Service home for seniors citizens in Finland

Role: Service Designer | Client: Mehiläinen | Time: Sep 2018- October 2018

The objective of this project was to change the image of Mehiläinen service homes and propose a solution that can attract senior citizens. In this project, we used Lean Service Creation methods, the design sprint, and Ethnographic research to understand the emotions, rationale, prejudice, and needs of the elderly population, why they do not want to move into service homes, and how our client Mehiläinen could tap into this pool of potential clients.

Research findings

After interviewing 14 seniors between 68-87 years old, we found out that:

• All seniors lived at home, only one had a nurse

• Most seniors feel very lonely, they want to meet people

• They expect the future going to be only worse than the present, and didn’t see any good options ahead.

• They seemed not to identify themselves as “elderly ”

• For all of them the nursing/retirement homes are very negative places, were afraid to lose their independence and to be surrounded only by old and sick people.

• They wanted to stay in contact with younger people as well

• Families: very emotionally invested, feel responsible about the well-being of the seniors

• Families are also not aware of service home

We also found out, that currently families and seniors either hear about service homes from a friend or google it and take the first best one. By raising awareness, we would make sure that Mehiläinen is the first care provider they go to when they need it. 

Problems

• Seniors do not want to move into service homes because of a lack of awareness and a bad image

• Senior citizens do not know Service homes enable independent living with the help they need, and it is not like hospitals

• They assume that it is a very expensive service

Result and Takeaways

Service homes are standard apartment buildings in the ordinary neighborhood that everybody can rent it. In fact, we suggested that they could rent out some of the units at a cheaper price for students. The ground floor has a café shop and a space for an after-school club. The floor above could have a club room for the residents. There is medical staff, cooks, cleaning help, etc. The apartment building has a community manager that organizes events, helps residents sort out their lives (banks, insurance, etc), and just acts as the spirit of the house.

We suggested a trial period for new customers. so that, seniors gain a positive experience from a service home and this will increase awareness. Also, Mehiläinen can rent empty apartments for short periods, instead of staying vacant in between inhabitants. Many seniors we interviewed responded positively to the possibility of a trial.

We used fake advertisements to test different ideas with target groups and finally found a solution that will help Mehiläinen to improve the current customer journey. To know more about this project watch the video below.

Lean Service Creation and GV Design sprint workshops