C-Suite Sales and Marketing Perspectives

Why Retention Is the New Growth Strategy in Senior Care Franchising

In senior home care, growth is not only measured by new territories, client inquiries, or franchise awards. It is also measured by the strength of the people delivering care, supporting local owners, and carrying the mission into their communities every day.

In this episode of the C-Suite Sales and Marketing Perspectives podcast, Touching Hearts at Home CEO Todd Treml joins host Steve McDonald to discuss why labor, culture, retention, technology, and purpose-driven leadership are central to long-term business success. Drawing on more than 30 years in franchising, Todd shares how leaders can turn one of their greatest challenges—retaining great people—into a lasting competitive advantage.

Key Takeaways From This Episode

• Why labor is one of the biggest challenges and strongest opportunities in business
• How a purpose-driven culture helps attract and retain high-performing employees
• Why fast response times and thoughtful onboarding matter from day one
• How ongoing communication, recognition, and flexibility support retention
• Where AI can reduce operational friction without replacing human connection
• How franchisors can retain franchise owners through support, listening, and long-term value

Episode Breakdown

[0:00] [Music]

[0:05] Steve MacDonald: Welcome, everyone, to the C-Suite Sales & Marketing Perspectives podcast. I'm Steve MacDonald, your host. Today, we have a very special guest, Todd Treml.

Todd, you're the CEO of a company I will let you describe because what you've accomplished, what you're doing, and the purpose behind your company are truly unique. That purpose is something we're going to discuss today.

We're also going to talk about one of the greatest challenges in business—and one of its greatest competitive advantages: labor. We'll unpack the importance of taking care of employees, company culture, and much more.

Todd, you've been in the franchise industry for more than 30 years and have worked with more than 5,000 entrepreneurs. One takeaway for me right away is that focusing on employees is one of the most important things a company can do. It is why private equity and venture capital firms often invest in the team before the idea. That will be a theme throughout this conversation.

But focusing on employees is easier said than done, especially in high-turnover environments. Please take a couple of minutes to share more about your background and your company, and then we'll dive in.

[1:32] Todd Treml: Steve, thanks for having me today. I appreciate it.

I've dedicated my career to franchising. For those who do not follow franchising closely, it is essentially a distribution model for goods and services: you bring a concept to market, find people willing to invest in it, and support them in operating the business model. Franchising touches nearly every industry in America, and we see it in everyday life.

I've spent more than 30 years working with organizations, often in leadership roles, helping franchisees pursue their dreams as entrepreneurs. I've worked across retail, B2B, B2C, food, health and wellness, senior home care, and experiential businesses.

I started my career early and spent my first 20 years with Winmark Corporation. Many people know the company through its brands: Play It Again Sports, Once Upon a Child, Plato's Closet, Style Encore, and Music Go Round. That experience built the foundation of my career. I helped grow the organization from two retail locations to 1,200 locations over a 20-year span—taking it from a non-franchised business to a franchised company, then public, and ultimately to more than $1 billion in retail sales.

That experience taught me a great deal about supporting franchise owners and operational excellence. It also taught me a lot about labor, which is what we're discussing today.

Today, I am the CEO of Touching Hearts at Home, and I could not be more proud of the work we do. We are a franchise organization operating in 21 states, with 73 locations and growing. We are on a significant growth curve.

Our franchisees provide senior in-home care and adult in-home care. With the aging population, it is a booming industry. Ten thousand people a day turn 65, and the desire to age in place is substantial. Our franchisees, caregivers, and administrative staff do very important work in their communities. We want to support people in their homes and help them age with dignity and compassion.

We are headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I have a wonderful team that we continue to build every day to support our franchisees and their teams.

[4:20] Steve MacDonald: I want to note that many people listening are focused on B2B and ABM-led go-to-market strategies. They are persuading other businesses to buy high-ticket products and services—decisions that are made over many conversations and often over many months.

The people who invest their livelihoods, careers, and earnings into an entrepreneurial venture are making a very considered decision. What you have to say has tremendous value for our audience.

To start us off, labor is the number-one challenge across industries, but it is also a major competitive-advantage opportunity. What is your perspective on labor?

[5:22] Todd Treml: In our particular industry, labor is a major challenge. But it runs across all industries that I have been involved in—from hospitality and retail to senior home care.

