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5 Ways Commercial Landscaping Services Can Elevate the Senior Living Tour Experience

Nov 8, 2024
Potential residents and their families are evaluating your community well before they walk in the door. Here’s how commercial landscaping services can ensure their first impression is a positive one.
Two senior living community residents take a stroll on well-maintained grounds

First impressions matter, especially when it comes to attracting new residents to your senior living community. For many potential residents, the community tour they schedule with your sales team will be the first time they visit your campus. But the tour experience begins long before they step through your doors. The tour starts from the moment they catch a glimpse of your grounds. Your community’s landscaping, signage, and exterior all tell potential residents something about your community and what it values. 

That means investments in services like commercial landscaping are vital to the overall health and growth of your senior living community. These services can also be acquired more cost-effectively than you may think. 

Here are five ways that commercial landscaping services can help enhance your senior living tours, and give prospective residents the right idea about what you value most. 

Creating a Grand, Warm Welcome

A beautifully landscaped entrance and grounds immediately set a positive tone for prospective residents and their families. Lush seasonal flowers, manicured lawns, and attractive signage surrounded by well-maintained shrubs and trees create an inviting atmosphere. This can give visitors a grand sense of arrival and luxury, making prospective residents feel immediately at home. Some ways your commercial landscaping service can create an elegant entrance include: 

  • Installing a striking water feature, such as a fountain or cascading waterfall 
  • Planting rows of stately trees to line the entrance drive
  • Designing seasonal flower beds with vibrant colors that change throughout the year
  • Placing large, decorative planters filled with lush arrangements near entrances or common areas.

Demonstrating a Commitment to Excellence 

Visitors often form opinions within seconds of arriving at a community. Meticulous landscaping and exteriors give an immediate impression about the overall quality and attention paid to the community’s maintenance. A messy, disorganized, or cluttered landscape may lead potential residents to wonder what other details aren’t being attended to within the community. Show potential residents that you are committed to excellence—even before they walk in the door. Here are some ways expert landscaping services might assist in creating a more positive impression: 

  • Implementing a rigorous maintenance schedule for lawns, shrubs, and flower beds
  • Keeping walkways and common areas immaculately clean and free of debris
  • Installing state-of-the-art irrigation systems to ensure lush, green lawns year-round 

Emphasizing a Therapeutic Environment

Enjoying time outdoors in a visually appealing environment can reduce stress levels and improve mood among seniors. Well-designed landscapes can contribute to lowered anxiety and depression levels, improved overall mental well-being, and even enhance cognitive function. 

Calming water features, areas that attract wildlife, and park-like tree plantings are worth the time, care, and attention to create. Some additional ways your commercial landscaping service can foster more therapeutic surroundings: 

  • Creating a sensory garden with fragrant herbs, textured plants, and soothing wind chimes
  • Designing a walking labyrinth for contemplative walks and stress reduction
  • Installing raised garden beds at wheelchair-accessible heights for resident gardening programs 

Showcasing Outdoor Amenities

Outdoor spaces are important to many prospective residents (as well as current residents!), offering a place to gather, engage in activities, or simply enjoy the sights and sounds of the natural world. Investing in professional landscape design and management means your community will have plenty of well-designed outdoors spaces to showcase during tours.

Social gathering areas may include expansive patios, outdoors dining spaces, courtyards, and seating areas. Outdoor fireplaces or fire pits provide a cozy atmosphere, inviting potential residents to imagine themselves enjoying life there. Features like putting greens, walking paths, pickleball courts and outdoor pools emphasize an active lifestyle. Pointing out these thoughtfully designed outdoor amenities during tours illustrates the community's focus on quality of life.

Enhancing Safety and Accessibility

Thoughtful commercial landscaping services prioritize safety and accessibility, which are crucial selling points. This includes wide, smooth pathways that accommodate mobility aids, proper lighting along walkways, and gentle slopes with no abrupt level changes. Highlighting these features during tours reassures families about their loved ones' safety and independence. Here are some ways expert landscaping services can make your outdoors areas safer and more accessible: 

  • Install wide, smooth pathways with gentle slopes to accommodate mobility aids
  • Implement strategic lighting along walkways and in common areas for improved visibility
  • Use non-slip materials for outdoor surfaces to reduce fall risks
  • Design handrails and seating areas at regular intervals along walking paths
Also, once these updates are made, commercial landscaping maintenance is also critical. Cracks in sidewalks and uneven surfaces can pose significant risks to residents with mobility challenges. Ensure maintenance plans are created and adhered to regularly.

Smarter Group Purchasing with CPS

Uncover new ways to make a positive first impression with potential residents - and enhance resident satisfaction - with the power of group purchasing. Since 1999, Care Purchasing Services, An LCS Company, has helped senior living communities contain purchasing costs of essential services, consumer goods, business products and services, medical equipment, and more. Contact us to get connected with an expert team dedicated to your success.

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