The George family’s experience with Pier Place Retirement Village demonstrates how empathetic email nurturing campaigns can transform the challenging process of choosing later living accommodation.
The Beginning: A Family Grappling with Change
When 75-year-old Carol George first visited the Pier Place Retirement Village website late one evening, she wasn’t ready to make any decisions. She was simply exploring options, wrestling with the reality that her beloved four-bedroom family home was becoming too much to manage alone. The arthritis in her hands made cleaning difficult, and the garden that once brought her joy now felt like an overwhelming burden.
The following morning, Emma Richardson, the Sales Consultant at Pier Place, received an alert through LivingMetrics™. Mrs George had engaged with the website’s chat function, asking thoughtful questions about community life, daily activities, and the level of independence residents could maintain. Rather than sending a generic follow-up email, Emma recognised this as an opportunity to begin a meaningful conversation.
Using LivingMetrics™ integrated video feature, Emma recorded a warm, personal message addressing Mrs George’s specific concerns and sent it via her personal email. The video arrived in Carol’s inbox the next morning—not a sales pitch, but a genuine response from someone who understood the complexity of her situation.
A Multi-Generational Decision
Over the coming weeks as each family member made contact, the details of their communications were added to Carol George’s record in LivingMetrics™, relating each family member to her search.
She was able to see the broader picture of the George family’s involvement and track it through the CRM. She noted the engagement of Sarah Campbell, Carol’s daughter and a busy Head Teacher living 45 minutes away, and Rob George, Carol’s son, an MD of an engineering firm who travels frequently for work.
Each family member had different concerns and accessed different information on the Pier Place website:
- Carol was most interested in maintaining her independence, continuing her hobbies like baking and gardening, and having space for quiet moments
- Sarah worried about her mother’s social integration and whether she’d feel pressured to participate in activities when she preferred solitude
- Rob focused on practical considerations like care levels, maintenance support, and the quality of facilities
Knowing that like all families, the George family had many different concerns, Pier Place’s carefully crafted email nurturing campaign began delivering content, addressed to each family member through the LivingMetrics™ Sales Enablement Platform.
The Email Nurturing Campaign Begins
Week 1-2: Addressing Immediate Concerns
They received a series of gentle emails that felt more like letters from a friend than marketing materials. The ones sent to Sarah and Rob referenced their relationship to their mum and the first message included a video tour of the community showing the attractive communal and activity areas.
A second email included a video of the beautiful gardens, showcasing the raised beds in the residents’ gardening club where members could grow their own vegetables and flowers. It explained how residents like Mrs Patterson had transformed their love of gardening into leadership of the weekly gardening club, maintaining their passion while making new friends. The message emphasised that participation was always voluntary and that many residents treasured their private time in their own apartments.
Week 3-4: Building Understanding
As the weeks progressed, the content became more detailed and reassuring. Information about the community’s restaurant, with a focus on how residents could choose to dine privately in their apartments, join others at communal tables, or book the private dining room for family celebrations.
A particularly impactful piece was a video introducing the Community Food Club, where residents could continue baking and cooking if they wished. The state-of-the-art kitchen facilities were available for residents to use, and many had formed informal cooking groups, sharing family recipes and creating new traditions together.
Another email featured an interview with the Activities Coordinator explaining how they worked individually with each resident to find activities that suited their interests and comfort levels. Some residents thrived in large group activities, while others preferred smaller gatherings or one-on-one conversations.
Month 2: Addressing the Elephant in the Room
The email nurturing campaign didn’t shy away from the emotional challenges of moving. A thoughtful video piece about downsizing services, featuring Pier Place’s partnership with a local company that specialised in helping families sort through decades of possessions with sensitivity and care. This email included a video testimonial from Mrs Henderson, who had moved to Pier Place eighteen months earlier. She spoke candidly about the difficulty of leaving her family home but described how the downsizing specialists had helped her choose which treasured items to bring and how to gift meaningful objects to family members. Mrs Henderson now lived in a beautiful apartment filled with her most precious belongings, without the burden of managing items she no longer needed.
The Power of Patient Nurturing
Month 3: Gentle Encouragement Without Pressure
As winter approached, the family received seasonal content that painted a picture of life at Pier Place during the colder months. Instead of struggling with heating bills and icy paths, residents enjoyed cosy common areas, organised activities when the weather was poor, and the security of knowing help was always available.
One particularly touching email featured the community’s approach to the holiday season, showing how residents could maintain their own traditions while having the option to join community celebrations. Photos showed residents decorating their own apartments as well as participating in communal activities like carol singing and festive meals.
Month 4: Building Confidence
The email nurturing campaign began featuring success stories from residents’ families. One video featured the Johnson family, where Mrs Johnson had initially been reluctant to visit but eventually thrived in the community. Her daughter spoke about how relieved she felt knowing her mother was safe, engaged, and happy. Rob particularly connected with content about the peace of mind that came with professional care support.
