It is very important to have strategic visual cues throughout your facility that target your residents and their families, visitors, and even your staff. Bulletin boards and message boards can fill this role in your lobby, dining room and activity room, as well as your tour stops.
In most facilities you will find photos, menus and activity calendars. The purpose of these cues can include:
- Provide daily information that residents can enjoy...and look forward to.
- Provide staff with topics of conversation that interest residents and their families.
- Create icebreakers that can help visitors feel more comfortable...and even encourage them to create rapport-building conversation.
- Provide more evidence that you relate to seniors.
- Borrow the credibility of people that residents and their families hold in high esteem and admire.
- Develop an opportunity to involve creative residents with good handwriting in a fun responsibility. When you do this, the story about this resident involvement becomes another marketing tool.