scratch from different platforms, not for a provider specific but just for my own- Yeah ... sales orgs, you know, there's definitely a very simple way you can go about it, and there's way more complex ways. And I think sometimes people get scared about the more complex ways.

But just having it all in there, not Excel sheets, not the notebooks that we're talking about is definitely good. And yeah, I find it's funny when I reach out to companies and I don't get an automated, whether it's SMS or, like, email that comes in directly. Like, I'm kind of surprised myself being that tech-forward millennial that I am.

I, 

Jerry Vinci: it- Um- There's- But- There's, like, there's two questions too, I think, if somebody asked this about their, about their operation. So first would be does this [00:21:00] help more families get from first contact to a signed move-in? If the tech is doing that, then it's worth im- implementing. If it doesn't, then, you know, let's, let's look at the system or let's look at the order of operations to figure out how to make that happen.

And then second would be, does it improve something that happens after the move-in? You know, both matter obviously, and they're, you know, they're funded differently, so you'd have to weigh your options or decide what, what piece of tech makes sense for your community. But those questions, you know, we wanna make sure we're, we're staying focused on, on the end outcome, on what's gonna benefit residents, what's gonna benefit staff, what's gonna benefit families, or what's gonna benefit the operation as a whole and, and keep that, like, f- first and foremost when we're thinking about tech.

Matt Reiners: Yeah. I love that. And Jerry, before I get into this next question, I feel like we deserve an award because this is our first time talking about AI here on a tech podcast. Uh, I don't know how many minutes we're in now, but I feel like we gotta get some sort of award. But you know, AI is everywhere, in sales and [00:22:00] marketing and then some right now.

And, you know, from what I've seen, you know, a lot of senior living operators are still figuring out, like, what's real versus hype. Where do you see AI making the biggest practical difference today? 

Jerry Vinci: I think, and it's not necessarily solely an issue in this industry, but I've found it to be a problem in this industry, is that a lot of what's being sold as AI is actually just like pattern matching automation.

But it's being called AI. And you know, it... Obviously that's gen- that's useful to have but but understanding what AI's actually doing and what it isn't doing is gonna separate the operators who deploy it well from the ones who, who are, you know, buying it and wondering why nothing changes essentially.

So there's three places where AI can make a real difference, like a practical difference right now in senior living marketing and sales. So let's look at, say, intelligent follow-up sequencing, for example. [00:23:00] That's that's one of the most important pieces and I've, I've already kind of talked a little bit about, about follow-up sequences.

But, uh, an AI driven follow-up tool is pretty cool because not only is it automating the response, but it can actually adapt the timing, uh, adapt the timing, adapt which channels it gets sent out on. Uh, and, and the message of a follow-up can be based on like the prospect's behavior. So maybe you know, they're looking at specific pages on the website or they're coming in through a specific platform that was running a specific ad.

You know, knowing those things ahead of times, you can change the follow-up sequence or what's being said by using AI to help, you know, kind of navigate and learn more about, uh, that prospect's behavior signals. You know, what are they opening? What are they clicking? W- what site revisits? You know, like what pages are they revisiting on the site?

Um, a lot of automation sequences right now, it's just kind of like a, a fixed calendar sequence. So, you know, they, they fill out the form and [00:24:00] then on day four we're gonna send them an email. Day seven we're gonna send them an email. Then we're gonna wait a week, then we're gonna send another email. But that, that cadence doesn't necessarily work, you know, with, with every family.

So making sure that like a family who revisits a memory care page three times is gonna get a different touch point than a family who hasn't engaged since they initially sent out their first inquiry. So it's, you know, behavioral apt- adaptation I think is like a great, a great use of AI implementation that, uh, that operators could look at second would be, like, content creation with, with editorial oversight, we'll say.

You can't just expect an AI tool to be able to, to kick stuff out, uh, without, you know, a human reviewing it. Especially, I think especially in senior living, there's, there's liability, there's compliance there's all sorts of issues that can come up if that content is not specific, uh, enough to that one community.