The Personal Touch That Made the Difference
Month 5: Outside of the Email Nurture Campaign
Rather than pushing for a visit, Emma sent a short video message suggesting that Carol and her family might enjoy attending one of Pier Place’s seasonal events—a garden party where the gardening club would showcase their Spring preparations and plans for the coming growing season.
The invitation was extended without pressure, simply as an opportunity to see the community in action during a pleasant, social occasion. Carol was invited to bring her family, and they were welcome to stay for lunch in the restaurant if they wished.
For the first time, Carol felt ready to take the next step. The months of gentle, understanding communication had built her confidence and addressed her fears. She knew that visiting didn’t mean committing, but she finally felt comfortable enough to see for herself what life at Pier Place might offer.
The Visit: Seeds Planted Through Patient Nurturing
When the George family finally visited Pier Place on a beautiful spring morning, Emma was able to greet them as someone who already understood their individual concerns and interests. The months of nurturing had created a foundation of trust that made the visit feel more like catching up with a friend than meeting a sales consultant.
Carol was delighted to meet members of the gardening club, who showed her the greenhouse where they started seedlings and the tool shed where everything was organised and maintained. Sarah was impressed by the variety of common areas—from the quiet library where several residents were reading peacefully to the lively craft room where a small group was working on individual projects together.
Rob appreciated the transparent conversation about care levels and costs. Emma was able to reference their previous communications and address his specific concerns about the transition timeline and support available during the move.
The Role of Technology in Human-Centred Care
Throughout this journey, the sophisticated technology behind Pier Place’s nurturing campaign remained invisible to the George family. They experienced only the warmth, understanding, and personalised attention that made them feel valued and supported.
Behind the scenes, LivingMetrics™ CRM delivered content designed to answer prospective residents’ concerns, even the unvoiced ones. The system tracked their engagement, noted their interests, and ensured that Emma always had complete visibility of each family member’s journey and concerns.
The integration between the Chat Virtual Assistant in ActiveDEMAND marketing automation platform and LivingMetrics™ CRM meant that when the Georges finally visited, Emma had a complete picture of their five-month journey. She knew which content had resonated, which concerns had been addressed, and which questions might still need answering.
The Decision: Trust Built Over Time
Three weeks after their visit, Carol called Emma to arrange a second visit. This time, she wanted to see a specific apartment and talk more seriously about the possibility of moving. The nurturing campaign had done its work—not by pushing or pressuring, but by providing consistent support, understanding, and information that helped the family reach their own conclusions.
Sarah and Rob both expressed how impressed they were with Pier Place’s patient approach. Rather than feeling pressured to make a quick decision, they had been given time to process, discuss, and gradually build confidence in the choice.
“The thing that struck us most,” Sarah later reflected, “was that from the very beginning, Pier Place seemed to understand what we were going through. It never felt like we were being sold to, it felt like they genuinely cared about helping Mum make the right decision for her.”
Lessons for the Later Living Sector
The George family’s experience illustrates several crucial principles for effective later living marketing:
Patience as a Strategy: Rather than treating delayed responses as disinterest, Pier Place recognised that silence often indicates processing time for one of life’s biggest decisions.
Multi-Stakeholder Understanding: By tracking and responding to the concerns of all family members involved in the decision-making process, the Sales Consultant was able to address the complex family dynamics inherent in later living choices.
Education Over Sales: The campaign focused on building understanding and confidence rather than pushing for quick decisions, ultimately creating stronger relationships and better outcomes.
Empathy in Action: Every communication demonstrated understanding of the emotional complexity involved in choosing later living accommodation.
The Future of Later Living Marketing
The George family’s journey demonstrates how sophisticated nurturing campaigns can transform the later living sector’s approach to prospect engagement. By combining human empathy with intelligent technology, operators can provide the support, understanding, and information that families need to make confident decisions.
As Emma reflected on the George family’s journey: “Technology allowed us to be there for them consistently over those important months, providing support and information when they needed it. But the technology was just the vehicle—what really mattered was understanding their concerns and responding with genuine care and empathy.”
For later living operators, the lesson is clear: effective marketing isn’t about closing deals quickly. It’s about nurturing relationships, building trust, and supporting families through one of their most important decisions. When this approach is supported by sophisticated technology that can scale empathy and personalisation, everyone benefits—prospects receive better support, families make more confident decisions, and communities welcome residents who are truly ready for their new chapter.
The George family’s story continues at Pier Place, where Carol now tends plants in the greenhouse, Sarah visits regularly for Sunday lunch, and Rob enjoys the peace of mind that comes from knowing his mother is thriving in a community that understood their family from the very beginning.
Pier Place Retirement Village’s sales and marketing is powered by ActiveDEMAND marketing automation platform and LivingMetrics™ Sales Enablement Platform, both available in the UK from Lead Intuition. For more information about implementing sophisticated nurturing campaigns in your later living community, call 01603 552696 or email hello@leadintuition.co.uk