How Sonida Senior Living Used Messaging Tech to Convert 171 More Digital Leads

When Sonida Senior Living needed to boost its website traffic and convert more digital leads to move ins, it turned to one place and one place only.

FURTHER.

A respected leader in AI-powered sales assistants, FURTHER’s aim is to help operators increase occupancy by increasing not just web traffic, but the strategic engagements with that traffic. The company’s Virtual Sales Assistant solution is central to that mission; the Sonida began using the VSA in September of 2021 and saw immediate benefits.

“We began working with FURTHER because of the ability to actually capture information 24/7, says Kari Wilson, Sonida’s director of sales operations. “This was a super attractive feature and was so important. It was the missing piece of our website.”

Embracing FURTHER has been a winner for the Dallas-based senior living provider, and they’ve done more than just use the Virtual Sales Assistant. They are also an early adopter of one of FURTHER’s newest solutions, the Messaging Assistant.

“If they’re on the website they have an immediate need and questions they want answers to, and with FURTHER’s solutions, it’s so easy to help people make progress in their journey no matter when they’re searching,” says Maribeth Neelis, senior director of marketing and communications at Sonida. “It’s really changed the functionality of our website. Before, the challenge was a high volume of leads that were all over the board. This helped us find those who were a good fit.”

Here is a look at Sonida’s experience with this new FURTHER tool.

How Sonida is using FURTHER’s Messaging Assistant

With FURTHER’s new Messaging Assistant, Sonida is deploying a faster, more effective consumer experience. The tool sends automated text and email messages to each lead, keeping the conversation going and further qualifying the prospect.

Along with the Contact Assistant, the Messaging Assistant can automate communication back and forth with leads until they are ready to meet your team at the community. This prevents leads from going unattended and getting lost due to inactivity.

“The Messaging Assistant improves our speed to lead, letting us help prospects faster,” Wilson says. “It’s such a great layer of sales support, preventing important leads from falling through the cracks. The Messaging Assistant is an awesome safety net.”

The Messaging Assistant helps communities like Sonida respond to prospect replies from automated sales outreach campaigns. The assistant asks additional questions, replies to prospects when sales is unavailable, and generally helps work through a community’s digital leads.

“I love how the Messaging Assistant helps us walk with the prospect as they’re on their journey,” Neelis says. “It lets them know we’re here with them with subtle touches that keep our communities in front of them.”

How Sonida rolled the Messaging Assistant to all of their communities

Sonida operates 77 communities, and while 18 are in their home state of Texas, the organization stretches across the U.S., from Santa Barbara, California, to Springfield, Massachusetts to Pensacola, Florida, and with a significant footprint in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio. As such, communication is key.

Because of the results they experienced with the first group of communities they implemented the Messaging Assistant in, Sonida rolled it out to all of their communities to ensure top communication.

“Like FURTHER’s other solutions, I think the Messaging Assistant is so effective because it takes into consideration who is looking for senior living now,” Neelis says. “Younger audiences want to be using these tools in these channels.”

Two data points jump out:

• Engagement up more than 50%. While cold email outreach sees an average response rate of 3%, Sonida experienced an overall engagement rate of 57%
• Tour scheduling above 40%. Of prospects who engaged with the Messaging Assistant, Sonida was able to schedule 43% of them for tours at their local communities

“That is a huge number!” says Jami Sexton, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at FURTHER. “Not only that, but our tool also disqualified 24% of prospects which saves valuable time for sales directors.”

“These results help us optimize our investments and efforts,” Wilson says. “Even though some were skeptical at first, people’s minds change quickly when they see the additional tours coming in.”

The sales team loves it — as do the 171 new move-ins

Since February, FURTHER has helped Sonida drive 171 move-ins. The sales team loves it, and really appreciates that digital leads are more qualified.

The leads love it too.

“We want to be of service to the customer, and this tool has helped us be more helpful to people in need,” Neelis says. “People have so many questions. This helps them move through the process starting on our website, and now continuing the same great experience offline.”

This article is sponsored by Further. To learn more about how you can improve your website and drive more move-ins, visit talkfurther.com.

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