Um, but there's a ton of tools out there. There's LLMs, there's other tools out there that can draft, uh, email nurture sequences, FAQ [00:25:00] content you know, captions for your social posts, things like that. Um, and obviously that can happen way faster than any human can do it or, or in terms of, like, the volume of output, it can, it can do that a lot faster.

But you've gotta be involved in the process, you know? Uh, if it's used right, those tools can... Even, even a small marketing team can produce a, a giant content, a volume of content than they did before. Um, but if they do it wrong, then, you know, it ends up just being like generic copy. You know, call it... You hear, like, AI slop all the time, right?

So, like, generic copy. It sounds like everybody else. It may not even sound like someone who's ever even walked or stepped foot into a senior living community wrote it, so you wanna be really mindful about which platforms you're using and then, like, what editorial oversight you have. And then another, another place that AI's kind of, like, reshaping the game, I think, is, is how, how we search.

Nowadays, when you do a search in Google, for example, you see [00:26:00] the, the, the AI overviews at the top of the page. And Google did that, of course, because they wanna compete with all the LLMs, the ChatGPTs, Perplexities, and Clauts out there. Because nowadays people are going into those systems or platforms and, and asking questions and getting straight answers rather than getting a, a list of blue links that they can click.

So the AI overview, not only does it, it keeps people from going out, you know, to another LLM to find information, but now there are... people are also getting answers directly in Google rather than just a list of results. And I think part of that is, is the way that people search has changed. You know, before it was like you know, senior living near me or, or, uh, assisted living in Omaha, Nebraska, something like that.

But now it's like, who are the best senior living communities in Omaha, Nebraska? It's more, it's more question and response oriented. So, so thinking about, thinking about AI, thinking about your community's content, uh, does it answer those types of [00:27:00] questions? Is it built with the right structure? You know, so make sure your Google Business profile is filled out fully.

Uh, make sure you have reviews that are coming in on a regular basis, and that you're responding to them within a c- you know, probably within the first 48 hours. Making sure your, uh, it's called NAP, so name, address, and phone number, make sure that data is, is accurate across all the directory listings online.

So you'll see often that, like, your Google information will be different than, say Bing or maybe, uh, trying to think what, Yelp, something like that. So when, when those, when that data is not consistent across the board, it sends signals to these platforms that you're not necessarily a trustworthy entity or, or we're not sure exactly what it is you do, so we're just not gonna show you in the search results.

So making sure those little things are done is gonna make a big difference. Um, and the, the one place I would say should not be automated or should not, uh, and there's a lot of AI hype around this, [00:28:00] I think I say it shouldn't be automated, I'll say it shouldn't be fully automated, would be sales conversations.

You see there's a lot of tools out there that, that advertise that they can, they can handle this. You know, for example, chatbots that are, like, positioned to be able to handle, uh, the senior living inquiry f- conversation end to end, you know. They can qualify the family, they can understand that family's situation and, and then nurture them towards a tour.

I think that's underselling the complexity of what the conversation actually requires. You know, you can't, you can't dehumanize that process. You know, a family navigating, for example, a parent's cognitive decline or something like that, you know, AI as it stands right now isn't able to understand the difference between, um- Or understand the gravity and the weight of that conversation, right?

So I think that for the time being anyways, and I'm always gonna say the time being 'cause who knows what the future holds, but as of right now, I, I think that's where kind of AI misses the mark. And, and [00:29:00] when people implement these tools blindly and they don't think about how that's being received by the family on the other, other end, I think that's where they lose out.

Matt Reiners: Yeah, a lot of really great information in there, Jerry. And you know, one of the things that I'll, I'll mention too that's so important I think is that editorial oversight. So many times you see people just copy and pasting and not reading or like- Yeah ... doing anything. And I remember asking ChatGPT in the early days, I was like, "Who is Matt Reiners?"

