What Support Coordinators want from NDIS Service Providers

Sam Paior who is a Support Coordinator from The Growing Space recently posted this info on Facebook.

14 Awesome Tips for Providers

First, let me tell you what we DON’T want…

1. We don’t want a stack of shiny brochures in the mail – we can’t forward them, and we can’t electronically file them without scanning and that’s a pain, so we’ll just chuck it in a paper file and never look at them again. And if you insist on emailing us a brochure, please, for the love of God, make it a readable pdf with 12 pt or higher font – get rid of the cursive fancy text and light grey on dark grey rubbish that we can’t print or read. ALL YOUR COMMUNICATIONS SHOULD BE ACCESSIBLE.
    
2. We don’t want a sales meeting with you - Stop asking us. We are so wildly busy, and we just don’t have time to meet the vast majority of you. And, we only get income for time we deliver services to clients, so time with you is time we don’t get paid for.

So, what DO we want?

We want an email that explains your service, clearly and quite thoroughly. Here are the things that providers have failed to include in their marketing emails to The Growing Space in JUST THE PAST WEEK.
 

1. Location – PLEASE tell us WHERE you work – your mobile number tells me nothing and your unsolicited email could mean you’re in Far North Queensland or Hobart for all I know. I need to know your geographic catchment – right down to the local council or regional areas where you operate.
    
2. Qualifications AND experience - I don’t care if you’ve started a new physio business with an awesome logo – if you are a second year graduate, you’re not going to get a referral from us unless you’re working with more experienced team members – so explain that to us. And “counsellor”, is NOT a qualification, unless you back it up with registration evidence.
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3. Service delivery – Are you office, home or car based? – will you come to my clients, or do they need to come to you? If they need to come to you, then we need to know about your office – is it on a main road, is there accessible parking, is the toilet accessible, do you use stupid stinky perfumes or loud hand dryers in your bathroom?
    
4. Fees – what are your rates? Do you charge for travel, if so, how much?
    
5. Availability – If I called you TODAY, around about how long would it take to get an appointment?
    
6. Registration status – are you NDIS Registered? If so, for what registration groups? Do you accept self and plan managed participants also, or exclusively?
    
7. Contact details – seriously, the number of times I get an email try to sell services, but there’s no actual name of a real person, nor a phone number. Sometimes the email address is even a (totally unprofessional) gmail address (woop woop woop, danger, Will Robinson). If you are using gmail as your work email address, I can make a good guess you don’t have insurance either… (that won’t always be right, but really guys, get your own domain and a website, please – even just a simple placeholder page).

And last, but not least – what would make us go “Oh My, I must refer loads of people today!”?

1. An Easy English explanation of your services in an accessible format
2. A copy of your service agreement that’s less than four pages long, along with an easy English version
3. A three paragraph summary in the body of the email, with a real person’s name at the bottom
4. A greeting at the top that includes my actual name and *something* that lets me know you’ve at least looked at our website and know our philosophy or something.
5. An honest description of the strengths of your service ie “We focus on the needs of teens and young adults with intellectual disability”. Or “Our team have been prescribing complex equipment to adults with physical disability for a combined 230 years” or “We pride ourselves on making connections for young parent carers”… whatever it is that makes you get up in the morning – THAT’s what we want to know.

You’re welcome.

This post is copyright The Growing Space 2018. 

www.TheGrowingSpace.com.au
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Serving and supporting people with disability and those who love them through the awesome stuff and the not awesome stuff to help everyone live good lives.