Dapo Olugbodi is the Chief Executive Officer of Arrowshot Care Solutions, a pacesetter in the care sector. He speaks on the need to secure professional services for the aged, and maintaining the highest standards in the sector
The edge of Arrowshot Care solutions
The edge is what we call the ACS – PICKACS.
We have a strong focus on P – Professionalism – our staff are professionals trained to deliver care with a customer focus and in line with standards that are uncommon in the Nigerian care sector, such as undertaking an initial care assessment to determine the service-user’s needs and so tailor care to these. We also provide weekly reports to clients on how their relatives are doing, carry out one-month care and quarterly care reviews, conduct random unannounced checks on carers and give clients direct access to a responsible manager empowered to make decisions – all underpinned by clear written policies.
I – Integrity – is another hallmark of our service delivery. We recruit staff based on their integrity but to validate this, we carry out detailed background checks which are conducted by Africa’s foremost background check company – Background Check International Limited. This ensures that when we place carers with service-users, we can vouch for their integrity. This is also reinforced by the fact that every carer has a guarantor who is responsible in the very unlikely event anything goes wrong, which is an incentive to the carer to ensure nothing goes wrong.
C – Caring is a basic imperative for anyone who seeks a career in the care service sector. There is a sense in which people cannot be trained to be caring, if it is not already a part of their nature. This is a key requirement for anyone who would work with ACS, they need to be naturally caring, sympathetic (able to feel for others) and empathetic (able to put themselves in other’s shoes so they treat them how they would like to be treated). These natural tendencies are then accentuated and increased by quality customer service training based on UK standards. As we say in ACS, ‘You care for your loved ones. We care for your loved ones.’
K – Knowledge – the place of knowledge cannot be underestimated. Knowledge is power. That’s why apart from the regular training that we provide to our staff, we also train them in the UK Care Quality Commission’s 15 Fundamental Standards of Care, contextualising this and applying it to the realities of Nigeria to ensure they are relevant. This is provided by a UK certified trainer who is Nigerian-born but practices in the UK, so she bestrides both contexts and can provide international standard training with Nigerian practicalities in mind.
The PICKACS qualities are our edge and the reasons to pick ACS
Interactive Website Development Offering
It is important to state that we focus on ensuring seamless communication with our target audience and stakeholders. We recently developed and redesigned our website to showcase our upscale service offerings. The new website also attracts our target audience and provides one stop shop for information on our service delivery.
Through the website, we project our strong care qualities, professionalism and targeted, bespoke solutions for every client and service user.
This is also seen in our very name – Arrowshot Care Solutions. It did not come about by accident . It is because we deploy solution arrows that are directed to particular situations to tackle the peculiarities of each situation. This is why every would be service-user must go through an initial care assessment so we can develop a targeted solution for them. This is what we seek to project by our arrow logo and holistic branding approach. To support this branding, our website design is clean, uncluttered and easy to navigate. It projects the Arrowshot Care brand personality as vibrant and dynamic.
Role of ICT in care industry
The role of ICT is key in the effective delivery of professional services. We have found that most of the technologies that we were seeking to develop were not suitable for the Nigerian context. For example, we thought of deploying an app that will show clients overseas if a carer is in their parent’s house in Nigeria. We found this was not practical as many Nigerians switch off their data which means the app could not broadcast regularly. So, our ICT focus has been to develop a website that is extremely user-friendly. This is why after just one year of having this website, we have completely redesigned it to make it even better. It has a cleaner look and we have added new sections such as a ‘Testimonials’ section so people can easily see what our current clients are saying about us. We also have a new media section that covers news about ACS and our views about the care sector nationally and internationally. We enthusiastically invite people to visit our website and check us out on all the broadly used social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter (now known as X), Instagram and others.
Meanwhile, we will continue to look at applications that will strengthen our determination to provide premium care delivery services in Nigeria.
The future of care service in Nigeria
It is a positive development as the care sector will surely grow in leaps and bounds. The future is indeed bright. Nigerian culture is rapidly changing. It used to be that once elderly citizens retire, they went back to their hometowns and villages where they would have relatives and neighbours to care for them. That is no longer the case. The retirees tend to find themselves living alone, struggling to meet their own personal care themselves. Where relatives or neighbours get involved, this has resulted in many cases in elder or financial abuse. With services like Arrowshot Care Solutions, you will be able to rest assured that your loved one is getting quality care provided by people with integrity. It also means there will be immediate cover if one carer leaves as a new carer trained to the same level can immediately take over. We will even provide care in the hospital if your relative is admitted.
It should have however be pointed out that Nigeria needs to compete favourably in the global market.
The care sector is a vibrant one which should be accorded government’s backing to make it grow. This may take the form of means-testing so that vulnerable people who cannot fund their own care needs themselves have their funding partially or wholly provided by government, especially state governments, as a way of caring for their citizens. Government can also put regulations and guidance in place to ensure high standards of care are achieved by entrants into the sector. Arrowshot Care Solutions can support and advise state governments who are interested in looking into these.