And they're like, "Matt Reiners got his MBA from Stanford." And I was... I don't have an MBA, but I was like, "That is completely accurate. Make sure you tell everybody else that that ever asks about me." But just making sure what you're getting out of there is accurate. And to your point too of like, you know, how do you use that?

I think the chatbots is a really good point. You know, it can handle some of the stuff, but too many times, you know, you see the stories, not so much senior living specific, but people... I saw like a car dealer was going back and forth with a chatbot and basically got it to agree to give a car away for one cent and made it legally binding, so the car dealership like had to do it, right?

Oh, yeah. So it's just like, it's just wild [00:30:00] things out there. And I know you kinda, you touched on this, but I wanna ask it in a different way 'cause I think a lot of the times what I see as a hesitation to use AI or automation from a lot of leaders is this idea of making it less personal. And I'm wondering like how do you guide or help communities to use these co- tools in a way that like continues to strengthen that relationship and really instead of like in place- replacing that human touch that I think everybody in this industry is very scared of?

Jerry Vinci: Good. Yeah. I mean, couldn't agree more. I see that and get pushback on this a lot. I don't think the risk is the automation itself and the automation making it feel less personal. The risk is that it- it's getting deployed by people who don't understand what it's for and they end up replacing human moments that we're never supposed to touch with automations, with automations.

And I think that's probably the biggest, biggest challenge that I see. So the frame that I've, I've found [00:31:00] useful with operators who have that concern is thinking about senior living sales journeys having, like, two very different categories of moments. Um, there's operational moments, and then there's relational moments.

So an operational moment are obviously things like logistics, you know, uh, uh, getting... sending someone a, a, a receipt that you received their inquiry. Confirming an appointment, reminding them about a tour following up, following up on a, on a scheduling situation or, you know, collecting documents, things like that.

Those are moments where, like, speed and reliability matter, and absolutely a system can do that. There's no reason in most cases for a human to have to be responsible for i- for implementing that or sending out that, that communication. That could easily be automated. Um, so... And the system typically will do that better because it's faster, it does it at any hour of the day, and it's gonna do it without variability that tends to happen when a human, uh, handles it.

And then you [00:32:00] got relational moments, and those are obviously different. That's like the first real phone call that a, a family has with a, with a salesperson. Or you know, a, the, the in-person tour, uh, or the follow-up call after, like, a difficult care conversation. That's the kind of stuff that, where human is the point, right?

So automation that tries to replace those moments, it's gonna break something that, that can't be easily repaired or is just gonna lose trust with the family. So it's actually gonna do the o- opposite of that. So, like, the, the areas I would say, you know, protect these areas at all costs would probably be, like, that first phone call that, that the community has with, with the family.

Um, make sure that in... the tour and the in-person community experience is always human led. Any conversation about clinical needs or care level, I think that's too complex and, uh, delicate of a conversation, nuanced conversation for, for AI or for automations to, to even touch that right now. Uh, and same with, like, a difficult family conversation about, like, maybe [00:33:00] transitioning from home into a community or talking about finances or, or health concerns.

Um, and then, and then obviously the close. You can't, you can't automate the close process. That's gotta be something that, that a, a, a senior, you know, salesperson is, is gonna handle. Um- 

Matt Reiners: Yeah ... 

Jerry Vinci: so I think, I think when- When automation is done right, and I think this is something that the operators need to hear, is that when it's done right, families don't experience it as automation at all.

They just experience it as a community that's, you know, organized. They're attentive, and they're respectful of that, of that family. So I think, I think, you know, automation shouldn't replace the human. It should just hold the moment, so to say. Hold the moment until the human could show up fully prepared to, you know, to correspond with that family.

Um- 

Matt Reiners: Yeah. 

