What Home Care Consumers Actually Want: Insights from 500+ Survey Responses

Last fall, Sage Care was selected to participate in the AgeTech Collaborative from AARP, an accelerator program that brings together startups, investors, and enterprises working to improve how people age. It was a tremendous experience, and one of the most valuable parts was the opportunity to run a series of consumer surveys through the program.

We surveyed hundreds of adults who had recently considered or purchased in-home care for themselves or a family member. The goal was simple: understand what families actually want when they're looking for home care, and where the industry is falling short.

The insights were eye-opening, and after sitting with this data for a few months, we decided it was too valuable to keep to ourselves. If the home care industry is going to get better at serving families, we need to start with what those families are telling us. So we're publishing the full results here, along with our commentary on what it means for agency operators and industry insiders.

We hope this data helps you run a better agency, build a better product, or make a better decision for your family.

Methodology

All surveys were conducted via the DISQO research platform in Fall 2025 as part of the AARP AgeTech Collaborative accelerator program. Participants were adults aged 45 to 85 who had considered or purchased in-home care within the previous two years for themselves or an adult family member. Sample sizes range from 90 to 151 per survey. Data was collected across six separate surveys covering discovery, decision-making, trust, website experience, value perception, and concept validation.

Response Time and Urgency

If there's one section of this post that every agency owner should read carefully, it's this one.

The expectation gap here is staggering. Eighty-one percent of consumers expect to hear back within an hour. But as you'll see later in this post, 44% of respondents said they waited days for a response, and 15% never heard back at all. That's not a minor service gap. That's a structural failure in how most agencies handle intake.

For smaller agencies especially, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. You may not have a dedicated intake team, but if you can respond faster and more consistently than competitors, you're already ahead. This is a core part of why we built Sage Care: making sure no inquiry goes unanswered.

How Families Find and Choose an Agency

Most families don't just call one agency and go with it. They shop around, and they start online.

Three things stand out here. First, you're almost certainly competing against other agencies for every lead. Three out of four families are calling at least two agencies. Second, price is the top deciding factor, but responsiveness and trustworthiness are right behind it. You can't always compete on price, but you can absolutely compete on how quickly and professionally you respond. Third, Google is the front door. Your online presence matters more than you think, and reviews are the currency of trust.

Trust and Credibility

Trust isn't built with a logo or a tagline. It's built with transparency.

The skepticism triggers are particularly instructive. Notice that four of the five top red flags are about opacity: inconsistent information, vague services, hard-to-find licensing, and suspiciously perfect reviews. Families aren't looking for perfection. They're looking for honesty. If your website is vague about what you do, how much it costs, or who your caregivers are, you're triggering the exact alarm bells that drive prospects to your competitor.

Also worth noting: 89% say that sharing response times or satisfaction scores would affect their trust. This is a strong signal that tracking and sharing your intake performance metrics isn't just an internal exercise. It's a sales tool.

The Website and Intake Experience

Your website is your first impression. And for most families, the intake form is their first interaction with your agency.

The pricing data is impossible to ignore. Over 90% of respondents, across two separate surveys, said price transparency is important before they even pick up the phone. Most agency websites don't include pricing. This is a massive disconnect.

The intake form abandonment data is equally actionable. Nearly half of consumers will bail on a form that asks for a Social Security number. Add a privacy notice, keep forms short, and don't ask for information you don't need at the first touch.

And if you don't have online scheduling on your site yet, 68% of families say visible calendar slots would make them more likely to book an intro call. That's a quick win.

What Consumers Think About AI

This was the section we were most curious about, given what we're building at Sage Care.

The sentiment is net positive but clearly polarized. That tells us something important: AI in home care should augment the human experience, not replace it. Families want the efficiency and responsiveness that technology enables, but they also want to know a real person is involved in their care decisions.

This is exactly how we think about it at Sage Care. Our platform doesn't replace your team. It handles the administrative work that happens after calls and assessments, so your team can spend more time on the human side: building relationships, answering questions, and making families feel valued.

Loyalty, Retention, and What Makes Families Switch

Winning a client is one thing. Keeping them is another.

The loyalty drivers mirror the selection criteria: responsiveness, transparency, and communication. And the switching triggers reinforce something every agency owner knows instinctively but doesn't always act on. Poor communication and missed visits aren't just operational problems. They're existential threats. When 43% of families say poor communication would make them switch, every unanswered call and every delayed follow-up is a retention risk.

Ninety percent say proactive check-ins matter. That's not a nice-to-have. That's table stakes.

Value Perception and Pricing

Families are price-sensitive, but they're not just looking for the cheapest option.

Reliability is the number one justification for paying more. Not technology, not brand name. Reliability. That's good news for smaller agencies. You don't need the biggest marketing budget to be reliable. You need consistent follow-through, clear communication, and systems that make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

The caregiver continuity data is striking too. Eighty percent of families would pay more to see the same caregiver most days. If you can offer continuity and communicate it as a feature, you have a pricing lever most agencies aren't using.

What Agencies Get Wrong (and What to Do Instead)

We asked consumers directly: what do agencies do too much of, and what should they do more of?

This is basically a playbook. The "do less" and "do more" lists are mirror images of each other. Stop hiding your pricing. Stop making families fill out long forms before they even know if you're a fit. Start being transparent about who your caregivers are and what the process looks like.

The comparison difficulty data is equally telling. If families can't easily distinguish you from competitors, they default to price. Make it easy: be clear about your fees, your availability, and your outcomes.

Preferred Communication

Phone is still king, but not by much. Digital channels combined (email, text, live chat) actually edge out phone at 47% to 43%. The takeaway: agencies need to be reachable on every channel. If a family prefers to text and you only answer the phone, you're already behind.

And look at what made families comfortable with their chosen provider. Answering questions clearly and answering calls quickly are the top two. Not the fanciest marketing. Not the biggest brand. Just being responsive and helpful.

The Urgency Gap

One final pair of data points that ties this all together:

Nearly half of families need care within a week. But 60% of them don't hear back within 24 hours, and 15% never hear back at all. This is the single biggest opportunity in home care operations right now. The bar for responsiveness is high, and most agencies aren't clearing it.

What This Means

The data across all of these surveys paints a consistent picture. Families searching for home care want three things above all else: speed, transparency, and to feel valued. They want to know how much it costs before they call. They want a response within an hour. They want to know who their caregiver is and what their qualifications are. And when they don't get those things, they move on.

For agency owners, this data is a roadmap. Many of the highest-impact changes don't require new technology or bigger teams. They require putting pricing on your website, shortening your intake forms, responding faster, and following up proactively. The agencies that do these things consistently will win more clients, retain them longer, and earn the trust that drives referrals.

At Sage Care, this research confirmed much of what we'd been hearing from agencies directly, and it shaped how we've built our platform. We exist to help agencies respond faster, follow up more consistently, and never let a lead slip through the cracks. If you're curious how that works in practice, schedule a call. We'd love to show you.