What the top 100 performing carehome.co.uk profiles look like

Why should you care about reviews?  Why should you be adding quality photos to your profile?  What is the point of adding Team Member profiles?  When looking at the top performers on carehome.co.uk the answer to all those questions is because it's the best way to generate more care enquiries for your care home.

We researched the 100 care homes that received the most care emails enquiries in 2020.  We wanted to analyse why some care homes generate more interest through their profiles than others to allow you to evaluate your own profile and consider whether with just a few tweaks you can be generating many more care enquiries a month.  Top performing care homes for enquiries performed well above average for all other types of leads and enquiries including brochure requests, care enquiry phone number views and website clicks.

Obviously there are some factors outside of the realms of control, a care home in London on average will generate more enquiries than a care home in a more rural setting simply because of the population density differences.  However, many care homes in rural settings did make the top 100 for enquiries.  This post is all about helping you maximise your carehome.co.uk profile, to get the most bang for your buck and to ultimately keep your care home operating at full capacity.

If you have any questions about any items in this article, talk to your account manager who will be happy to help you implement these changes.  We will also link to relevant support articles.

More reviews result in more enquiries

It's not surprising that the care homes that generated the most enquiries have lots of reviews.  Independent reviews are the second most popular consideration when making decisions online behind advice from family and friends.

The most important factors are the amount of reviews and amount of new reviews

The average amount of total reviews on the top 100 care homes for enquiries was 40 reviews, but more importantly they're generating at least 9 reviews in the last 12 months to keep their reviews fresh.  The top 20 care homes are generating at least 1 review a month.

Although you want most of your reviews to be as perfect as possible, the top 100 care homes review score is 9.3.  Having very good reviews is important, but your focus should be on generating as many reviews as you possibly can.  Quite often a care seeker will look at your not-so-perfect reviews when considering a care home and take this as a sign that your reviews are trustworthy, because having some mixed reviews shows care seekers that your reviews are from real people reflecting honestly on their experience with your care home.  Don't forget, you can reply to your reviews on carehome.co.uk, so if you do receive a less than perfect review, you can show publicly that you take the feedback seriously.  This can often turn receiving a bad review into a more positive interaction.

Add compelling photos

The photos you add to your carehome.co.uk profile are so important, both in terms of quantity of photos and the quality of photos.  The average amount of photos on a top 100 profile that generated the most enquiries in 2020 is 18, 5 more than our site average.  However, it is important to state how critical the photo quality is in terms of both photo subject and image quality.

Example of a care home profile with good quality and a good quantity of photos, leading with the exterior of the building

We looked at the top 20 profiles for enquiries and assessed what their subject matter was focused on.  We found that these profiles usually had the following photos:

1. A shot of the exterior of the care home, usually the first image on the profile
2. A good image of the main living rooms and sitting areas
3. At least one shot of a bedroom, including the bed and facilities available within the bedroom
4. An image of the garden, showing pleasant sitting areas
5. An image of the dining room
6. If they have them, shots of rooms and services that help set themselves apart including cafes, bars, hairdressers and tv rooms/cinemas
7. A photo that represents how friendly their staff are
8. A few photos of recent activities that staff and residents have participated in

What you are able to take photos of will vary from care home to care home, but it does show the importance of capturing the essence of what your care home is about with good quality, up to date images.  If your care home profile has poor quality images, consider replacing them.  If you notice the same photo twice taking up valuable real estate in your gallery, delete it.  If you haven't reviewed your care home photos in a little while, this could be an easy win.

Add at least one Meet the Team profile

It is clear that care seekers are interested in who will be looking after them or their loved ones.  The top 100 care homes have an average of 1.8 Meet the Team profiles, so look to add at least one profile, but where possible add two.  

Details such as Team Member profiles help care seekers picture in their mind the type of people who will be caring for them or their loved ones, it is important that they know the professional experience of your staff, that they'll be in good hands and that they can get along with you.

Top performers have a video

Around 30% of all care home profiles who subscribe to our Enhanced, Premium or Platinum Packages have a video present on their profile.  This is reflected in the top 100 also.  However, in the top 20 care homes for enquiries 90% have a video present.  Videos add another dimension to your profile.  

This top performing care home added two videos and dedicated one entirely to their menus and food plans

Quite often videos feature a tour around the care home, with some introductions from staff members.  The very best also feature short interviews with residents about what life has been like for them in the home, this offers a form of social proof that is a very powerful way to show the quality of care your home provides.

Update your content regularly

It appears that keeping your profile up to date is a good strategy to maximise your effectiveness.  It doesn't need as much attention as a social media platform, but you may want to set a date every 6 months or a year to review the content on your profile.  

Ensure that the pictures still accurately reflect your home and replace the ones that don't, if you've had a recent event that was enjoyed by your residents consider adding them to your profile.  Make sure that the order of your photos helps browsers of your profile by keeping the shots.  Ensure that the staff featured on the profile are still working with you and if possible refresh the content of the ones that still do.