Caring Senior Service has provided quality nonmedical in-home care to seniors for more than 30 years. CEO and Founder Jeff Salter recognized early the need to care for the country’s booming senior population and envisioned a one-on-one in-home service that could help with daily tasks, such as personal care, cooking, light housekeeping, errands and companionship. By Patty Horansky
Caring Senior Service has provided quality nonmedical in-home care to seniors for more than 30 years.
CEO and Founder Jeff Salter recognized early the need to care for the country’s booming senior population and envisioned a one-on-one in-home service that could help with daily tasks, such as personal care, cooking, light housekeeping, errands and companionship.
In 1991, Salter opened his first Caring Senior Service in Odessa, Texas, and within 10 years, he had eight locations across Texas and Arizona. In 2002, he franchised the business, giving other service-oriented entrepreneurs the tools and knowledge to deliver superior in-home care while fulfilling a growing desire among seniors to age in place.
Today, the San Antonio-based franchise stands apart from a growing number of competitors by way of its longtime experience and GreatCare Method®, which ensures that seniors and their families receive the best caregivers, care solutions and support.
But the real game-changer has been Tendio, the franchisor’s proprietary software introduced in 2016, making it the only senior home care brand in the U.S. that is completely tablet-based, operating on its own prop system, and paperless.
Franchise Vice President Ian Klaes said Tendio enables Caring Senior Service to integrate with other software programs of its choosing and design an exclusive menu of services for its franchisees, caregivers and clients.
“We were frustrated with third-party software options that were available and their limitations,” said Klaes, who, with his wife Lisa, also owns and operates two Caring franchises in Texas and Illinois.
Tendio helps franchisees vet potential caregivers, track applicants’ progress, communicate with employees, create individualized care plans and schedules, match caregivers with clients and more. “It sets us apart in all facets of running a home care agency,” Klaes said.
On the caregiver side, training is embedded into Tendio, which shows when courses are completed and that caregivers are participating in the program.
Franchisee training is extensive, beginning with a week of virtual learning and instructor time and a second week in-person at franchise headquarters.
“Tendio, which is taught during both weeks, is easy to use,” Klaes said. “We designed it to match our work processes so it has a natural flow.”
New franchise owners receive deep, ongoing weekly support for their first 16 weeks in business, using virtual calls and training as well.
Always looking to stay at the industry forefront, Caring Senior Service is pilot testing an in-home audio pod in the franchises run by the Klaeses and in two run by Salter.
The pod transmits data to secure computers that can detect care-
related events, such as falls, 24 hours a day, further helping to fine-tune a client’s needs. Klaes expects the pods to be in clients’ homes by summer.
Other plans include placing tablets in the home so clients can explore recipes, food preparation, senior fitness, music and other services with or without the caregiver to bring added value to tablet features.
Patty Horansky