Transforming senior living communication: How Charter Senior Living uses goHappy to foster communication and engagement with staff, residents, and families

Charter Senior Living embraced goHappy to revolutionize how they connect with staff, residents, and families, creating a seamless flow of information and more meaningful relationships. This innovative approach has strengthened transparency, improved efficiency, and enriched the overall experience for all members of their communities.

Charter Senior Living was founded in 2016 to provide a personalized approach to senior care. Their communities provide residents with independent living, assisted living, personal care, and memory care. 

With 66 locations nationwide and a mission to enhance the human spirit, residents have access to 24/7 onsite care, dining services, life-enriching experiences, and friendly staff — providing peace of mind for families. Charter Senior Living aims to enhance residents' quality of life by fostering independence, dignity, and engagement.

Charter Senior Living partnered with goHappy in 2021 as a robust communication tool to foster meaningful connections and efficient communication among staff, residents, and family members. goHappy remains an essential tool in Charter Senior Living's mission to cultivate communities that reflect their core values and commitment to enriching the lives of residents, families, and staff.

Before goHappy, Charter Senior Living faced significant communication challenges that hindered efficiency and engagement, highlighting the need for a more streamlined and effective communication approach.

Charter Senior Living relied on paper notices, breakroom flyers, and special notices placed inside paycheck envelopes to engage staff. But employees weren’t always seeing these messages.

"Engagement with the frontline workforce is always hard; it's always been a challenge since they're not at a computer,” says Cassandra Carmestro, Human Resources Director at Charter Senior Living’s corporate office.

Using goHappy’s intuitive one-way text messaging tool, managers can instantly connect with employees, regardless of location. 

“Everybody looks at texts. If your phone dings, you’ll probably look at it,” says Charlene Langlands, nurse at Charter Senior Living Springwood Court.

The senior living industry notoriously struggles with communication. After all, there are a lot of moving pieces with staff, residents, and family members. One of the most common complaints from families used to be related to timely communication.

Families were feeling out of the loop, and they were seeing a lot of incoming calls from family members requesting updates about their loved ones.

goHappy has become a mission-critical tool for keeping staff, residents, and family members on the same page. Let’s explore some of the top ways Charter Senior Living uses Messaging to improve communications and strengthen connections across teams.

Shift handoffs were a consistent challenge before goHappy.

But now? Staff receive timely updates via text before their shift to ensure a seamless transition and continuous care for residents. This fosters accountability and collaboration, helping employees feel aligned and valued.

“I’d say engagement is 90% better, honest to God,” says Gray.

Staff receive proactive notifications about new residents moving in, including personalized details such as interests, meal preferences, and schedules, creating a more welcoming and prepared environment and enabling Charter Senior Living to hold true to its mission of creating a personalized experience.

In addition to day-to-day staff communication, goHappy is an essential emergency communication tool for Charter Senior Living. During Hurricane Ian in 2022, goHappy became a lifeline for Springwood Court in Fort Myers when the facility lost power, cutting off direct communication. Charter Senior Living leaders used goHappy to keep families informed, ensuring critical updates reached the right people.

Increasing benefits adoption

Charter Senior Living also uses goHappy to send staff reminders about upcoming meetings and important HR updates, such as messages about open enrollment. "It has increased our open enrollment percentages. We have more people who are now aware of what benefits we have,” Carmesto says. Ultimately, enrollment in Zayzoon and Charter Senior Living’s benefits discount hub increased by 20%. 

Management also saw a 16% increase in benefits enrollment by raising awareness around open enrollment with timely goHappy messages to staff.

By replacing outdated methods like flyers and emails, goHappy saves hours of communication and admin work daily, allowing staff to focus more on resident care and other tasks. Its simplicity ensures adoption even by non-tech-savvy users, making it accessible for all levels of staff, residents, and family members.

Communication as a differentiator

goHappy has provided so much value to Charter Senior Living’s entire community that they even use goHappy as a key selling point when meeting prospective residents and families.

“It’s a selling tool. I’m letting prospective families know that we use this. I don’t even know how to describe how thankful the families are for getting our messages,” Jenkins says.

When meeting with prospective families, Charter Senior Living sends an example message to them, highlighting the value of convenient communication methods and their commitment to building trusting relationships with families.

goHappy has transformed communication at Charter Senior Living, enhancing operational efficiency and improving engagement. By centralizing communication and sending timely messages, goHappy has helped build stronger connections between staff, residents, and their families.

Looking ahead, Charter Senior Living plans to expand its use of goHappy to further enhance communication and engagement.

They aim to introduce automated birthday messages for residents, gather feedback through family surveys, and streamline the onboarding and exit interview processes. Additionally, they will collect input from families after tours, ensuring continuous improvement in their services and fostering deeper connections within the community.

Interested in building a stronger community and improving engagement like Charter Senior Living is doing? Book a free 30-minute demo today!