What one single advertising piece creates more awareness about your products and services than any other?

What marketing mechanism generates the greatest return on investment?

This answer may surprise you, and frankly, I don’t even have data to back up my theory. I believe your greatest advertising device is a Caregiver Name Tag. Caregiver name tags are the only advertising piece that you are guaranteed that every single customer has seen.

Let’s look at three ways name tags or ID badges enhance your company.

When I was a kid my favorite cereal was Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes. I was completely convinced that the box with Tony the Tiger was superior to every other product on the shelves. Today, the opinions of cartoon animals influence me far less, but I still prefer Frosted Flakes with the Tiger rather than generic.

While our tastes mature, we aren’t less susceptible to product packaging as adults. We purchase computers, cake mixes, movie tickets, soft drinks and even automobiles based primarily on packaging. The outside of the box, while certainly not our only consideration, factors heavily into our decisions to buy, as well as our overall satisfaction with our purchase.

Why then, would we suspect that packaging doesn’t apply to home care. Well dressed and groomed caregivers and salespeople with an attractive label (name badge) encourage customers to purchase, and create greater customer satisfaction.

Whether you are providing private pay home care, offering staffing services to facilities, or encouraging Medicaid case managers to make referrals, appearance matters. Furthermore, be proud to put your company name on your product.

We’ve all been to a conference or trade show where everyone was wearing those little stickers that say “Hello, My Name Is...”. Those stickers are actually a critical component to successful conferences. Professional speakers will tell you that they dramatically enhance communication at the conference. We feel more comfortable talking with strangers at a convention or conference than we do at a concert or baseball game. It’s silly, we probably have more in common with fans at events than conference attendees, but the atmosphere seems friendlier when we know each other’s names.

Offering the names of caregivers and salespeople enhances communication ever so slightly. But when you improve communication, even to the tiniest degree, the effects can be dramatic.

Want proof? If improving communication didn’t impact companies, every consulting firm in America would be out of business. Our clients contact us to improve communication with their customers, create messages for their prospects, demonstrate value to their employees, and sometimes even bridge communication gaps between executives.

If showing your name in writing enhances communication, even slightly, it’s beneficial.

Think about the symbols that help us identify people of prominence in our community. Judges wear robes. Priests wear collars. Police officers and security guards have uniforms and badges. Fire fighters have gear that does as much to identify them as protect them. Even physicians often wear a stethoscope draped around their necks, even though they only use it a few minutes each day.

Caregiver uniforms and ID badges create a small sense of importance. The “whites”, as they are called, help a caregiver feel important even when they are doing the least pleasant of their tasks. Again, white pants and an engraved ID badge won’t instantly create undying devotion to their employers, but every little bit that improves job satisfaction improves employee retention.

Demand for your product is growing. With a strong marketing plan, there is only one factor that will limit your growth, and that is staffing. Recruiting great employees and keeping them is absolutely critical. Showing your caregivers that you are proud to put their name on an ID badge with your logo goes ever so slightly to enhance retention.

Here are a couple of quick tips to enhance use of ID badges.

• If your company doesn’t currently use ID badges, start.
• If you use reusable badges with temporary name plates, throw them away, and make a big deal about it. Why would employees feel permanent if you don’t treat them as permanent?
• Buy gold badges for every employee who has been with the company five years or more.
• Make sure your badges have your logo, and make them unique. Spending a little extra here is more important than spending extra on another marketing piece that fewer people see.

Some employees and clients will dislike them. For example, I always require that my caregivers remove name badges or ID lanyards before transferring me to my wheelchair. It creates a safer environment for both caregivers and client. Don’t let a little resistance be a deterrent. Simply tell caregivers that they may remove the name tag at the request of the client. You will create an environment with all the benefits of required name badges, and a positive customer experience when you make an exception to the rule.

By the way, my name is Jason. It’s nice to meet you. Now, I’m off to convince the “Loyal Order of Management Consultants International” that a cool uniform would make us appear more important.

Jason Tweed shared the insights from his 20-point website assessment process during the first in a three-part series of teleseminars on June 22nd. Listeners were amazed to learn the many simple ways they can make their websites more effective.

This is a low-cost, high-impact way to get the ideas and information you need to make your website more effective as a marketing and recruiting tool.

In the remaining sessions of this powerful audio learning program, you'll hear Jason describe and discuss:

• Search Engine Optimization, and Five BETTER Ways to Drive Customers to Your Website
• Websites That Sell: Empowering Your Direct Sales Team

The July telephone seminar will be focussed on attracting potential clients and referral sources to your website. You'll learn:

• Five things you shouldn't ask your web designer to do!
• Five things your web designer shouldn't ask you to do!
• Five things that are BETTER than SEO at attracting QUALITY website traffic.

The August teleseminar will focus on improving productivity of your direct sales team. You'll learn:

• How websites enhance Relationship Selling.
• How to target specific audiences.
• How to track web surfers using specific calls to action.
• How to develop a continuos improvement process for your marketing.
• And most importantly, how to PROVE IT'S WORKING using a scorecard.

If you want to maximize the impact of your website, increase your agency's brand awareness, and get more referrals at less cost per referral, you'll want to dial in on July 27th and August 24th for Jason Tweed and "Web-Centric Marketing and Recruiting."

It's not too late to order the whole series. Register today for the series, and we'll send you the audio CD for all three, plus the phone number and pass code for the remaining two live teleseminars.

Private Duty Today! is published every other Wednesday by Leading Home Care . . . a Tweed Jeffries company. We invite you to pass this newsletter along to your friends and colleagues in Private Duty Home Care by clicking on the link below.

• Publisher - Stephen Tweed, CSP
• Circulation Manager - Diane West
• Editor - Jason Tweed

Permission to Reproduce: Permission is granted to home care companies, home care associations, and home care related publications to reproduce articles from this newsletter as long as appropriate credit is given as follows: "Printed with permission from Private Duty Today! Copyright 2005 Leading Home Care ... To sign up for your FREE Subscription, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com."

You may also sign up for your FREE Subscription to Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. This bi-weekly electronic newsletter is written for home care company CEOs and senior executives who want to grow their businesses and multiply their performance.

email: jason@leadinghomecare.com

phone: 1-888-668-9333

web: http://www.privatedutytoday.com