Cura’s Completely Satisfied customer service experience platform for senior living is designed to drive diversified resident preferences, unforgettable culinary and hospitality, all while helping administrators reduce employee turnover and spending…affecting a healthier and more satisfying bottom line!
Completely Satisfied is a totally immersive program and philosophy that covers new culinary standards, service training and a way to increase innovative hospitality through a series of Milestones: Milestone One, Service Excellence; Milestone Two, Communications Practices; and Milestone Three, Dining Experiences. The entire program is extremely comprehensive and requires about 9 to 12 months to fully implement in a community. The extensive implementation period is needed to ensure the program becomes part of the culture of the community.
Cura’s Completely Satisfied was first introduced to the acute care market as a patient experience model in 2012. Designed to align with its hospitals’ missions and more importantly, bolster Press Ganey scores and other patient satisfaction metric, Completely Satisfied supports hospital administrators prioritize their focus on healthcare operations – leaving high-quality food and hospitality to the experts!
As the success of Completely Satisfied grew with hospital clients, senior living saw the value of what a customer service program could bring to the table. But, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, a pandemic. Customer service was even more essential to elevating dining, and engaging residents and older adults who were isolated from the world. Senior living clients quickly embraced this new customer service program as they experienced a dramatic improvement to resident satisfaction, while using Completely Satisfied as a marketing tool to help build their census.
In 2023, Cura reinvigorated Completely Satisfied, taking customer service to new plateaus where a dynamic and more robust training of our team members helps to transform not only the patient experience, but elevates resident life from the every-day meal service to the extraordinary!
Operators who have completed Milestone One have a thorough knowledge of Cura’s culinary standards including how to plate and present foods to Service Excellence 101 which is key to creating memorable experiences. Service Excellence is an eight-module wait staff training program designed to provide service etiquette tools and training that help servers embrace the physical aspects of the job like setting and clearing a table. Servers also learn how to provide seamless attentive service, understand the residents’ generations, while creating genuine interaction with them and their guests.
“Residents have expressed a noticeable difference. Harry is a resident of Menno Haven’s Brookview Community in Chambersburg, PA. Pictured with Server Abby Slimmer, Harry dines at all of our dining venues including Chestnut Landing, Cypress Cafe, The Life Center Grille, and About Thyme Bistro. He enjoys how the team always knows his name, is greeted with a smile, and how well the dining room is set when he dines at Chestnut Landing, our formal restaurant. Completely Satisfied helps us to create these authentic and heartfelt experiences,” says Cura District Manager of Culinary Services Jeremy Fry.
Team leadership at Phoebe Berks in Wernersville, PA and Lutheran SeniorLife Passavant Community in Zelienople, PA, even hosted team building and “Server Olympics” to challenge servers in set up, speed, menu knowledge, service memory, item accuracy and proper uniform. Games are super exciting, especially server relays, where team members learn how to properly set a table and bus tables correctly – speed and accuracy were critical to scoring here!
Milestone two focuses on communications – everything from comment cards, the survey process, transitioning communications, and for the more advanced team member, culinary training. According to Emily Barnette, RD/LD, General Manager/Registered Dietitian at St. Catherine’s Village in Madison, MS, “We want our residents’ to know that we care about their level of satisfaction…at any level 0f care. We want to know what we can improve upon. We have used many of their suggestions – particularly ones that are repeated by multiple residents – to improve our culinary services.” The Culinary College will also be offered to Cura managed communities including St. Catherine’s Village where we invest culinary resources and trending techniques to strengthen the skills of our cooks, improve quality, as well as cross train your culinarians so that your dining team is versatile, vibrant, and performs at its best – all the time!
Although Milestone three is scheduled for a February 2025 launch, many Cura teams have advanced quickly through all milestones, and residents are enjoying the benefits! While the Pinnacle surveys reflected Best in Class results for Dining Services, the Completely Satisfied program encouraged the Tel Hai dining services team led by Cura General Manager Pauline Keetly, to reevaluate what it meant for each level of care. “Residents transferring from Residential/Independent Living to Personal Care, within the campus, were communicating typical adjustment challenges to their new environment. Pauline and the culinary team heard one of the losses they were grieving was missing the special events that happened when they lived in the apartments and cottages. The team partnered with our wellness to provide more opportunities for them to participate in the big events on campus. Some residents are challenged to get to those big events, even with supports. So special events were brought to dining in the care areas. Theme meals and décor, like balloon arches, turn even an ordinary day into a celebration. Cura’s Completely Satisfied goals and our mission to enhance the lives of those we serve are achieved when the ordinary need for food becomes an extraordinary celebration of community life,” Karen Horning Exec. Vice President, Resident Services Tel Hai Retirement Community.
Enhancing an ordinary every day meal is not just a job for us in hospitality…it’s our passion to elevate the foodscape. Through Completely Satisfied, Cura does just that. Creating opportunities in senior life to be unforgettable!
CONTACT: Grace Hoyer, Public Relations and Communications Manager, ghoyer@curahospitality.com
