In July this year aged care service providers will begin to receive electronic client referrals through the My Aged Care Provider Portal. The portal will allow clients to search for specific services and view a list of providers in their area that can supply the services they require. Clients’ decisions about which provider to choose may be partly a result of the information provided to them about providers on the portal. If you are a service provider, the portal therefore provides an opportunity for you to include information on your profile which will quickly demonstrate why consumers should choose your services over others’.

The Department of Social Services provides a fact sheet on what you should do now to prepare your registration for the portal so that you edit your organisation’s profile information when this function becomes available after 30 April. The Portal has separate search engines for Help at Home services, Aged Care Homes and Assessment. All providers who have submitted a smart form will have the contact details provided including address, phone numbers, web URL and email address listed. However, if you wish to use your profile as a marketing tool there are a number of other details that can be included to maximize the likelihood that clients will be satisfied with their visit to your portal and take the next step to visit your website or contact you directly.

For Aged Care Home providers, the Description tab of your profile has no word limit, which provides an opportunity to tell your story the way you would in an About Us section. Try to draw readers in to your Description section as though it were a narrative story, while still understanding that they may not read it through until the end. You may already have an About Us section on your website, however, before you copy and paste it into your portal profile, consider the nature of the platform. The portal provides a list of service providers that clients can choose from, meaning that they can jump from one profile to another if they do not quickly find the information they want (and need). With this in mind, it is a good idea to provide some information about the technical nature of your services or facilities early on.

You will be able to list all of the technical details of your services in the Services tab, however, as the Description tab is the default first page of the profile this is the first thing clients will see and skim over, picking out key words related to their queries. Your goal is to answer as many of their questions as possible in the shortest time. Keep in mind that people tend to find paragraphs of 1-2 sentences easer to read than blocks of text, and that headings can help people to navigate to the required information. You may find it helpful to use headings or questions in the first person such as ‘What can I expect when I partner with Agility?’ The process of writing and answering question headings may also help you to consider what questions people are likely to want answers to.

Once you are confident you have answered clients’ anticipated questions, you can consider how to include information about your philosophy or Vision and Mission. You may wish to include a separate paragraph specifically addressing this, or include snippets throughout the section.

Photo uploads are available for Aged Care Homes profiles so that potential clients can immediately see what their new home will look like. It goes without saying that high quality jpeg photos are an asset to an online profile. Choose two attractive photos of your facilities for the Description tab. There is also provision for photos of individual rooms, shared rooms and a feature photo under the Style of Accommodation section, as well as opportunities to upload documents outlining policies. The more sections you are able to complete in the Services tab, the better. If you don’t have a particular service available, listing it as ‘Unavailable’ is preferable to leaving the section incomplete.

For Home Care providers, there is less provision to market yourselves via the portal, as it simply lists contact details and services available, and even less for Assessors. However, it is worthwhile to ensure this list is as comprehensive as possible and to fully prepare your website for linking to the portal, as this is the first place clients will go to get a visual of your organisation and find out about your approach to care. If you feel less than 100% confident about linking your current website you may wish to read this article on how you can prepare your website for linking to the portal.

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