Mari Baxter is the Chief Operating Officer of Senior Helpers, a home care franchise that helps people live at home while receiving the care they need. She has worked with the company for 17 years. When she joined, there were 41 locations in the United States. Today the company has grown to more than 460 locations, including in Australia and Canada.
Mari focuses on supporting franchisees directly, making sure they have the guidance and tools to provide quality care. She has led programs to train new caregivers, track client health through technology, and offer flexible care services for seniors.
For Mari, the work is about making home care available, safe, and reliable. She also believes in valuing caregivers and helping families make informed decisions about aging at home.
Let’s delve into the interview details below!
What core leadership principles have guided you in building and sustaining a successful Senior Care company?
I never want a franchisee to feel “dis-enfranchised” or unhappy that they are part of the Senior Helpers family. It is my guiding principle with every single franchisee. We operate as a very large family and the larger we become- that personal touch can be at risk. I require that my team time- pick up the phone and not manage by email and text. Communicate, make the franchisees feel supported and that the decision they made to become part of our system was the right career choice.
What key trends or innovations in senior care & aging services do you believe will shape the industry in the next 3-5 years?
Medicare needs to get on-board with in-home care. When that happens, the entire elder population will be served and studies have shown there will be less hospital readmissions, falls, strokes and people should be able to age longer in their own homes.
What differentiates your franchise model from others in the senior care sector?
We have adapted – when everyone else was experiencing caregiver shortages- we modified our approach to training and recruitment and created programs that encouraged those displaced restaurant workers during COVID and other displaced employees to learn caregiving. We created trainings to bring them into the fold.
When hospital readmissions became a critical point of contention for hospitals, we created a new robust assessment process using a scored app which keeps clients safer in the home and out of the hospital.
When the price of homecare at its highest due to the increase of wages, it has become out of reach for some of our aging population. We created a flexible service program that doesn’t deplete resources while still providing sufficient care.
We are always adapting to meet the current concerns of our audience rather than status quo. I am proud of our foresight to do so. We are the only home care agency in the United States recognized as having an Age Friendly Care certification by CHAPS. That says it all!
How does your franchise prioritize and measure its impact on the health and wellbeing of the communities it serves?
We reassess our clients through our APP to measure their health through a scoring system. We expect to see increases in those scores after service has been in place. We review this on a regular basis as a means to see if we are meeting the needs of our communities. We survey our clients and caregivers on a weekly basis. We continue to grow and at an extraordinary rate, so I certainly have that gauge in addition to other tools of measurement.
What advice would you give to emerging entrepreneurs who want to enter the senior care & aging service space?
Healthcare for the patient, the families and the caregivers is an emotional topic. You must have empathy, be visionary and understand that you are dealing with people’s lives. Franchising and in particular home care can be a very lucrative industry, however, the most successful franchisees understand that this is a very complex emotional business and a high level of integrity should be in place at all times!
Where do you see your franchise and the overall senior care & aging service industry heading by 2030?
Medicare coverage for home care and I hope to see the profession of caregiving elevated as a respected and necessary industry that more individuals will embrace. Being a caregiver is a hard and rewarding profession and I respect those individuals who dedicate their lives to taking care of our aging population and those who need extra daily assistance. It isn’t a financially rewarding line of work and it doesn’t receive the level of respect it deserves. I want to believe that as this next generation comes along and understands and appreciates that they have a choice to age at home – that the world will embrace those very dedicated individuals – the caregivers that make aging in place possible.
