It never fails, I get this question from every trainee or
potential trainee who is interested in taking the senior concierge training
program. Everyone likes the idea of the
senior concierge but they just don’t understand the role and how it differs
from home care. They see home care
workers, providing rides, picking up groceries, doing laundry, and various
simple tasks around a seniors home and this seems similar to the senior
concierge. How can a senior concierge be
any different from a home care worker?
The real question behind this question is, “how can I ask for a higher
bill rate per hour than the home care worker”?
In order to explain the distinction, I need to start at the beginning.
It is true that there are home care workers who are
asking fairly low bill rates per hour to do some very similar tasks for
seniors. They were hired to handle the
simple tasks. Some home care workers have a
certification is nursing assistance. They
can do things that most of us are not trained to do like assist with daily
living activities…bathing, dressing, feeding, transporting, hygiene, grooming,
bowel and bladder management, walking assistance, etc. I have not been trained to handle these
things properly, and frankly I would like those professionals to handle these
details.
So to further describe the distinction between a home
care worker and a senior concierge I will now describe the background and
personality type of a senior concierge.
One of the reasons I conduct initial consultation conversations with
potential trainees of the Living Well Senior Concierge Training program is, I need to find out who they are, what is their
work and educational background, and what is their personality type (as much as
I can pick up on it over the phone).
Most senior concierge professionals or potential trainees
come from various professional backgrounds.
They have a college education or advanced degree(s), they have worked in a
business setting where they have managed projects, organized business plans,
dealt with different personality types in the workplace-mediating issues when
they arise, and shown an ability to manage larger issues. All of this work and life experience has
enabled them to want to go out on their own and start a business. They have enough business acumen to take that
leap. Their experience with seniors may
be limited to caring for a loved one, neighbor, or friend. They realize that they enjoy seniors and want
to be around them and help them more.
This business sense and nurturing personality comes together to develop
a great make-up of the senior concierge.
Ok, so I have not answered the question…how can you ask
for more money than the home care worker who handles many similar tasks? Now
that you understand the background of the home care worker and senior concierge,
this is the first part of understanding the difference. The next part is to understand the need for
the senior concierge. To do this we need
to talk about families today.
Since starting this business, I have met all types of
families and seen all kinds of family systems.
One theme that has emerged is that families are extremely
stretched. Mom or Dad are getting older
and living longer, sons and daughters are still working and looking at their
own retirements, and their children are starting college and beginning their
own families. People are living and
working at a distance from their aging parents.
Family members are flying or driving great distances to attend doctor appointments,
checking in on their parents to assess their needs. This takes a lot of time, costs a lot of
money for flights or gas and it’s time away from work. The Senior Concierge is one of their
solutions. I have also found that there
are many seniors that are unmarried or childless. This creates an additional need for senior
concierge professionals to help.
The senior concierge is a trusted professional that can
help with very intimate non-medical activities and we are privy to very
personal details of our clients lives.
We pay bills, look through mail, take notes at doctor appointments, help
to locate home care workers, connect families and seniors with local
professionals like estate planners, geriatric care managers, and home care
agencies. The senior concierge is being
trusted by the family to handle the bigger issues. Because of our professional backgrounds, we
can project manage moves, organize home offices, keep in contact with family
members and work through their needs and concerns. This is a higher level position and pay is
commensurate with the work we do. We
come with bonding, insurance, a degree(s), experience, knowledge of the senior
industry and we know who’s who in the zoo, while caring for our senior clients
and their families. We take ownership of
our client’s needs and solve non-medical issues they’re having.
Now that you have a better understanding of our role in comparison to a home care worker there are still several other reasons that hang us up when we ask for more money than home care workers.
1) Educating our clients about what we do compared to a
lower paid home care worker has not been made clear. If you’re needing more help thinking through
how to develop your personal marketing message, I suggest booking an advising
session with me to work through this.
2) We are having
problems with our own self-worth. Again, we should talk during a personal
advising session or I suggest working with a personal coach or therapist to help.
3) We are only handling the simple tasks like grocery
shopping and laundry and they don’t want to pay our rate. This is simple…maybe all our clients really
need is a home care worker and in this case you can connect them with agencies
you’re familiar, connect them with a geriatric care manager who can find them
this type of help, or work with the family to go through the process of finding
good help.
Again, the work you do is so very important, difficult,
involved, and at times challenging. The
concierge professional remains calm, and makes it all look easy for our
clients. If you accept less you’re doing
yourself and the senior concierge industry a disservice. In the beginning
or my business, I accepted less and I’m hear to tell you, it does not feel good
when you do tons of hard work and you’re not paid accordingly. It’s also difficult to go back to your
clients later and ask for more money per hour.
One last thought…it’s important that you get paid what a
typical senior concierge professional is asking. It’s confusing in the marketplace when you
call multiple professionals and there is a huge difference in the rates. Our messaging needs to be very similar
because our level of help is the same.
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