How to get residents using your village app

24 Oct

Across 21 communities, a median of 79.6% of residents are active in the app every month. Our June 2023 post on Botanica Lifestyle Resort reported 90% weekly resident engagement there.

Older residents use it too. At Ozcare's Reflections on the Bay, where the average resident is 79, 95% used the app each week within 90 days of launch.

This guide sets out how to plan the launch, run the first 90 days and keep residents opening the app. If your app is already live and few residents use it, start with the mistakes and the measures near the end.

Whether your community is ready

Work through these checks before you set a launch date. Each one changes how you plan the launch.

Count smartphones by household. In many couples, one partner uses the phone for both of them.
If fewer than half your residents use a smartphone, plan to run paper and the app side by side for a while.
If most residents are in their late 80s or 90s, fewer will use a phone of their own. Plan for family members to use the app as well.
Ask residents before you decide. A short survey or a focus group tells you what they want from an app and what worries them.
Check Wi-Fi in the common areas and in homes. Wi-Fi in the community centre helps residents with no internet at home. A tablet there helps residents with no device of their own.
Budget staff time. Staff need 4 to 5 hours of training on Pluss. The larger cost is the time staff spend helping residents in the first few months.
Talk early with whoever produces the printed newsletter. Some staff enjoy designing it, and daily posts in the app can replace it.
Match the app to how active your village is. In a village with few organised activities, put maintenance requests, notices, documents and facility bookings first.
Have an answer ready for residents about their data. Pluss is ISO 27001:2022 certified, and we host your data in Australia.
List the systems you already run, such as property management and billing. Decide which ones to connect first. We quote separately for connections to your other systems.
If you run several villages, launch first where the staff and the Wi-Fi are ready. Reuse that village's plan for the next one.

Launch plan, from preparation to day 90

Setting up takes days. Pluss trains your staff and residents, and each village is live within weeks. The plan below runs from the weeks before launch to day 90.

Before launch

Form a small group to make decisions. At a multi-site operator, that can be the group CEO, the head of operations, village managers and residents committee members.
At a single village, the village manager, the lifestyle coordinator and a residents committee member can do the same job.
Decide who posts, who approves posts and who answers requests. Then decide whether head office or each village writes the content.
Agree who handles each type of request and how fast. For example, acknowledge every maintenance request within 24 hours and close it within a week.
Pick two or three jobs residents can only do in the app, such as lodging a maintenance request, ordering a meal or booking the guest suite.
Put the resident handbook, staff contacts and pool or gym hours in the app.
Fill the app before anyone signs in. Post news about resident achievements, an events calendar with photos, and photos of your facilities.
Train staff before residents. Show them how to mention the app in conversation, such as telling a resident that Friday's trip photos are up.
Recruit resident champions. Look for residents who already organise coffee catch-ups or help a neighbour, and brief them before launch.
Offer each resident a tech check before launch day. A staff member or champion checks their phone and sorts out forgotten passwords.
Write a short code of conduct for what goes in the app. Put it in the app and take it to a residents' meeting.
Write to families. Tell them the launch date and ask them to help set up the app on their next visit.
Put QR codes that link to the app store in common areas, such as reception and the lift.
Make the RSVP for the launch party app-only. Residents who sign in at their tech check then have a reason to open the app.
Set a date to stop sending notices by email and text, and tell residents.

Launch week

Invite every resident in launch week. If invitations go out over weeks or months, early users find an app with almost no one else in it.

Hold a launch morning tea or afternoon drinks. Decorate a cake with your app's name.
Run sessions of 20 to 30 residents at different times of day, so every resident can fit one in. Put champions in the room to help.
In each session, have residents do something real, such as saying yes to the next event or reading this week's news. Leave the full feature list for later.
Set up a help desk in a central spot, with a person at it.
Put champions in branded T-shirts so residents can spot them.
Tick each resident off a printed list when they sign in at a session or the help desk.

Days 1 to 30

Keep the help desk open at set times. Keep running small sessions for residents who missed launch week.
Post a daily app tip, such as how to say yes to an event.
Run a scavenger hunt with clues in the app, or set up a photo booth at the next event.
Name early users in a news post, with their permission.
Ring or write to residents who have not signed in. Offer them a one-to-one session.

Days 31 to 60

Run weekly challenges or raffles, and make some bookings app-only.
Hold a follow-up event that residents can only book in the app.
Start themed days, such as Feature Friday or What's On Wednesday, to show one feature at a time. A Wellness Week works the same way.
Post residents' recipes, hobbies and stories, and staff updates from behind the scenes.
Call again any resident who has still not signed in.

Days 61 to 90

Give clubs and committees a regular place in the news. The garden club sends its working bee dates. The residents committee sends its notices and minutes.
Hold a three-month event. Share your usage figures and thank champions by name.
Post photos and a short recap after every event, so the app holds a record of village life.
With residents' permission, use their stories in your newsletter or on social media.

For help setting up clubs that residents run, see our guide to starting resident-led clubs.

New residents after day 90

Start new residents on the app before they move in. GemLife has launched the app at its seven resorts still in development. It uses the app to keep in touch with buyers before their homes are built.

On move-in day, show each new resident how to book a spot at an event. Then post a welcome with their photo, if they agree. Botanica's team described both steps in our 2023 interview. For wording, see how to write welcome articles.

Residents with low phone confidence

Some residents use their phone only to call and text family. Others have never used a smartphone. Teach the phone first, then the app.

One village we work with offered residents a general phone class. It covered setting up an Apple ID, using Google Maps, taking and sharing photos, and resetting a password.

