THE NURSE NEXT DOOR
Franchisor profilesAuthor :
Donna Messer 
Donna Messer is a networking expert. She is the author of “Effective Networking Strategies” a Canadian Best Seller. Donna is a motivational speaker, addressing audiences on three continents. To reach Donna or get a copy of her book - www.connectuscanada.com
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
The concept for the Nurse Next Door was created as a result of the personal experiences of the two co-founders, Ken Sim and John DeHart. They were trying to find the right caregivers for their family members. Ken’s wife, pregnant with their first child, encountered unexpected complications requiring emergency bed-rest. John’s grandmother suffered from dementia and needed more care.
The two looked for quality caregivers. That wasn’t so easy. And the search turned up some startling realities. They found that many caregivers weren’t properly screened; they didn’t have criminal record checks, reference checks or even medical examinations.
HOW IT EVOLVED
After that, Ken and John decided to start a home healthcare company that could provide high quality services. They wanted to improve the lives of anyone needing homecare. The first priority was to make sure each caregiver was properly screened.
They began building their business in a local Starbucks. They started with two cell phones, six screened caregivers and a great deal of enthusiasm!
Eight years later, Nurse Next Door is BC’s largest home health care company and is poised to become an industry leader throughout North America.
A PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS
Nurse Next Door has been very successful, bringing efficient, compassionate home care to clients since 2001. Through strong leadership and hard work, the company was able to build a highly profitable initial operation; one that cried out to be franchised.
When the company announced plans to franchise, they got more than 100 applications. According to DeHart, "they could have signed 10 or 20 franchise locations immediately, but they spent months approving their first 11, knowing this would be key to their success as a franchise.”
With a revenue growth of 3,400 per cent in the last seven years and potential global sales of $1 billion by 2021, this is a franchise worth considering. Statistics show that by 2021 seniors are expected to account for almost 20 per cent of Canada’s population, and seniors ARE the majority of Nurse Next Door’s clientele. With this seemingly lucrative future ahead, all the company needs is talented franchisees—or as it calls them, "franchise partners."
Franchise partners begin with a two-week training course that covers not only care giving, but also the importance of proper instruction in customer service, business related technology, marketing, public relations, human resources and techniques for efficient management. According to management, these skills are crucial, since many franchise partners spend more time marketing in their communities and overseeing teams of caregivers than they do visiting clients personally.
STATE OF THE ART TECHNOLOGY
When franchise partners visit a new client’s home, Nurse Next Door’s technological investments make the trip more efficient. Nurse Next Door has a streamlined process with a single step. Franchise partners use a tablet computer, pre-loaded with questionnaires that clients can fill out right away. When the assessment is completed, a care plan is printed on the spot. The franchise partner can move on—having provided the same level of care in a fraction of the time.
The franchisor takes over from there. Once a new client’s information has been input, the computer automatically sends the data to Nurse Next Door’s client services centre, staffed with friendly operators who can handle all of the client’s ongoing scheduling.
MENTORING AND COACHING
When the training is finished and support is assured, success is simply a matter of preventative medicine. Nurse Next Door achieves this by assigning each partner a coach who can help him or her through the crucial first months of business. Once the operation is established, the franchise partner and coach schedule weekly phone calls to keep both parties aware of what is working and what is not. Should emergencies arise, Nurse Next Door encourages its franchise partners to be upfront, reasoning that if one is struggling, others likely are, too. Honesty is the best cure for everyone. "To build a national brand, we have to put our franchise partners first,” states Sim. "Our support systems enable us to do just that.”
CUSTOMER SERVICE - EATING A LITTLE "HUMBLE PIE"
Statistics tell that poor service is often the norm. In a recent customer loyalty poll conducted by Ipsos Reid, only 62% of respondents said that they had received great customer service in the past month. That means that 38% weren’t satisfied.
When a client of Nurse Next Door received a big cherry pie with a note apologizing for a missed appointment, while initially upset about the missed appointment, the company's prompt apology and "humble pie" helped turn her into a loyal customer.
Poor customer service can kill a company's reputation and sales, and this is a critical part of Nurse Next Door’s policy. Delivering good service is more difficult than writing it into a mission statement. Customer-friendly policies are a good place to start.
Employees are important
When managers at Nurse Next Door took a look at their staff, they asked themselves, "What do they need most?” They came up with the mommy shift. A 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. schedule that is perfect for mothers of young children who want to be around their youngsters when school’s out.
An alterative was to have a few toddlers in cubicles during working hours. It’s not unusual to see a single mother at the call centre where a little one spends an hour with her every day before going to daycare. It’s part of the way the franchise home care provider chooses to take care of its own people. When your whole operation consists of staff serving customers face-to-face, the business is only as good as its employees.
The first wave of franchisees that launched in early 2007 saw their sales double in the second half of the year over their first six months in business, says communications manager Arif Abdulla. They’ve also made a profit within their first year, and the company forecasts all of them will reach at least $500,000 in annualized sales by the end of their second year. The franchising program helped the company top $10 million in system-wide sales for by the end of 2007.
