By Steve Moran

We are really excited to announce that Connected Living is our newest Senior Living Foresight Partner. I have known Sarah Hoit, the Cofounder of Connected Living for a number of years, crossing paths at several senior living conferences. As we persist through a global pandemic, their suite has become an “essential” part of the “new normal” where high-end virtual communication is a must-have.

Winning Every High-End New Building RFP They Enter

Connected Living provides products in the very crowded and competitive space of digital signage; resident, family, and staff communication; and content delivery. And yet, every time they go head to head with their competitors for new high-end senior living communities they win the RFP, showcasing the quality and sophistication of the suite.

What Makes Them Different?

There are 4 critical elements in choosing a resident/family engagement system:

1. Does it decrease or increase staff workload?

This is an area where Connected Living excels. They have the ability to input data once and distribute it to through multiple channels. There are many technology solutions in senior living that are cool. But too many actually increase the workload, and this is not good.

2. Does it improve the lives of residents?

At the end of the day improving the life of the resident has never been more critical. In the middle of the pandemic, residents need easy access to what’s going on in their own community, in the world, with their family members, and team members. They also need access to programming that goes above and beyond TV. This is an area where Connected Living shines. They have a vast library of content, including Apple TV, Great Courses, CL University, remote ambassadors program, CL YouTube Channel (coming soon), and more.

3. Does it improve the lives of family members?

Particularly in the midst of the pandemic, families need two things: 1) what’s going on information; and 2) easy and personal connection with family members. Information like the following:

  • COVID-19 information (educational)
  • COVID-19 information for the community
  • How their loved one is doing mentally and physically 
  • The ability to do regular video chats and voice chats with little or no staff intervention

4. Do They Have a Growth Roadmap?

Technology is far from a static thing. Providers need to know their engagement platform has the ability and commitment to innovation and growth. This has to be one of the most impressive things about Connected Living. Over the coming months, we will talk about how they are integrating with Amazon Alexa and using robots to do all kinds of interesting things: running errands, checking resident vitals, monitoring visitors, and even sanitation (yes this technology is available today at a very reasonable cost).

There are two important pieces of advice here for every provider: 1) evaluate technology not just based on its track record but also on its roadmap, and 2) If you don’t have an RFP process for comparing technologies, make sure to develop a list of requirements and use a checklist to identify what each company is offering to make sure they meet your company’s needs.

Making an Impact

Beyond these four questions, you have to ask yourself what impact this technology will have on marketing and sales. Particularly with the robot, it makes for pretty sexy stuff. There is one other thing they have the ability to do and that is to give access to their content suite to prospects, those waiting to move in or those who are just wondering if senior living is for them. 

It is a terrific opportunity to get prospects plugged into the community, which will increase your ability to move in more residents. 

Recently LeadingAge CAST (Center for Aging Services Technologies) wrote a white paper that took a look at how Waterman Village used Connected Living during the early days of the COVID-19 crisis to improve communication and connectedness.

As a special offer for Foresight readers in this moment of need, Connected Living will upgrade your current systems, while matching your company’s existing technology spend, and get operational within 2 weeks. This is a moment where both quality and speed matter! You can request a demo HERE.

To learn more about Connected Living, visit their website.