Running a phone class

Ask residents what they want to learn first. Offer video calls with family, texting and health apps as starting topics.
Recruit instructors from tech-savvy residents, staff, volunteers or local experts. Give each one a lesson plan.
Keep classes small and hands-on. Residents bring their own phone or tablet.
Hand out printed step-by-step guides with pictures that residents can take home.
Spend time on scams. Cover strong passwords and how to spot a fake message or call.
Offer one-to-one sessions for residents who prefer to learn alone.
Pair residents up so they can help each other between classes.

A phone skills day

You can start the program with a single day:

Morning: what a smartphone can do for residents.
Breakout sessions: messaging, video calls with family and health apps.
Lunch together, where residents swap what they have learned.
Afternoon: security, installing apps and fixing common problems.
A short wrap-up to collect feedback.

If you have the staff for a series, run separate workshops. Topics can include devices, staying in touch, online banking and finding reliable information online. Residents sign up for the ones they want.

Support on launch day and after

Keep a person at the help desk. Botanica's team told us that a resident who cannot get help face to face will probably leave the phone in a drawer.
Name one or two staff as the contact for app problems. Botanica's team found most fixes were a reset or signing back in.
When a resident says they are too old to learn, remind them how they learned their way around the village when they moved in.
Residents without a smartphone can use the tablet in the community centre, or a partner's or family member's phone.
Print key posts for the noticeboard, so residents without a phone still see them.

What to post

Post at least once a day. Very active communities post 3 to 5 times a day.

Plan a month ahead in an editorial calendar. Write a week of posts on Monday and schedule them. News posts carry photos, video and files.

Pluss shows who has read each post. After a month you can see which kinds of post your residents open.

Posts to plan for

Event photos with a short write-up, on the day or the day after. Botanica's team described posting this way in our 2023 interview.
A birthday greeting for each resident with a birthday that day, if they agree.
A welcome for each new resident, with a photo.
Local news and events from your suburb or town.
Recipes, gardening tips, hobbies and stories from residents. Residents send them to staff, and staff post them.
Updates from staff about work behind the scenes, such as the kitchen getting ready for a function.
Residents committee notices and minutes.

For more ideas, see our conversation starters and 100 activity ideas for retirement villages.

Reasons to open the app each week

Events that residents can only book in the app.
Weekly competitions and challenges.
Maintenance requests, meal orders and facility bookings.
The resident handbook, staff contacts and pool or gym hours.
Alerts for anything residents need to know today, such as a water shut-off.

Posts to avoid

Avoid posting the same kind of item every day, such as only today's menu. Check the editorial calendar each week for a run of the same post.

Staff and families

Staff

Train every staff member before residents start, including reception and maintenance staff.
Stop sending notices by email and text once residents are in the app. Keep the noticeboard for printed copies of key posts.
Have staff point residents to the app in conversation, such as telling them the trip photos are up.
Let every staff member send content to the one or two people who post.
Ask a staff member or volunteer at each event to take photos and write one line about it.

For more on news posts and alerts, see our communication page.

Families

There is no charge for family users. Invite families at launch.
Ask families to help a resident set up the app on their next visit.
Families see village news and events, including photos from activities.
For aged care homes, see the family app for aged care.

Mistakes that stall usage

If your app is live and few residents use it, check this list first.

Launching an empty app. Fill the news and the events calendar before the first resident signs in.
No clear purpose. Decide what the app replaces, such as the monthly newsletter, the printed handbook or the paper maintenance form.
Only news in the app. Residents come back for jobs they can only do there, such as maintenance requests and bookings.
Old channels still running. If notices still go out by email and text, residents can ignore the app.
Inviting residents slowly. Invite everyone in launch week and follow up with the rest.
One person doing all the posting. Give clubs, committees and other staff a share.
No champions. Recruit them, or set up a residents' app committee to help with uptake and setup.
Training once and stopping. Run follow-up sessions and keep the help desk open after launch week.
Setting up the app before deciding who does what. Agree who posts, who approves and who answers requests first.
Leaving village managers and resident leaders out of planning. Put both in the planning group.
No code of conduct. Agree one before launch, so staff have rules to point to when a resident complains about a post.
No baseline. Record usage in the first month, so you can tell whether it rises or falls.

How to measure usage

Use the share of residents active in the app each month as your main measure. Our median of 79.6% across 21 communities is a monthly share too. Ask us how we count a resident as active before you compare.

Track weekly use as well. Reflections on the Bay and Botanica both reported weekly figures.

Set targets before launch in three areas:

Usage: the share of residents active each month.
Activity: how many residents say yes to events and book facilities in the app.
Operations: calls to reception and paper forms. Count both before launch and again at day 90.

Check the figures every day in the weeks after launch. After day 90, report them monthly.

What to look at

Who has read each post. Residents who stop reading are the ones to call.
How many residents said yes to an event, against the head count on the day. Each booking made in the app is one that staff do not take by phone.
Posts per week and reads per post. If reads fall over a few months, change what you post.

Tell residents your target and post your progress. Share the figures at the three-month event.

For the reports staff see in Pluss, see our data and insights page.

If you run several villages

With Pluss HQ, our add-on for operators with several villages, head office sees how residents at each village use the app, side by side. Each figure is compared with the previous 90 days.

Show village managers the figures from your strongest villages.
Send every village the same scorecard each month.
Allow for context. A village with an older group of residents or a new manager starts from a different place.
Put app usage on the agenda when village managers meet, so they can swap what works.
Thank staff by name when their village lifts its usage.

Where to see the app

148 communities across Australia and New Zealand use Pluss, including Bolton Clarke, Aveo and TriCare. Watch a video tour of Pluss, or book a demo with our team.

Michael Jeffrey