LOVE THE FRANCHISEES
When clients call to book home health care and other support services, the calls are all handled by a sophisticated $1-million call centre at the head office in Vancouver. The call centre is just one element in a remarkable array of support services that the company gives its partners. These franchisees are not treated as mere distributors, but more like customers to be retained for decades.
THE KEYS TO SUCCESS
1. Set the partnership bar high: There’s a difference between building a fast-growing business and building a world-class home healthcare organization. It took several months to finalize the first 8 franchise partnerships.
2. Screen for passion: Nurse Next door judges applicants not so much on their experience and health-care credentials as on their commitment to service. The company wants purpose-driven people who are passionate about caring for seniors. It awards franchises; it doesn’t sell them.
3. Standardize Personal Service: Operators are trained to get to know a client’s preferences. This puts clientele at ease. They can pull up a profile, see he prefers a caregiver who likes dogs and speaks Cantonese. They can revise the schedule and phone a caregiver who is perfect for that client.
4. Use continuous feedback to trouble-shoot: Customers are asked two critical questions every month: "On a scale of 0 to 10, would you enthusiastically recommend us to your friends?” and "What’s the biggest reason for the score you’ve given?” If the responses reveal a problem, action is taken immediately.
5. Never stop communicating: “Fess up and fix it” calls, these are a one-on-one chat with a head-office person assigned as their coach. If one franchisee admits to a problem, others are likely having the same problem but just haven’t brought it up.
6. Keep it lean: Each care manager is equipped with a tablet computer pre-loaded with a questionnaire using drop-down menus. When the interview is over, they can use a portable printer to print a care plan on the spot, and then send it to the client-service centre for immediate scheduling.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Business partners Ken Sim and John DeHart traveled to Japan, India, the United States and across Canada, doing research on best-management practices. They evaluated systems to create the ideal framework for their company. This took several years to build before franchising could be considered.
Nurse Next Door operates a 24-hour call centre from Vancouver, from which client information gets relayed to a workforce of trained, mobile health-care workers. They charge from $100 a week for occasional help to $5,000 a month for continual care.
In the early days, Milton Wong, chairman of HSBC Asset Management, was attracted to the growth potential of the company and became an investor and chairman. Statistics confirm that every community in Canada is going to go through a major transformation in the next 20 years.
The two entrepreneurs are taking a precise and measured approach to the expansion of Nurse Next Door. They insist they are not selling franchises, but awarding them.
Nurse Next Door is building a corporate culture that brings management science into the home health services market at a time when demand is set to soar. Competition is bound to heat up if current trends continue. The company mission is to build a world-class home health care services organization dedicated to providing senior care in communities across Canada.
The concept for the Nurse Next Door was created as a result of the personal experiences of the two co-founders, Ken Sim and John DeHart. They were trying to find the right caregivers for their family members. Ken’s wife, pregnant with their first child, encountered unexpected complications requiring emergency bed-rest. John’s grandmother suffered from dementia and needed more care.
The two looked for quality caregivers. That wasn’t so easy. And the search turned up some startling realities. They found that many caregivers weren’t properly screened; they didn’t have criminal record checks, reference checks or even medical examinations.
HOW IT EVOLVED
After that, Ken and John decided to start a home healthcare company that could provide high quality services. They wanted to improve the lives of anyone needing homecare. The first priority was to make sure each caregiver was properly screened.
They began building their business in a local Starbucks. They started with two cell phones, six screened caregivers and a great deal of enthusiasm!
Eight years later, Nurse Next Door is BC’s largest home health care company and is poised to become an industry leader throughout North America.
A PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS
Nurse Next Door has been very successful, bringing efficient, compassionate home care to clients since 2001. Through strong leadership and hard work, the company was able to build a highly profitable initial operation; one that cried out to be franchised.
When the company announced plans to franchise, they got more than 100 applications. According to DeHart, "they could have signed 10 or 20 franchise locations immediately, but they spent months approving their first 11, knowing this would be key to their success as a franchise.”
With a revenue growth of 3,400 per cent in the last seven years and potential global sales of $1 billion by 2021, this is a franchise worth considering. Statistics show that by 2021 seniors are expected to account for almost 20 per cent of Canada’s population, and seniors ARE the majority of Nurse Next Door’s clientele. With this seemingly lucrative future ahead, all the company needs is talented franchisees—or as it calls them, "franchise partners."
Franchise partners begin with a two-week training course that covers not only care giving, but also the importance of proper instruction in customer service, business related technology, marketing, public relations, human resources and techniques for efficient management. According to management, these skills are crucial, since many franchise partners spend more time marketing in their communities and overseeing teams of caregivers than they do visiting clients personally.
STATE OF THE ART TECHNOLOGY
When franchise partners visit a new client’s home, Nurse Next Door’s technological investments make the trip more efficient. Nurse Next Door has a streamlined process with a single step. Franchise partners use a tablet computer, pre-loaded with questionnaires that clients can fill out right away. When the assessment is completed, a care plan is printed on the spot. The franchise partner can move on—having provided the same level of care in a fraction of the time.
