Senior Approved Services Leads Consumers to Excellent Elder Care
As the senior population grows, the need for quality care and
services increases. In response, service organizations claiming
to meet the needs of the elderly are multiplying. How to choose?
How can seniors and their adult children know which services are
safe, reliable and able to deliver on the promises they make?
Senior Approved Services, a national network of products,
resources and services endorsed by seniors, themselves, answers
that question. This exclusive service administers a
consumer-driven survey and certification process for businesses
that serve seniors.
"The certification drives the consumer to excellent care
resources, both medical and non-medical," says Barbara Mascio,
founder of Senior Approved Services. "Our services were created
to ensure that all seniors receive excellent care and remain
safe in receiving that care."
Background
Mascio's no newcomer to the business world or the concerns of
seniors. Her background includes 30 plus years in business
management, sales and training, as well as experience as radio
host, writer and volunteer guardian for indigent seniors.
As the business manager for a large home care service, her
responsibilities included helping families set up appropriate
services. In that capacity, she often heard, "You sound nice but
so did everyone else I spoke with. Isn't there some kind of
independent service I can contact to verify you're telling the
truth?" Over the years, Mascio also witnessed an alarming number
of cases of fraud, theft and abuse committed against the
vulnerable elderly population. Committed to protecting the
elderly from unscrupulous business practices, Mascio decided to
act.
She first conducted market research to find organizations
helping seniors find safe and reliable services.
She found no organizations answering that need. Her next step
was to ask consumers what they wanted from senior services. She
and her team collected data from nearly 10,000 families across
the country. They learned consumers are looking for:
-- Simplification: A one-call solution to locate all services a
senior needs
-- Assurances: A method to quickly differentiate among the
multiple choices
-- Continuity: The need for a "point person" who may be called
upon as often as needed for additional assistance
-- Care Management: An affordable program that will continue to
follow up with family while service is being used
-- Advocacy: A non-threatening, positive program that would
advocate for the senior as needed without creating problems with
the service provider
For the Consumer
To meet consumers' needs, Mascio created Senior Approved
Services. "We're the only service available offering this
certification process that evaluates, recommends and endorses
businesses through ratings from consumer surveys. We ask the
seniors who are using or have used the particular service to
rate its quality on a number of criteria. And the businesses
evaluated need a 90% or higher rating to be certified. We're the
only service with this high standard."
"We offer this service free to consumers and receive requests
for everything you can imagine--adult day care, home care,
assisted living, rehab, attorneys, insurance products, handyman,
maids, lawn care, snow removal, home rehab and retro fitting,
medical equipment and supplies and so on."
Consumers pay no fee to learn which elder-care businesses are
safe, reliable services with a proven history of quality care.
The consumer can call toll free at 877-620-6448 or visit Senior
Approved Services and select appropriate services from the
Certified Senior Approved Directory of Resources.
"We assist families by matching their needs, geographical
location and budget to a Certified Senior Approved Service. If
we receive an inquiry and don't have a certified service to
recommend in the area, we still offer to help. We complete the
full intake and provide a list of questions for the consumer to
ask a business before contracting with them.
This reduces the time involved in learning what to ask for and
what to expect. We ask, in return, that the caller ask as the
first question, 'Are you a Certified Senior Approved Service?'
We know the question will motivate the business to find out
about our service."
"If we discover a person may qualify for a government subsidy
program, we help the family maneuver through the maze of
confusion to connect to the appropriate county people to help."
The family makes the contacts and the final selection. All of
this information remains confidential and is not shared with
anyone. Once the family makes the selection, we remain actively
involved. We're the link between the senior receiving care and
the business providing the care. We advocate for the senior and
continuously offer education."
Business Advantages In addition to benefiting seniors and their
families, the service offers a great advantage to the businesses
it certifies: consumer confidence.
Often, consumers search for resources in response to a
precipitating event or crisis; they are pressed for time and
need to act quickly with little knowledge about available
services. Faced with multiple choices, the consumers want a
third party entity to verify business claims. They're likely to
choose a service or product that has been certified as "Approved
by Seniors."
Businesses and service providers serving the older adult, the
disabled and/or the adult child of a senior are welcome to apply
for the industry's first independent consumer-driven survey and
certification process.
Certification Process
To qualify for certification, an interested business can submit
a completed Request Certification form online at Certifed
Quality Elder Care http://www.qualityeldercare.com
The business is sent an initiation packet including a
questionnaire specific to the category of service being offered.
Once the questionnaire has been completed and returned, Senior
Approved Services provides their agreement for review. There is
no obligation to review this material.
If a business decides to pursue certification, it pays a
per-survey fee based on the number of surveys to be sent to
clients. The surveys are specific to a particular service
category; questions asked about home care service differ from
those about an assisted living facility, lawn care or financial
planning.
At the completion of the survey process, the business receives a
comprehensive report of client feedback along with a rating
based on the feedback. A 90% or higher rating qualifies a
business for certification and inclusion in the Senior Approved
Services Network. More information about the certification
process can be found online.
Marketing
Certified businesses can choose to appear in the Senior Approved
Services Directory and the Seniors Approve Free Web Community.
Joining the Web Community offers several benefits including a
personalized Web page, a link to that Web page, and a Web
address that's a great advertisement:
www.seniorsapprove.com/NAME ofBUSINESS.
Senior Approved Services focuses its marketing efforts primarily
on the elder care industry and businesses. The organization
markets through radio, print ads and a national staff of
marketers; it is also promoted through partners: Life Ledger,
the Caregivers Resource Helpline, the Coalition for Senior
Safety, the Caring for Elderly Family Members Online Support
Group and the national magazine, "Caring Today."
Senior Approved Services continues to grow and develop its
resources to help seniors and their families connect with
services of quality and excellence. And the accolades and
appreciations keep coming in:
"Dear Senior Approved, I am writing to say 'wow' and thank you!
I thought for sure I would have to ask for a leave of absence
and go home to Ohio to coordinate services for my mother. I
still plan to visit over the holidays, but you saved my
job...you saved me hours...and most importantly, have helped my
mother. I still can't believe you did this so quickly and I
still can't believe it was free. Barbara Mascio is an Angel.
Thank you! Jonathan B, NY"