NIC Notes

Insights in Seniors Housing & Care

Article

By: NIC  |  August 08, 2019

Activating Consumer Insights at the NIC

In NIC’s upcoming Fall Conference, attendees will have the opportunity to learn how to use consumer insights from other industries as they formulate strategies to address some of the challenges facing the seniors housing sector today. The session titled “Activating Consumer Insights: Lessons from Other Industries” is taking place on Thursday, September 12th at 2:15 to 3:30 PM CT and promises to be thought provoking and insightful.

Consumer insights and feedback are routinely used to guide product development and marketing in industries such as hospitality and consumer goods. The seniors housing sector, however, has yet to widely adopt this approach to addressing its own product development and marketing challenges.  This session is designed to help industry participants think about marketing as a feedback loop in which consumers’ input and behavior inform product development and lead to greater innovation.   This is particularly relevant for today’s operators and capital providers since the seniors housing sector faces numerous challenges, including evolving demographics, changing consumer expectations and demands, and, for many potential residents, a lack of familiarity with the product.    

Moderated by Maria Nadelstumph, VP, Organization Development & Program Excellence at Brandywine Living, the discussion will be focused on solutions relevant and appropriate to the seniors housing and care sector. Nadelstumph will use her first-hand experiences to ensure that the discussion is useful to session participants. She has direct experience with the development of Brandywine’s high-end hospitality model, which features numerous innovations designed in response to shifting demographics and consumer demands.  

The discussion will hone in on how the tools and processes used routinely  in other industries can be employed to gather and make use of consumer feedback  in the development cycle for seniors housing and care. Techniques for borrowing successful innovations from other industries will also be shared.  

Jennifer Rasmussen Windbeck is a Managing Vice President in Capital One’s Retail and Direct Bank, leading the national Capital One Cafes and the Louisiana and Texas branches; as well as Customer Experience, Operations, and Physical Network Management for all branches and cafes. She leads the frontline cafe and branch teams and operations. In addition, Windbeck has responsibility for in-store customer experience and market engagement strategy, including innovating and executing upon customer guidance and transactional capabilities; associate experience and development; local community engagement; and scaling digital-first communications and operational processes.  Windbeck has leadership experience guiding experiential design, investigating customer behavior and change, and how to create something really unique in the market. While confined to the brick and mortar of their branches, Capital One has found a way to change the experience within those four walls to meet the myriad shifting tastes and demands of their customers, ranging from millennials to boomers. 

Heather Reavey, Head of Innovation Delivery at EPAM Continuum, will speak to product innovation. She thinks about where innovation is going and shapes EPAM Continuum’s people, practices, and processes to be there first. Reavey’s career has been dedicated to innovation since she began consulting in the role of Envisioner, focused on designing new-to-the-world ideas and strategies, and demystifying complexity through storytelling to catalyze organizations to take action. Over twenty years, Reavey has led teams and helped launch game-changing ideas and strategies for Procter & Gamble, Insulet, Tetra Pak, American Express, and UnitedHealthcare.  

Reavey will share ways to identify what is a good insight for innovation. She will discuss how to re-frame a challenge for innovation, and how to translate and activate novel ideas into new innovation across an organization and in a business environment.  

This exciting session promises to continue the NIC tradition of applying insights from other industries to bring fresh ideas for product development, and help leaders address the challenges facing today’s seniors housing and care businesses. It will take place in Ballroom VIII, Thursday, September 12, from 2:15 PM to 3:30 PM.  

 

About NIC

The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to support access and choice for America’s seniors by providing data, analytics, and connections that bring together investors and providers.

Connect with NIC

Read More by NIC