The franchisor takes over from there. Once a new client’s information has been input, the computer automatically sends the data to Nurse Next Door’s client services centre, staffed with friendly operators who can handle all of the client’s ongoing scheduling.
MENTORING AND COACHING
When the training is finished and support is assured, success is simply a matter of preventative medicine. Nurse Next Door achieves this by assigning each partner a coach who can help him or her through the crucial first months of business. Once the operation is established, the franchise partner and coach schedule weekly phone calls to keep both parties aware of what is working and what is not. Should emergencies arise, Nurse Next Door encourages its franchise partners to be upfront, reasoning that if one is struggling, others likely are, too. Honesty is the best cure for everyone. "To build a national brand, we have to put our franchise partners first,” states Sim. "Our support systems enable us to do just that.”
CUSTOMER SERVICE - EATING A LITTLE "HUMBLE PIE"
Statistics tell that poor service is often the norm. In a recent customer loyalty poll conducted by Ipsos Reid, only 62% of respondents said that they had received great customer service in the past month. That means that 38% weren’t satisfied.
When a client of Nurse Next Door received a big cherry pie with a note apologizing for a missed appointment, while initially upset about the missed appointment, the company's prompt apology and "humble pie" helped turn her into a loyal customer.
Poor customer service can kill a company's reputation and sales, and this is a critical part of Nurse Next Door’s policy. Delivering good service is more difficult than writing it into a mission statement. Customer-friendly policies are a good place to start.
Employees are important
When managers at Nurse Next Door took a look at their staff, they asked themselves, "What do they need most?” They came up with the mommy shift. A 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. schedule that is perfect for mothers of young children who want to be around their youngsters when school’s out.
An alterative was to have a few toddlers in cubicles during working hours. It’s not unusual to see a single mother at the call centre where a little one spends an hour with her every day before going to daycare. It’s part of the way the franchise home care provider chooses to take care of its own people. When your whole operation consists of staff serving customers face-to-face, the business is only as good as its employees.
The first wave of franchisees that launched in early 2007 saw their sales double in the second half of the year over their first six months in business, says communications manager Arif Abdulla. They’ve also made a profit within their first year, and the company forecasts all of them will reach at least $500,000 in annualized sales by the end of their second year. The franchising program helped the company top $10 million in system-wide sales for by the end of 2007.
LOVE THE FRANCHISEES
When clients call to book home health care and other support services, the calls are all handled by a sophisticated $1-million call centre at the head office in Vancouver. The call centre is just one element in a remarkable array of support services that the company gives its partners. These franchisees are not treated as mere distributors, but more like customers to be retained for decades.
THE KEYS TO SUCCESS
1. Set the partnership bar high: There’s a difference between building a fast-growing business and building a world-class home healthcare organization. It took several months to finalize the first 8 franchise partnerships.
2. Screen for passion: Nurse Next door judges applicants not so much on their experience and health-care credentials as on their commitment to service. The company wants purpose-driven people who are passionate about caring for seniors. It awards franchises; it doesn’t sell them.
3. Standardize Personal Service: Operators are trained to get to know a client’s preferences. This puts clientele at ease. They can pull up a profile, see he prefers a caregiver who likes dogs and speaks Cantonese. They can revise the schedule and phone a caregiver who is perfect for that client.
4. Use continuous feedback to trouble-shoot: Customers are asked two critical questions every month: "On a scale of 0 to 10, would you enthusiastically recommend us to your friends?” and "What’s the biggest reason for the score you’ve given?” If the responses reveal a problem, action is taken immediately.
5. Never stop communicating: “Fess up and fix it” calls, these are a one-on-one chat with a head-office person assigned as their coach. If one franchisee admits to a problem, others are likely having the same problem but just haven’t brought it up.
6. Keep it lean: Each care manager is equipped with a tablet computer pre-loaded with a questionnaire using drop-down menus. When the interview is over, they can use a portable printer to print a care plan on the spot, and then send it to the client-service centre for immediate scheduling.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Business partners Ken Sim and John DeHart traveled to Japan, India, the United States and across Canada, doing research on best-management practices. They evaluated systems to create the ideal framework for their company. This took several years to build before franchising could be considered.
Nurse Next Door operates a 24-hour call centre from Vancouver, from which client information gets relayed to a workforce of trained, mobile health-care workers. They charge from $100 a week for occasional help to $5,000 a month for continual care.
In the early days, Milton Wong, chairman of HSBC Asset Management, was attracted to the growth potential of the company and became an investor and chairman. Statistics confirm that every community in Canada is going to go through a major transformation in the next 20 years.
The two entrepreneurs are taking a precise and measured approach to the expansion of Nurse Next Door. They insist they are not selling franchises, but awarding them.
Nurse Next Door is building a corporate culture that brings management science into the home health services market at a time when demand is set to soar. Competition is bound to heat up if current trends continue. The company mission is to build a world-class home health care services organization dedicated to providing senior care in communities across Canada.