Is your handyman a felon?

Written by Megan Bruckschen, Felician Village at Home Manager

My friend Jackie and I joke about how our marketing minds work differently than other people outside of our industry. We watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, save social media posts of creative campaigns and pull our cars over to take photos of billboards. The fact is that everyone, regardless of their professional marketing experience is inundated with information, but yet at the same time it can be so hard to find what we are looking for.

When Felician Village began exploring the concept of our new program, Felician Village at Home, an overwhelming amount of older adults in our community that were surveyed expressed the same concern. When they need a professional service completed in their home, how do they find someone that will call you back, treat you fairly and do quality work?

Enter Felician Village at Home membership benefit number one: Access to pre-screened service providers. We have reached out to a variety of industry professionals in our area to become listed as a service provider for our members. Those service providers had to fill out an application, provide references, proof of insurance and applicable licenses, as well as, go through a background check process. While we can't guarantee the work a service provider would complete, we are confident in their customer service, quality of work, price and safety.

Last week, I was at a local business and noticed they had a board to post events, business information and more. I noticed a landscaping company I was not familiar with and grabbed a tab off the poster with the contact name and phone number. A quick visit to a few public information sites online told me that the person advertising the landscaping services was a registered sex offender in the state of Wisconsin. My heart immediately sunk. Besides the tab that I had taken off the poster, a few more had been removed. How many people who took those tabs would have the ability to complete the background search that I just had?

How many people regardless of age are inviting non-insured, non-background checked, non-licensed service providers or individuals to complete work in their homes? Felician Village at Home can help offer peace of mind to our members and their families when they do require a service provider to come into their home and/or yard. Even the most creative advertisement can't rival that.