Caring runs in Maddy Alemayehu’s veins. For ten years, she worked as a critical care nurse. She then used her wealth of knowledge and experience to set up the Home Instead Hammersmith and Chiswick franchise in 2011. The business is very successful – even growing by 40% during the challenging times of the pandemic. Indeed, for the past two years, Maddy has been the winner of Home Instead’s Growth Summit.
The success of the franchise is driven by Maddy’s passion for all aspects of care. One example is that she was an early adopter of specialist dementia home care and was soon the ‘go to’ provider for dementia care in her area. She even became a partner of the Dementia UK charity. Over the past year or so, she’s been educating people about what it means to live with dementia, and how people can support those suffering from it. In early 2021, during lockdown, she was determined to continue her dementia workshops and delivered them online.
Maddy’s passion for dementia has rubbed off on her team. The franchise now has four Dementia Champions who promote this type of specialist care in the community. Her latest plan involves the recruitment of a specialist dementia nurse who can support clients’ families to strengthen their dementia care.
Another example of Maddy’s commitment to providing all-round care is that the franchise recently launched live-in care, in which a Care Professional moves in with a client to provide company both day and night. Despite only just launching this service, the Hammersmith and Chiswick franchise has already become the top provider of live-in care across the whole Home Instead network.
To further champion live-in care, Maddy has joined Home Instead’s internal Live-In Care Committee. Her enthusiasm has encouraged others in the franchise network to also offer this service. It’s a win-win situation: clients benefit from receiving live-in care and the franchises benefit from adding it to their services.
Two other important areas where Maddy has made her presence felt are recruitment and marketing. Although the social care sector is facing a recruitment crisis, Maddy has been busily encouraging people to embark on a career as a Care Professional. She believes in recognising the work of Care Professionals financially and ensures that, as a minimum, her employees are paid the London living wage. She wants Home Instead to be the start of a fruitful career path that can lead to other roles for any employees who want to progress. And many have shown that they do: half of the office team originally worked for the company as Care Professionals.
In terms of marketing, Maddy took the franchise to another level in 2021, by developing a more targeted approach. She now offers free online service calls and consultations, which people can book over Facebook and Twitter. The company carries out lead magnet campaigns on social media, using any leads to target the right people with personalised digital adverts. Meanwhile, Maddy also focuses on more traditional marketing methods, including the use of events to promote the benefits of home care for the elderly. She was involved with the national campaigns of both Age UK and Parkinson’s UK, with a stand at both events, where she delivered educational and promotional materials about Home Instead.
There’s little doubt that Maddy’s commitment to all aspects of care, to her clients and to her employees will help her business to remain as one of Home Instead’s highest performing franchise offices in the future.