Consumer communication and engagement made easy
Perfect for Home Care and CHSP providers – communicating effectively with your consumers and their families just got a whole lot easier.

One thing’s for sure nowadays – home care consumers and their families are much more engaged in their care journey and have far greater expectations about the quality, type, and frequency of communication between themselves and their home care or CHSP provider.
Home Care expert, Anna Millicer, from Get Smart Aged Care Consultancy surveyed 721 consumers and family members receiving home care services to find out what they really want to know about the aged care sector and their preferred methods of communication.

The Consumer Engagement & Communication Survey results show that many providers underestimate the depth of engagement their consumers and family carers want, and limit information and communication to a superficial level.
By far, the number one preferred method for receiving information is via Newsletter. Only 51 per cent of respondents said they learned something new from their current provider communications, and 66 per cent want more news about aged care topics.
Information and knowledge are fundamental to engagement, yet most consumers are in the dark when it comes to knowledge of the sector that exists to serve them. It takes time and a consistent commitment to create a broadly informative newsletter that can meet this diverse consumer populations’ needs.
Tips for creating your own consumer engagement communication strategy
- survey your clients to discover what really matters to them;
- keep constant track of topical, varied and relevant sector information to include in your regular monthly publication;
- resource your team to allow time to design and curate an interesting, topical and visually appealing newsletter every month;
- check-in with consumers to monitor feedback and make improvements accordingly.
What are the top consumer complaints and feedback over time?
When it comes to communication in today’s home care environment, it pays to look back at what has changed and what has stayed the same. In 2016, whilst working at COTA Australia in the Home Care Today team, Anna collated feedback and complaints that hundreds of consumers and family members had made to COTA since the transition to Consumer Directed Care in 2015.
The top 8 consumer complaints presented at both ACSA and LASA conference events in 2016 were:

Fast forward to the Aged Care Sector Performance Data Report April-June 2021 and we see some startling commonalities with these earlier themes. Concerns about communication remains consistently one of the top complaints made to the Aged Care Quality & Safety Commission. Other concerns about care coordination, case management, quality of service delivery, and financial transparency continue to feature in these quarterly reports.
When it comes to effective consumer communication and engagement, we need to re-think what we do and how we do it. The current ways don’t seem to be hitting the mark with today’s consumers, and we know that family members play a huge part in the lives of many older people. This means that the shared information needs to be targeted to topics that will have the most impact for all those involved in a person’s care.
At Get Smart Aged Care Consultancy, we have created a way to solve your consumer communication needs with zero effort from you – saving you time and keeping your staff resources where they are most needed.

Say hello to Home Care HQ: Australia’s only home care sector consumer newsletter
This unique, informative and visually appealing done-for-you monthly consumer newsletter covers a wide range of topics based on real feedback and input from consumers and carers. Our publication has been road-tested by current consumers and captures the extensive and surprisingly broad range of topics many older people and their supporters want to know.
Home Care HQ is carefully curated by home care sector experts to feature relevant, timely and interesting topics that help providers deliver on their consumer engagement goals. Topics are varied every month and are presented in a straight-forward and relatable way to ensure maximum enjoyment and engagement from consumers and their families.
Primarily designed to inform and educate consumers about topics of interest, Home Care HQ newsletter has the added bonus of saving a huge amount of time and resources for providers. No more scrounging around for something to include in your next newsletter. Simply download each monthly issue of Home Care HQ and distribute in your usual ways.
Perfect for instant upload to your consumer App or print and post with your monthly financial statements – the choice is yours.

Company contact details:
Get Smart Aged Care Consultancy
www.getsmartconsultancy.com.au
anna@getsmartconsultancy.com.au
0468 381 220