Jerry Vinci: Yeah. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah. No, I love that take, and one of the things I always tell people, like using AI or some of the automation or [00:34:00] whatever technology, is like how do you automate the mundane to elevate the meaningful? And to each person, right? Love that. The mun- yeah, the mundane means something else. To each person, the meaningful means something else.

When you can kinda cut out some of that monotonous BS that we all have to deal with to focus on more of those relationships, that one-on-one time to be more human, like that's where I see the biggest opportunity for technology today. 

Jerry Vinci: Absolutely. 

Matt Reiners: Um, and then my, my last question here for you, Jerry. You know, for the operators that are listening who know they need to improve but probably feel overwhelmed what does a realistic roadmap look like for integration technology and AI in a way that helps them generate leads, close faster, and overall improve the resident and family experience?

Jerry Vinci: Great question. I have a 12-month rough outline of, of what tech implementation would look like for a community that's kind of looking to get started at, at modernizing their, their operations. You know, I think that feeling of [00:35:00] overwhelm is definitely something that I don't wanna discount at all, but I think it's, I think it's often misdiagnosed.

It's, it's not usually that there's too much to do, which might seem like that on the surface, but it's usually that there's not a clear starting point, you know, so, so everything feels urgent. Like I said, somebody trying to implement five or six different things at the same time because somebody told them they need this, another person told them they need this, their competitor is using this.

You see that a lot and, and they can't even tell you why they're implementing it, they just feel like if they don't, you know, they're gonna get left behind. You know, even like you see vendors selling, selling operators on things they don't need, you know, the, the vendor who's selling the CRM might say that's the most important thing, uh, or they're working with a consultant and, and a consultant tells them they need to start with attribution.

Or, or they go to a conference and they say, "Oh no, you need to start with AI, nothing else matters." So that, that whole framework of, of modernizing, it's, it actually is a word that produces anxiety for operators more, [00:36:00] more than not. So here's, here's like a 12... It's three phases essentially and, and over 12 months.

If you implement this, I think, I think you'd be well on your way to, to setting yourself up for success for the future. Phase one typically would be like your first month of implementing tech, and what you wanna do before you implement anything is diagnose where you're currently at, right? So the best way to do that for any operator, I don't care how big or small you are, is to mystery shop your own community.

You know, if you submit, if you submit a web inquiry pretend you're, you know, a prospective family. Try s- submitting it at 9:00 PM on a weekend, and then maybe, maybe call into the community, ask questions that a real family would ask, and then document what happens. A lot of times operators will see that, that that's why their occupancy's leaking other...

you know, more than any vendor demo will tell you. So that, that would be like part, first thing I would do. Second would be to kind of map the inquiry journey. So from the [00:37:00] moment a family finds your community online to the moment that they move in, what are all the steps, uh, that you typically take?

Which steps are, are currently being handled by a human, you know, where a human's required? And where, where could some- where could a system be put in place that would do better than, than a human solution would? And then look at, look at those gaps, you know. There's, there's steps that nobody owns, and then there's gonna be steps that, steps that people do own, so like looking at both of those is gonna be important.

And then lastly, audit, audit what, uh, you're already- you already have. So there's a lot of operators that they have more tech than they actually think they do, you know? And a lot of times it's just configured poorly. So before you buy anything new, find out what you're already using. Because I've seen teams where the, the CEO I'm sorry, the executive director purchased a piece of software, and then you know, the, the director of nursing purchased something else, the sales director pur- So they might have three or four pieces of tech that aren't even all talking to each other, that [00:38:00] each department is using independent of each other, and that, that creates such a, such a problem.

So look at, look at all those pieces of tech. Maybe you've got unused seats in your CRM or, uh, automation sequences that nobody's reviewed for the last two years. You know, all of those things are gonna add up. So that's kind of, you know, month one is, is really just doing your research. And then phase two would be kind of fix the high cost gaps first.

