The Heart of Home Care: How A Positive Reputation Can Attract More Clients
Keeping track of public perception can give your marketing campaigns a boost
What does your local community know about your home care agency? What do they think of your business? Your community is made up of potential clients and caregivers, so your reputation is a valuable part of your home care agency's growth strategy.
When was the last time you invested time and effort into the way your agency is perceived?
Reputation management is a necessary part of any marketing campaign, and when done well, it doesn’t have to be time consuming. Plus, a little investment in your reputation can go a long way to attracting both clients and caregivers to your home care agency.
What is reputation management?
Reputation management is the act of influencing the public’s perception of your business and its brand. It requires consistent research and monitoring as well as proactive outreach to generate a positive view of your home care agency.
Reputation management begins with an audit of your agency’s current identity, including:
- What people are saying (or not saying) about your brand on social media
- The reviews that clients and caregivers write about your agency
- News articles written about your agency
- Media coverage of the home care agency in general (which can color public perception of your business)
Don’t forget the representations of your company that you can control, like:
- Your home care agency website
- Your social media channels
- Your presence on care sites like Care.com
- Your presence on job platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed
Why reputation management matters to your home care agency
The internet is a vast world, and no one can truly control what people say—so why bother with reputation management?
Because you can influence the way people think of your agency and give them reasons to say good things.
With reputation management, you can:
- Polish your professional image
- Establish credibility
- Improve community relations
- Mitigate bad reviews and media coverage
- Identify customer preferences and ways to expand service offerings
- Find areas for operational improvement
- Attract new clients and retain current ones
- Attract new caregivers and keep the ones you already have
How to manage your home care agency’s reputation online
Reputation management requires a few ongoing actions, though they don’t need to be overly time consuming. Once a good reputation management plan is in place, it’s often simple enough to maintain.
Monitor your online reputation
Ideally, as you monitor your agency’s reputation, you’ll find positive mentions and glowing reviews. But finding nothing at all can be just as bad as finding negative reviews.
When potential clients and caregivers go looking for more information about your agency, they should be able to find something. Here’s how you can think about monitoring public perception:
- Track your net promoter score (NPS) to gauge employee sentiment and quickly spot shifts.
- Make a habit of checking online reviews to see how clients and caregivers are talking about your agency. Don’t forget to respond to those reviews as well. According to a 2024 BrightLocal survey, 88% of consumers say they’re likely to go with a brand that responds to all of its reviews (compared to 47% who say they would use a brand that doesn’t respond).
- Set a Google alert for your business’s name to easily track new mentions of your agency online (note that this won’t comb social media sites for mentions).
- Regularly search social channels for your agency’s name to monitor what people are saying about your brand.
Be proactive
Brand management is an active practice, so sitting back and waiting for people to rave about your agency is a losing game. You should be proactive about building a good reputation.
- Build social capital by being a positive influence online and in your community. If things do go south, it won’t necessarily be the first time the community has heard of your agency. Try sponsoring local community health events, local races, or bike rides.
- Generate positive media coverage with local news outlets by giving them something to talk about. When you are planning an expansion, contact a reporter. If you raise money from investors, buy new office space, or sponsor a local event, let your local media know—they may want to cover your good news. Take, for instance, this home care service startup that landed a healthy investment and earned positive press from a local business site. They earned more press less than a year later simply by moving their offices.
Boost brand recognition
Some agencies may need to begin with a basic brand recognition campaign. That can be launched relatively quickly online by:
- Designing a paid search campaign aimed at brand awareness
- Planning an SEO strategy designed to get attention for your brand
- Show up for your community by sponsoring or attending local health and senior-focused events
Establish your brand voice and messaging
The way you talk about your agency and services will influence the way clients think about you. Consider this when writing copy for your agency website, SEO content, and marketing campaigns.
For instance, if you want to have a reputation for being a compassionate caregiver, you might use a phrase like treating your family like our own instead of expert in-home care right when you need it. Both might be true, but one of them imbues your brand with emotional intelligence.
Activate your reputation management plan
Reputation management is an active strategy. At Home Care Marketing Pros, we can help you generate more client and caregiver reviews—and turn them into business growth opportunities. Your agency’s reputation depends on positive interactions, and our proprietary CareFunnels platform can help you create those moments of meaningful connection.
