52% of families need a care home within a month.
Your marketing has 30 days to do something they’ll remember forever: help them make one of the hardest decisions of their lives while they’re already emotionally stretched, time-pressured, and terrified of getting it wrong.
And here’s what should worry every care home operator: one in five people using the Care Helpline are already looking to change homes because the current one isn’t right.
The latest Ageing Britain Report from carehome.co.uk, based on millions of real care searches and enquiries, shows exactly where trust is being won and lost – and what families really need when they’re deciding under pressure.
For care homes, this isn’t simply insight. It’s a guide to where enquiries convert, stall, or quietly slip away.
Crisis Demand Hasn’t Gone Away – But Expectations Have Changed
While more people are starting to research care earlier, most enquiries are still driven by urgency. Over half of families need help within a month, many within days.
In those moments, families aren’t browsing. They’re scanning. Looking for reassurance. Trying to work out, quickly, whether this home feels safe, kind and capable – and whether it can help now.
At the same time, this isn’t a short-term decision. For many families, a permanent move into a care home lasts around two years, with self-funded fees often exceeding £1,200 a week. Even when the need is urgent, people know the choice they make will shape daily life, finances and peace of mind for a long time to come.
That tension – needing to move fast while desperately wanting to get it right – shows up in almost every enquiry.
Families are quietly asking:
- Is this the right place for Mum?
- Can I trust the people here?
- Will they really understand her, not just care for her?
- Can they help now, without rushing me into a decision I’ll regret?
Who Is Really Doing the Searching?
Behind many care enquiries is a daughter. Often balancing work, children, and a heavy sense of responsibility for getting this decision right.
That matters more than we sometimes realise.
It shapes the language people respond to, the questions they ask, and the reassurance they need. These searches are rarely clinical or transactional. They’re emotional, protective and often fuelled by guilt, worry and exhaustion.
For care homes, this means marketing and enquiry handling isn’t just about availability and fees. It’s about understanding the emotional load being carried by the person on the other end of the phone – and meeting them with calm, clarity and kindness.
A Simple Audit: What Families Are Scanning for in the First 60 Seconds
Homes don’t need to overhaul everything to respond to crisis demand – but they do need to remove friction.
When families land on a website or pick up the phone under pressure, they’re doing a rapid, almost subconscious sense-check. Not in a neat, linear way – but emotionally and instinctively. It usually looks something like this:
Is it clear who this home is for?
Care type, dementia support and levels of need should be easy to spot, without having to dig or decode language.
Do I understand what happens next?
Who do I speak to? How quickly will someone respond? What will that first conversation feel like?
Even a short line explaining the next step can take a surprising amount of anxiety out of the process.
Can I see real life here?
Not polished stock images, but real people, familiar faces and everyday moments that help families picture their parent being cared for.
Is reassurance visible?
Reviews, testimonials, inspection context and continuity of team all help families feel they’re not stepping into the unknown.
Does the tone recognise how hard this decision is?
Acknowledging urgency, confusion or worry – even briefly – can lower stress and help families feel understood.
What often gets missed here is clarity around care options and costs. When this isn’t addressed early, families don’t feel informed – they feel anxious. Uncertainty around “what type of care is right” or “what this might cost” can quietly stall decisions, even when the need is urgent.
Customer experience starts long before a tour. It lives in the words you choose, the clarity you offer, and the reassurance you give when families are already stretched emotionally.
Homes that pass this first-minute test don’t just attract enquiries. They help families move forward with more confidence, less fear – and a sense they’re being guided, not sold to.
What the Data Reveals About Competitive Advantage
Three patterns stand out in the data – and each one offers a different way for homes to strengthen their position:
1. Early research is growing (but only for homes that show up early)
More families are starting to search six months or more in advance. They’re not looking to be sold to – they’re looking to understand.
Questions like “When should we start thinking about care?” or “How do we know when home support isn’t enough?” don’t need sales responses. They need calm, helpful information.
Homes that provide this – through guides, blogs, simple explanations – build familiarity long before crisis hits. And familiarity is what families return to when urgency arrives.
2. Dementia care drives residential demand (and families want confidence, not claims)
Dementia care accounts for around half of residential enquiries. Generic statements like “we offer dementia care” don’t build trust when families are living the reality every day.
What they want to know:
- How staff interact when someone is distressed
- How routines are maintained when memory fades
- How life still feels meaningful
Homes that communicate this through real examples and everyday moments – not just facility features – earn trust faster.
3. Larger groups generate more enquiries (but reviews level the playing field)
Yes, bigger groups benefit from brand recognition and marketing budgets. But reassurance is what matters more at the point of decision.
For families choosing under pressure, reviews act as modern word-of-mouth. They replace the “someone I know recommended them” conversation – especially when there isn’t time to ask around.
Trust isn’t owned by big brands. It’s built through visible credibility: authentic reviews, maintained profiles on Google and care directories, and real voices families can relate to.
Scale helps. But clarity and reassurance at the moment of need matter more.
Funding Uncertainty Blocks Decisions – Even When Need Is Urgent
One in five people don’t know how care will be funded when they enquire. That uncertainty doesn’t just confuse families – it stalls decisions entirely.
Silence around costs feels risky. Families don’t expect financial advice, but they do need to know they won’t be left to navigate this alone.
Even small signals make a difference:
- A simple FAQ covering the basics
- “We’ll walk you through your options”
- Reassurance that funding conversations are part of the process, not a barrier to overcome later
You don’t need all the answers. You just need to show that support doesn’t stop at care.
Tours, Follow-Up and the Promise Gap
Around 20% of people using the Care Helpline are seeking a new care home because the current one isn’t right for their loved one.
When the story told online doesn’t match the tour experience, trust erodes quickly. And when follow-up is inconsistent, uncertainty creeps back in.
The homes that perform best long-term aren’t just good at generating tours. They’re good at aligning:
- Marketing messages
- Tour conversations
- What families actually experience
- How they’re followed up afterwards
Consistency and warmth during the tour not only improve conversion – it also reduces regret and the risk of losing people further down the line.
Final Thought: Where Service and Marketing Meet
Families searching for care today are carrying a lot at once. Work. Relationships. Guilt. Urgency. Fear of getting it wrong.
Crisis-driven searches are still the norm. What’s changed is what people respond to under that pressure.
The homes that perform best aren’t the loudest. They’re the clearest. The calmest. The easiest to trust – from the first click through to the final decision.
That trust builds across every touchpoint:
- The website that answers questions before they’re asked
- The first phone call that feels human, not transactional
- Follow-up that’s timely and reassuring
- Tours that match what the website promised
- Conversations about funding that don’t leave families feeling lost
When those moments feel aligned, families don’t feel pushed. They feel guided.
This is where I focus when working with care homes: identifying where friction shows up in the enquiry journey, where reassurance is missing, and how to close the gap between what marketing promises and what families actually experience.
Because in a market where urgency is constant, the biggest advantage isn’t scale.
It’s how well you support people through one of the hardest decisions they’ll ever face – clearly, consistently, and with genuine care.
Based on data from the Ageing Britain Report 2024, carehome.co.uk. If your enquiry journey hasn’t been reviewed in the last 12 months, let’s talk: [email protected]