So if this would be like months two to four, you wanna look at your, your response infrastructure. So, uh, deploying whatever it takes, uh, you know, whether it's automation, staffing changes, workflow redesign. You wanna make sure that you are speeding up that, that speed to lead or speed to response time however, however you can do that.

You wanna make sure that you're building a system where there's, there's a guarantee that, you know, no inquiry is gonna wait more than, say- Best case scenario, more than one business hour for, for a human to reach out, you know, if there's that automation sequence in place. But ideally within the first, you know, 12 hours there's gonna be, there's gonna be multiple [00:39:00] touch points.

Second, you wanna look at configuring or, or replacing your CRM if you've got one or maybe reconfiguring it if, if you've done that but you haven't done it in a while. You know, looking at all those pieces, the, the family- the decisions, the follow-up cadences you know, the pipeline visibility, making sure that the, the steps in the CRM match your sales process steps so you can easily move people from say like inquiry to, to pre-tour, to tour, to deposit, to move-in.

Making sure that all those, all those pieces are in place so that you can make those easy decisions. And then the last phase would be, uh, just building the attribution layer and then growing. So, so basically months four through 12, you're really just kind of hitting what's where, where the rubber meets the road.

So, uh, connecting, connecting lead sources to move-ins would probably be step one, which is, like, implementing tracking, right? That's gonna answer those questions, where did this move come from? Uh, what did it cost us? And it doesn't have to be [00:40:00] sophisticated to be consistent, you know. Just those basic metrics will, will tell you a lot about, about how your, how your community's performing.

And then I would... The last thing I would do would be to expand into, like, AI-assisted tools. So looking, once you, now that you have a foundation you've got, you know, that response infrastructure so you're, you're handling inquiries quickly. You've got a CRM that's set up successfully. You've, you've properly attributed all your channels, so you know where your leads are coming from and which ones are converting.

Now you can kind of look at how AI can kind of take that to the next level, and all that's gonna do is extend capacity without adding complexity or, or maybe having to add more team members to do it. So look at, like I said earlier, the, the AI follow-up sequencing which can customize the, the follow-ups with prospects.

Maybe content, you know, creating content or even lead scoring. Those can all be, all be AI-driven. And then the last thing, I think once you have all those pieces in place, is to, is to make sure you own your [00:41:00] pipeline. Uh, we see a lot in this industry and it, it is a big challenge and I don't know if it's, if it's part of, like, a challenge with modernizing operations, but we see a lot of operators With an over-reliance on aggregators, third-party aggregators, like A Place for Mom or Caring.com they, you know, some communities, 70, 80% of their, their move-ins come from those sources.

So, wanna make sure that your, your final step is kinda to make sure you're looking at your local search presence your, your direct referral relationships, making sure that, that those are generating enough inquiries so that the community can own that pipeline and not have to rely on a, on a third party, which is, which is obviously gonna drive down your, your NOI and, and just, uh, and just overall, you know, frustrations between the families and the community and, and obviously the cost of acquisition.

All of those things are major factors. So that, if you can implement that system over 12 months, you're gonna have, you're gonna have a solid tech, uh, foundation to be able to move into the next [00:42:00] phase of, of the future, I think. 

Matt Reiners: I love that. Well, Jerry, I appreciate you kinda mapping that out. Now you got me wanting to go look at our own CRM and stuff-

and just making sure that's optimized. And for those that wanna get in touch with you, learn more about what you're working on, where can they find you? 

Jerry Vinci: Yeah, no, thanks for having me today, Matt. Really appreciate it. And, uh, anyone who's interested in connecting, feel free to find me on LinkedIn. You s- search for, uh, Jerry Vinci, you can find me, and then our, uh, website is ccrgrowth.com.

Matt Reiners: I love it. Well, Jerry, I appreciate you dropping some knowledge on us today. I definitely learned something myself, so appreciate you and all the energy, passion, and dedication you've brought to our industry for over 30 years. 

Jerry Vinci: Thanks, Matt. Thanks for having me.

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