Home care intake
Intake that answers in seconds, every time
Same questions, same speed, same follow-up, whether the inquiry lands on a Tuesday afternoon or a Sunday night.
The short answer
Home care intake is the process between a family's first inquiry and a booked assessment: respond, qualify, score, book, and follow up. Speed to lead is the part that decides the outcome, because families contact several agencies at once and the first real conversation usually wins. Cara replies to every inquiry in under 30 seconds around the clock, asks the same qualification questions every time, books the assessment, and keeps following up with families who are weeks away from deciding.
The five steps of a good intake process
Agencies that convert well do the same five things every time, regardless of who is on shift.
- Respond within minutes, by text and by phone
- Qualify on care type, hours, location, start date, and funding
- Score and prioritise so the hottest families are called first
- Book the assessment in the first conversation
- Follow up on a schedule until the family decides either way
Why intake breaks in practice
It is rarely a motivation problem. Inquiries arrive while your coordinator is mid-assessment, on the road, or off shift. Notes land in three different places. Follow-ups slip because nobody owns them. The result is a pipeline full of families who quietly went elsewhere.
How Cara keeps intake consistent
Cara runs the same process at 2pm on Tuesday and 11pm on Sunday, then hands your team a qualified family with notes.
- Instant SMS reply plus a live voice answer on your number
- Identical qualification script every time, with the answers structured
- Assessment booked into Google Calendar with confirmation texts
- Owner notification with the summary and a recommended next step
- Automatic nurture for families who are not ready yet
Measure what changed
Cara reports response time, inquiry to assessment rate, and assessment to client rate, so the improvement is visible rather than anecdotal. The free revenue audit estimates what your current response times are costing before you sign up for anything.
Frequently asked questions
- What is speed to lead in home care?
- Speed to lead is how long it takes to have a real conversation with a family after they inquire. In home care it is usually the strongest single predictor of conversion, because families contact several agencies within the same hour.
- What questions should a home care intake call cover?
- Type of care and daily living support needed, hours per week, location, desired start date, who makes the decision, and the funding source. Capturing those consistently lets you prioritise and quote accurately.
- Can intake software work alongside my scheduling system?
- Yes. Cara handles marketing and intake up to the point a family becomes a client, then syncs the client record to ShiftCare, AlayaCare, or AxisCare for scheduling and care delivery.
- How do I know how much slow intake is costing me?
- Cara's free revenue audit produces a two-minute estimate of missed inquiries, funnel drop-off, and the revenue attached to them, based on your own numbers.
Keep reading
See what slow intake is costing you.
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