Taking the plunge in The Lake District wins Judy and Will an industry award

13-January-2022

Will and Judy Clay have been honoured in The Great British Franchise Awards 2022 for establishing an Outstanding homecare service provider in the Lake District.

“Our main challenge was creating brand awareness in an area where Home Instead was largely unknown,” says Judy.

“We had no neighbouring territories so people didn’t know our brand, nor did we have the strong local peer support of other offices.”

But their determination paid off. Home Instead South Lakes received an Outstanding rating from the Care Quality Commission, the highest possible rating for a care provider, something Judy says was helped by the support they receive from Home Instead’s head office.

She and Will believe in promoting internally, whenever possible, and they have a rating of 9.9 to 10 on Homecare.co.uk, the TripAdvisor of the home-care industry.

“We also speak to potential new franchisees, promoting franchising, sharing our experience to encourage others to join the network, and acting as mentors to existing franchisees,” she says.

Judy worked in sales management for blue chip companies before stepping away from the corporate world to began working as a house manager at a retirement development for older people, where she learnt about Home Instead and the exceptional care it provides.

“As we shared the ethos of the company, this sparked our interest, and we realised we wanted to become Home Instead franchise owners.

“As a husband-and-wife team with strengths in business management and care, we work well together and feel this makes a perfect combination to run a home care franchise.”

The Great British Franchisee Awards recognise franchisees’ exceptional performance and business experience, ability to drive business growth, staff retention, customer satisfaction, community involvement, inspired leadership, and franchise involvement.

The awards are run by whichfranchise, supported by Lloyds Bank, BDO, AMO Consulting and Chantry Group.