Welcome New Residents with Caring and Consideration

I often write about welcoming new residents that have chosen your community for the next chapter of their lives, which may be a fresh beginning for them. Your dining room is an important place for them to meet friends by sharing a meal and listening to their stories. Another way to look at them is that they have chosen your community as their homes until the end of their lives. With person-centered care in demand, training is often needed to learn the ways of considerations not used before. 

Time has proven that employee behavior and attitude plays a major role in the success of a company. This includes your community. You want your residents to remain with you for their last chapter of their lives. The impression made by your food servers is considered in that decision for them to remain in your community. Encourage food servers to become aware of the residents’ personal stories to build a bonding connection.  When they connect with the diners they serve, a higher resident satisfaction is attained. Higher satisfaction means word of mouth referrals and higher income from frequent family and guest meals served. 

Kind Dining® training is designed to assist communities to accomplish those goals. It includes improved professional serving skills, which creates happier food servers who come to love the job they do. This lowers turnover of employees and increased productivity. Changing the culture of dining toward a unique brand of hospitality, civility, and service energizes a food staff that works as a team building trust and changing the process.

It is essential for management to remember and to emphasize that hospitality is a universal language and a learned skill that anyone can adapt if they desire it. Committing to these beliefs will ensure that all residents will receive the same level of service quality and care while dining.  

It is what I believe personally and professionally. 

Our B♥ Kind® Tip: Remember, the service you give has the power to build community.

About Cindy Heilman

Cindy is the founder and owner of Kind Dining®, which she began in 2006. She’s traveled across the country and Canada working with and training senior living communities that want to create an exceptional dining experience for their residents and staff. In addition, she certifies select professionals in her Kind Dining® philosophy and provides tools, now in an eLearning format, that make learning stick and help people put insights into action. As a result of her work, clients often share their staff has a new sense of purpose, get along better and keep their focus and energy on what matters most. In fact, she wrote a book, Hospitality for Boomers on how to attract residents and keep good team members. In her free time, she enjoys walking Oregon trails and cheering on her favorite soccer teams, the Portland Thorns and Timbers.

Leave a Comment

Friendly reminder: Please protect other people's confidentiality as appropriate. Thank you!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *