Home Care Growth Strategies for 2026 and Beyond

Home Care Growth Strategies for 2026 and Beyond

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My name is Carolina Gonzaga and I’m one of the Sales Executives here at CareSmartz360 and I am your host today for CareSmartz360 On Air. I get to interview somebody that I absolutely adore, a friend, um, someone that’s been in the industry for a long time and who’s made a huge impact. Today we’re spending time with Christie Freeze who is the Director of Strategic Growth at SalesMail. This tool for any home care agency or any business for that matter is so valuable. It’s a way to

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really make your follow-ups more effective, personalized, and is not only great for communicating like your prospects and your referral sources, but also to your internal team and your existing clients. So excited to welcome who happens to be a good friend of mine, Christie Freeze. Welcome to the podcast. >> Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here and chatting with you today. >> I’m excited to be chatting with you, too. And it’s funny because when I met

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Christie, I was kind of the senior living side on the solutions side and we are kind of conference sisters, I would say. And then now I’m, you know, working more in the home care space and then all of a sudden I find out that I’m recording with you. So our worlds are still very much connected >> and they will be until the end of time. >> They will be until the end of time. So SalesMail I’m familiar with because it’s been such a valuable tool for myself and many of the um you know the

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senior living operators that I worked with in my past life and SalesMail is and your background is also home care. So in general would you mind for our listeners who haven’t heard about this tool exactly what value SalesMail offers and what led you to join this organization? >> Yeah absolutely. So, SalesMail is a personalized video outreach tool. I like to think of it as just a video vehicle. So, we really do integrate and embed in any of your current messaging platforms.

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So, you’re not learning any new platforms or messaging through anything new. It’s simply just a copy and paste functionality. And I like to call it a relationship building tool. Of course, we are again using the vehicle of video, but it’s literally just personalized video outreach. Don’t think like a big massive production edited polished video. More like, “Hey, it’s Christie. So great to chat with you today. Looking forward to connecting next week. Bye for now.” Like a video voicemail.

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And I joined the organization because I used salesmail as a sales director in senior living um actually back in 2019. And then I stepped away from the senior living operator world in 2020 right before the pandemic to go work for a home care company and I just continued leveraging video in that space as well. >> Okay. And so with salesmail um why do you think some of your you know customers in home care have kind of found that it’s worth an investment into SalesMail? what what were your

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customers finding was the challenge with maintaining those relationships with potential uh clients for their agencies? Yeah. So, it’s a very low cost investment to just start off. Like, I think that’s always the biggest elephant in the room and the question people are always wondering. It’s very low cost and so it has a really really high impact. And so, I really believe that video just collapses distance. And so, when you think about whether it’s your clients, meaning actual families and their loved one, or

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you’re thinking of referral partners, social workers, discharge planners, doctor’s offices, like you name it. We’re not always able to be in person. And yes, in person is always going to be the gold standard, but I like in our case right now, right? I can’t show up in Canada, that’d be awesome, but I can’t. And if I could send you a personalized video, it’s going to make you feel connected to me, and we’re going to be able to continue our relationship and deepen our

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relationship. So, the same thing applies, right? You’re still able to build those relationships, maintain and nurture those relationships regardless of who it is. We say like in our mission statement, it’s our job to make sure that you can connect with the people who matter the most to you, the audiences that matter most. >> Yeah. I’m thinking about my life in senior living as the person that needed to go and reach out to social workers and discharge planners and thinking about

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how there were so many of us that were doing the exact same things and trying to get that coffee onto their desk and trying to get those donuts which became very old chocolates the whatever Christmas mug >> and sometimes they don’t even make them to that person because you leave them at the front desk. >> Yes. Yes. And then they end up going home with someone else. And so I really love the idea of it’s not just about your prospects, but also about your referral partners because they’re busy,

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too. Yeah. My favorite example of this is I was working actually in northern Indiana and I knew this specific social worker. I had met with her week after week after week, right? And so of course you start to get to know them and know their schedule and know their routine. And she would literally have her monitors up and I could see her inbox was just flooded. >> Yes. >> With unread emails, referrals, families, etc. And so finally I asked her, I was like, “Would you prefer me to text you

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or to email you?” And she of course preferred for me to text her. And so we got into this really in sync rhythm where she had a discharge. I would get it via text. She would, “Hey Christie, Sally’s discharged from our rehab today. Can you come meet with her, connect with her family?” I would send her a quick video message and I would say, “Hey there, thank you so much for the referral. I’m on it. I just want to let you know I got it.” 30 second video, right? She can watch it on her phone.

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She knows that I’m good to go. And then just an added little bonus, something that if you are listening, you’re already leveraging video, I would encourage you to do is once that person has been admitted to your services, if they are open, willing, and able, of course, get them on camera and say how that experience was for them. Like Lacy did such a great job at making sure that I had my discharge paperwork good to go. She got me connected to this home care company. I’m doing so much better at

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home. Thank you so much for taking such great care of me. And then send that to the social worker. >> Yeah. Yes. This is absolutely genius. I I absolutely love that. >> It’s like my pro tip. You should definitely do that. >> Yes. I That’s genius. I wish I had that when I was maybe I’m going to go work in a retirement community because now I’m going to have that too, girl. Maybe. >> Yeah. You never miss it. My question um now is when you became a user of when you were um at the agency

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level did you become a user like was there a before and after or did you inherit SalesMail when you began the role? >> Yeah. So because I had just come from the senior living community world we didn’t have it initially and so I that was just something that I kind of had to say hey I used it in this space and it really worked for this this and this. We should really consider doing this and just try it out. And that’s something still like again if you’re listening right now and you’re like I just don’t

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know if it’s going to work for us. A, it will, but B, you know, we do offer short trial periods and that’s something that I personally lead and I’m more than happy to do with a team, but it really only takes about 10 to 14 days for somebody to try it out and be like, “Oh, I am getting more responses or I am getting better feedback. I am moving people through my sales process faster.” And so although I kind of inherited I had to actively like reignite the conversation around it and

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Then once I did I started my own business in consulting and used it for that. Anytime that we can build relationships with people and maintain them through video it’s always going to be more impactful than doing it through plain text. Just always. >> Yeah. So the difference you’ve seen is the difference of how it impacts the open rate and the engagement with >> open rates, engagement rates, response rates. You know, we talk a lot in senior living about pre-our reminders reducing

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no-shows by up to 60%. That stat translates over how many times, and again, like not to go down a rabbit hole, but this is also something that could be used for recruiting caregivers. How many times do we see an application come through or we see a caregiver scheduled to go see Sally at 10, but then something happens and then they can’t and now somebody new is going. So, if Christie is now the new person going, how impactful would it be to hop on and say, “Hey, Sally’s not going to be able to

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make it today. I just wanted you to have a face to the name. I’m going to be there around 10 today.” Yeah. and and really just I think that video because it collapses distance and builds trust so fast, it helps us to reduce and remove some of the mystery and some of the fear, especially people coming into other people’s homes, right? And so if we can do that in a really quick, efficient, it’s an app on my phone, it takes literally 35 seconds and it sends, that’s just going to help us work

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smarter versus harder and more efficiently. Yeah. And I’m also thinking about those long sales cycles where this is just a relationship that’s dragging. They’re kicking tires or there’s some hesitation and when you come to sending those text emails and really thinking like are they even going to read this? Would I? >> And so then you can make it definitely more dynamic, more different. And you can add more meaning to that long term. And you can do just like constant value ad touch points like you know I know AI

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is like all the rage and that’s all we’re hearing and talking about but that is a way to leverage AI is build out whether you personally do it or you use something like chat GPT to help you kind of get 10 to 15 value ad topics. You could sit one day for 30 minutes and record 10 15 20 videos that are not hey I want you to set up services. They might be, hey, you might be at this stage of the process, and these might be the questions that you’re navigating. Here are some answers that we’ve heard

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from clients we’ve worked with in the past. It doesn’t always have to be like a direct call to action. It can simply just be a value ad. Here’s a really valuable touch point that’s going to help you make a decision, whether it be with us or somebody else. We want it to be us, but it doesn’t have to be, you know, and it might not always be. So, I think that there’s a way to leverage both video and the AI component. You know, there’s automated systems that can send out those touch points. If you’ve

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I got somebody that’s gone cold for, I don’t know, 8 months, 9 months, but it sounded like nine months ago they really needed your services, maybe build a campaign in your outreach tool that just slowly drips them content. And you know, I always teach teams that I’m training, the word video in your subject line will increase the open rate by 20%. So if it says video for Christie, I’m going to be like, >> “Wait, what? >> Really?” >> Or video message. >> Yeah.

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>> Yeah. And then when I see a person, right, we start to be able to put a face to the name and build trust. And you know, something I just heard a couple weeks ago from a pilot that I was working with is they said, you know, me, Christie, you always show up on camera really like high vibe and bubbly and kind of rahrh, and that’s just my energy, right? You’re similar to that. And it’s >> it’s that’s how I want people to perceive me because that’s how I feel. >> Yeah.

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>> But both senior living and home care, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. It’s not always a high vibe situation. And so to be able to express and convey our empathy and like slow down our voice, meet them where they are. This is a really hard process. This is probably really difficult for you. I would love an opportunity just to talk with you and see if I can help answer questions. Like you can do that so much more effectively through a video than you can through plain text. It really

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gets lost in translation, I think, when you send a really empathetic message, but maybe you still have exclamation points and you’re still kind of like, >> yeah, >> you can tell that you’re a bubbly person and they’re like, I’m not feeling bubbly. I’m feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. >> Yeah. Sometimes I have to ask Chpt to make me sound less bubbly. >> It’s like you can start by taking the eight exclamations out. >> I know, but it’s how I feel.

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>> It’s who we are. I I Christie, I totally get you and I love that. >> Yeah. But you know, it’s >> Go ahead. >> I was going to ask you, how have you seen the tool working for engagement of like existing because yeah, you want to get new prospects, you want to get those referral sources, >> but it’s also about keeping the back door closed or re-engaging maybe those more occasional, you know, clients of your agency that you want to re-engage. So, have you seen this tool being

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effective there as well? >> Yeah. So whether it be, you know, administrators or operators or whoever that head person in charge is at the home care agency, it’s a great tool to convey messages to not only your existing clients, but your existing team members and employees. So I really also want people that are listening to this to think of it as very multifaceted. Um, but you know, we just got hit here with like a huge massive winter storm. And so because of that, a lot of leaders

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are leveraging salesmail to say, “Hey, this is our safety protocol. These are the precautions we’re taking. We just wanted to keep you in the loop, check on you, see how you’re doing.” It’s good for quality control. It’s good to check out and say, “Hey, you know, Christiey’s been your caregiver for about a year now.” Like, I would love to hear your honest feedback about that. You can either leave me a comment down below, you can shoot me an email, you can

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respond via text, pick up the phone, call me. But it really opens up this dialogue and conversation for your existing customers to feel comfortable in telling you what’s really going on and how they’re feeling and if something’s going wrong, you can adjust that quicker than them saying, “Hey, I’m canceling services. This hasn’t been going well for me.” And so I think really leveraging this tool in a proactive approach whether it be for your customers or your team members

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you know etc is just a really a really good practice. >> Yeah. So in terms of adopting technology in an agency of course the question always comes of like well I can hardly get my caregivers to clock in and clock out. There’s always those ones that don’t. They’re not techsavvy is the blanket term. So, how easy is it for for somebody um to use this? >> It’s literally three clicks. And I tell people all the time, so if you can make a phone call from your cell phone and in

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Just today’s day and age, right, most of us are either zooming, we’re facetiming, we’re using Marco Polo, we’ve experienced Snapchat, we’ve done some type of video communication, we just don’t always think of it in a professional way. And so I like to think of sales as like a professional video card almost. And so not only is it just three clicks, you literally record it, you save it, you send it. That’s literally it. And then rinse and repeat because this isn’t like I mentioned at

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the beginning, this isn’t like this full production. Like you don’t need to have full hair and makeup and like the most beautiful outfit. I always say your energy needs to be aligned. You need to make sure that your intentions are good. But as long as they are, you can’t mess it up. And I always joke when I’m training, I’ll like do the demo and I’ll show how to record and then I stop sharing and I get really close to the camera and I’m like, “Listen, with a

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very serious rule, we do not watch ourselves back.” And we do not listen to ourselves back. I have been using this tool since 2019 and literally watching myself and hearing myself. It makes me cringey. I don’t like it. Nobody likes it. But you know who does like it? Our prospects on the other end. >> Yeah. Because they feel really connected to us. So if you like what you said when you said it, >> just save it and send it. >> It’s just a video voicemail. And when you know that cadence,

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>> hey Sally, it was so great to meet you and your mom today. We can’t wait to start services with you. Thanks so much for connecting and we look forward to talking to you soon. Bye. >> Yeah, it’s >> the same thing you would say in a voicemail. You just >> we have to get over the camera confidence part of it. And the last thing I’ll say on this, this applies to senior living, home care, home health, hospice, anything that is relationship based, right? Just everything in senior care as a blanket

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statement. We are asking people to trust us and to be extremely vulnerable with us, right? Whether it’s to tell us their health concerns, whether it’s to come into their home, any of those things are really vulnerable. And so if we’re asking that of them, but we can’t get on camera for 35 to 45 seconds, how would they trust us? And how could we expect that of them? So, it’s a little bit like leading by example. Like, let me go first and show you I’m a person, not a robot. You can trust me. I’m going to

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take great care of you, whether it’s at my agency or someone else’s. >> And now you go. >> Yeah. And it hit home for me. There’s a lot of people, even in our industry, on our side of it, on the solution side where they meet with prospects and then they may not turn their camera on. And for me it’s like just how you put it is so perfect. You’re asking somebody to >> share with you to explain what your issues are, your problems are and what

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can be solved and yet you don’t want to take the time to show your face. And I know Christie, you’ve sent me some um videos in the past just to check in on me, and it really does feel like I’m talking to you. >> Yeah. >> So, so I can say with all honesty that it is definitely going to add in that layer of more meaningful communication, I think. >> Yeah. And like, you know, I’ve said it millions of times, in person always the gold standard. Do I love seeing you in

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person more than I love seeing you on Zoom? Absolutely. But imagine if we were having this conversation and I was only talking to myself. >> That would feel really uncomfortable. And >> I think it takes practice. This is a skill. This is also something that’s super important. It does not come naturally to every single person. We’re not just born with camera confidence and video presence. That’s not how this works. People are like, “Well, you’re so good at it.” I’m like,

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“Yeah, well, I have 4,300 videos in my salesmail account since last year, so I know I I practice a lot.” >> Yeah. And if you can look past the fact that I’m here on the camera and instead imagine that Sally’s my favorite name. Can you tell that Sally is on the other end of the camera and I’m talking to her just like I would be talking to her in person. It makes it a heck of a lot easier. >> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So, you don’t have to be a camera ready person. This

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is a skill. And I’m just thinking even from a receiver’s end, Christie, I am so guilty. I’ve been in business for a long time. I don’t like to read long- winded >> and sometimes I make an assumption about even a subject line and I’m half reading it. So even from an agency management perspective, probably if you send out a video to your team with an update, they’re going to be more likely to >> Oh yeah, and a fun fact for everyone listening, 95% of a message is retained

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when it is consumed via video versus 10% when it’s consumed via text. So that just speaks beautifully to your example. And I’m the same. If I see a wall of text, I’m like, >> “Yeah, >> I’ll get to that later.” Maybe >> I’ll get to that later. Probably never. Yeah. I’m always like, “Oh, I didn’t actually read that.” But, um, so as you see the industry changing, you know, home care, healthcare in general, senior living. Um, are there any kind of things

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coming on the horizon for SalesMail? Is there anything exciting coming forward or any focus, anything related to the buzzword AI or anything at all that you can share? >> Of course. Yes, we actually just did a full rebrand. So, the product stayed the same, the team stayed the same, but we did a full rebrand and we are focusing more and more on incorporating AI into our platform and into our product. One of the things that’s coming super soon and I’m allowed to say because it is coming super soon is a teleprompter and

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like an AI script writing tool. And so if you are in the camp of like >> which I could combat until the end of time when people are like well I don’t know what to say. And I’m like you’re saying it already you’re just doing it through a different mode of communication. Um but that is a hiccup for a lot of people. They get here, they see themselves and they’re like I don’t know. And so to be able to have a teleprompter or something to kind of guide you, I like to use any

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teleprompter tool as more of a bullet point. You can kind of give yourself an outline. Um, but that’s something that’s going to be really helpful. And then something else that’s in the works is just having evergreen libraries set up. And so what that means, if you’re unfamiliar with that term, is a video that can be used over and over and over again. And so instead of saying, “Hi Sally, I’m Christie.” It might say, “Hi, I’m Christie from ABC Home Care Agency and I’m looking so

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forward to connecting with you.” And that video can be sent to every new inquiry and every new lead that you get and use it over and over and over again. The other really cool thing about salesmail that’s not new is that we have always been able to see real-time data and analytics. So, if you’re viewing my video or you’re viewing it again or you click on schedule an assessment in my CTA button, my call to action, I get all of that live time on my phone, >> right? >> And so, there’s no more question of,

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“Wow, I haven’t heard from them in about two weeks. I wonder if they even got that. Did they even respond?” Because, you know, if they did or they didn’t. >> And I like to use it as a follow-up if I see that. Obviously, don’t pick up the phone immediately and be like, “Saw, you were watching my video. Do you like my video? >> It’s going to feel a little creepy for sure, but you know, >> you can definitely call later that day and say, “Hey, I saw you were taking a

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look at the information that I sent over. Are there any additional questions I can help answer?” Or if they used to schedule an assessment or schedule a meeting or a discovery call to action, you can also leverage that. If they clicked the button, but they didn’t schedule time with you. Hey, looks like you were trying to schedule some time to connect. Is that something I can help you with? >> Yeah. >> And it just kind of takes out that, hey, I’m just calling to check in.

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>> Yeah, I know. And then, you know, that nervousness of like, I know I have a great day. It’s like, what are you even going to say? >> Yeah, I got to go. Bye. So, almost like I’m thinking too for those that are not loving the picking up the phone and calling part of your role, this actually if you can get past the recording and seeing your own face for a moment while you record. >> This actually gives you a little bit more control. So, it is intimate, but it gives you a little bit of distance to

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re-record it. >> Rereel. >> Listen, I just like my worst fear is that people will spend 30 minutes on a 30 second video and then they’re going to be like, “This doesn’t work. I don’t like it. And that’s not that’s not fair. And I know this is like such a dramatic example and so you’ll appreciate this cuz you know me, >> but it’s like sending an Outlook email or a Gmail email and not getting a response and saying, “I’m actually just going to delete Outlook or Gmail from my

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computer entirely.” >> Like you wouldn’t do that. >> I’m not going to email anymore >> ever again. >> Yeah. >> In my life. Like no. And so the same thing goes with this. And yeah, I agree. I personally am not a fan of phone calls. I have never loved them. I will probably never love them, especially if I need to call all of these people because how often are we greeted by their voicemail? Almost 80 to 90% of the time. And so to be able to say in

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the voicemail, to be prepared to say in the voicemail, “Hey there, I’m so sorry I missed you today. I know you’re probably really busy or getting bombarded with all kinds of things.” When you get a chance, there’s an email in your inbox with a quick introduction video for me. Take a look at it. It’s got all my information and I’m here whenever you’re ready. >> I love that. I want to use this today. This isn’t >> We can We can get you. >> I know. Well, tell me actually very

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important question. If there’s an agency out there that’s curious where can they begin their journey in learning more about SalesMail? >> Yeah. So, you can truly just go to salesmail.com. That website has just been refreshed. It’s got how it works. It’s got use cases. It’s got examples. You can book a demo right from that page. Um, I am consistently sharing on LinkedIn, just my own personal Christie Freeze LinkedIn, all kinds of content on my experiences within the home care

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space leveraging this tool. And so, if that’s a place where you want to start, you’re not quite ready to take a deep dive, you’re welcome to connect with me, ask me any questions over there. But salesmail.com, that’s the place to go. >> Amazing. So, agencies, please reach out. You can ask for more information. ask for a demo. Um, and hopefully this is a tool that will help you with your goals in 2026. Thank you to my good friend Christie. Thank you for having me.