Ageing Transformed
How can it be that we are past the half way point in November?
It seems time has accelerated these last couple of months and already here we are thinking about Christmas and the end of the year!!
What we ought to do now is slow down the clock and take time to enjoy these lovely sunny spring days. However, that is not the case here at de Fiddes as we will be busy right up until we close for our Xmas break.
The LASA conference has just been held in Adelaide where I had the opportunity to speak about connection to place and the importance of place to each and every one of us, especially those living in aged care. My talk was very relevant with the theme of the conference being “Ageing Transformed ….. The Dawning of a new Era”. The emphasis was on embracing innovation and being ready for a changing market which is being driven by connected consumers. Many of the presentations were given by disruption speakers and they really made you sit back, take stock and think.
Some of the take home messages for me were about changing our language to “customers” rather than “resident” or “patient”. Our next customers are educated and they will be more demanding. It will be important to make sure that promises are consistent with what is actually being delivered. Many speakers highlighted the fact that just caring alone is not going to convince an educated client to choose your facility, also by not including them in the opportunity to design their own experience will not bode well.
I was also really surprised to find that less than 1 in 5 people trust the industry. That did change to 1 in 4 if they had some type of direct experience. Of course this indicates that there is a lot more work to be done both within the industry and educating outside the industry. There were a number of branding and marketing speakers who also emphasised that we are changing from a product centric to a customer centric market and that the next generation are know as the “demand” generation.
It was reassuring to know that what we do in our work here at de Fiddes Design is definitely in line with future expectations. If you design for the customer, everyone wins.
If you didn’t get the opportunity to go the LASA conference I would be more than happy to catch up for a coffee and share my learnings so please email or give me a call.
You can also visit the link here to view the full presentation.
Click to view full presentation