When you’re getting started with an elderly home care franchise, your first client consultations can feel daunting. After all, hiring elderly home care services is a significant decision, with an array of implications for seniors and their families.

As with other aspects of running an elderly home care franchise, consultations can feel overwhelming at first. But no matter how intimidating consultations may feel early on, they’re something that new franchisees quickly learn to manage.

It may be helpful to remember that you’re not in uncharted territory. At Visiting Angels®, we have hundreds of franchise owners. Every franchisee in our network has had to navigate their first consultation after opening their franchise.

Their success demonstrates that these conversations are more manageable than they might initially seem — especially with the training and support of a franchise network like Visiting Angels.

Client Consultations & Elderly Home Care Franchises

What is it that makes client consultations so daunting for new elder care franchisees?

One way to answer that question is to reframe it from a client’s perspective. For seniors and their families, consulting with an elderly home care franchise is a big step. Even when seniors clearly need in-home care, many are resistant to hiring a caregiver. In cases where this isn’t an issue, seniors and their families need to wrangle with financial and lifestyle impact of elder care services.

Most elderly home care franchise owners perform client consultations themselves. Later on, you might choose to hire a professional Care Coordinator. But in the early going, you’ll be the one speaking with seniors and their families.

That means you’ll be the one who is answering their questions, addressing their concerns, and putting them at ease with the concept of home care services. You’ll also be responsible for planning care in a way that fits your clients’ lifestyles, suits their budget, and addresses their most pressing care needs.

That can be difficult, especially for first time elderly home care franchise owners. But if you’ve prepared for these consultations and enter them with the right mindset, you’ll find them more manageable than you may have originally expected.

How to Handle Elderly Home Care Consultations

One of the advantages of purchasing an elderly home care franchise is that your franchisor can help you prepare for the many scenarios you’ll experience. A great franchisor will provide you with extensive support, training, and resources, helping you navigate the challenges of building and running a successful elder care business.

If you’re not part of a franchise network, these obstacles can lead you off course. As a franchisee, you have the guidance, the roadmap, and the navigational tools you need to get from point A to point B.

This can be especially helpful when preparing for your first client consultations. At Visiting Angels, new franchisees can lean on their Regional Operations Director for guidance on practically any aspect of elderly home care franchise ownership, including client consultations. Your Regional Operations Director can provide tips on how to speak with clients, address their concerns, mitigate anxieties, or solve care planning problems, just to give a few examples.

Here are some of the strategies that your Regional Operations Director can help you prepare:

Preparing a list of questions that will give you an accurate sense of your clients’ care needs and concerns.
Learning how to listen carefully to what’s said by seniors and their families, including concerns and anxieties that may not be explicitly stated.
Managing tensions between seniors and their families, preferably through compromise or alternative solutions that address both parties’ concerns.
Ways to make elder home care services more budget-friendly for seniors and families who are facing financial pressures.
How elderly home care franchise owners can mitigate the anxieties and resistance that many seniors have to care assistance.

In some cases, our directors will connect new franchisees with established Visiting Angels owners who have faced similar challenges. One of the things that sets us apart from other elderly home care franchise brands is that we’ve taken great care to foster connections between our franchisees and create a supportive atmosphere.

Learn more about the support you’ll receive as a Visiting Angels elderly home care franchise owner by calling 800-365-4189 or requesting information online!