We have to prioritize having enough people in our businesses to support clients at the highest level of service they deserve. The companies prepared to recruit and retain the right way—and willing to put the effort into it—will be the winners. They will gain market share.

For us, it starts with a positive brand reputation. We work hard on the standards and practices of the business. We make it easy for people to apply and easy for them to onboard. Do not put barriers in place. Be lightning-fast in responding to people who want to work for you.

The most important thing we can provide is purposeful, purpose-driven work. We are competing every day with Amazon, Target, Walmart, restaurants, hospitality, and many other employers. We prioritize purpose and culture. When companies do those things well, they have a clear competitive advantage in the marketplace.

All of us compete for labor, even though we may seek different kinds of talent and levels of professionalism. Retention is one of the most important metrics in our business. Recruiting, training, and developing a high performer takes time and money. High performers drive a business, and replacing them is difficult.

[7:36] Steve MacDonald: Tell us about your retention strategy. As a CEO, how do you think about retention, foster it, and turn that challenge into a competitive advantage?

[7:50] Todd Treml: There are several tiers in our business—almost two different businesses operating at once. First, we are a classic franchise company with a B2B focus. We look for ideal candidates to become business owners. Second, our franchisees operate businesses in their communities, which are more B2C. Retention applies across all of those levels.

At the corporate office, we must retain the people who support franchise owners. I am a big believer in A-players. Quite frankly, I personally recruit the people I want to bring into the company. I reach out one-on-one to make sure they hear from the CEO that they can be a good fit and have a future here.

Once people are here, we need the right culture and fit. We need transparency in how we work with employees, acknowledgment of what they do, and, when they choose it, a career path. When you manage and lead properly, the rest of the good things follow.

At the frontline level, retention begins the moment a person submits an application. Ideally, they have already seen our brand and we have recruited them well. From there, it is about warm welcomes, fast onboarding, excellent and ongoing training, regular check-ins, and a constant feedback loop.

We celebrate wins every week in our corporate business, and our franchisees do the same. Flexible schedules also matter. A tremendous recruitment and retention tool is being open to remote work. About half of my team is remote. Would I love for everyone to be in Minneapolis? Sure. But the best talent does not always live here or want to relocate here. We have to build a strong system for team members who do not work from headquarters.

Open communication is crucial. Pay, benefits, and bonuses matter, of course, but as long as compensation is competitive, they are not always the number-one issue in retention. Team bonding, team building, culture, purpose-driven work, career paths, and training are all critical.

[11:18] Steve MacDonald: I host another podcast in the HR and talent-acquisition space. We had a chief people officer on whose PhD research demonstrated what many of us intuitively know: employee engagement leads to better retention, better customer experiences, and ultimately more revenue for the company.

There is also another part of this retention conversation: AI. It is the number-one topic everyone wants to talk about. How do you use AI and technology to improve retention as part of this equation?

[12:16] Todd Treml: Everyone is talking about AI. I recently returned from a conference focused on AI, technology, and innovation. In our industry, the technology market is chasing this opportunity because we have always been—and still are—a human-to-human business.

We study innovation, technology, and AI closely. I put together a task force of franchise owners dedicated to this because the last thing you want is to fall behind. You can get behind very quickly, so you have to stay focused on it.

Technology can do two things for us: enhance the client experience and make us more effective and productive in day-to-day operations. I lean more toward the second. AI can help us become more efficient and remove mundane tasks. It is not about replacing key staff; it is about reallocating their skills and experience to areas that matter more in the business.

There is not a company out there that would not benefit from giving its staff more time for productive, proactive work. The mundane tasks are usually not what create value in our jobs. People get value from moving things forward, generating ideas, innovating, talking with franchisees, talking with customers, and talking with caregivers.

If AI can free up time for those activities, it has a direct impact. The best companies are figuring it out. They are educating themselves, getting ahead of the curve, and putting resources behind it. Retention and turnover require intentional work. What you put into it, you get out of it.

Another area we see as technology—or virtual technology—is virtual assistants. Many of our owners now use VAs, often from the Philippines and other markets, to help with recruiting and onboarding. It is not necessarily AI, but it is another way to free people in the organization for higher-value and higher-priority projects.

[15:32] Steve MacDonald: One reason I was excited to have this conversation is that an unfortunate challenge in your industry makes you one of the leading experts in addressing it. You have very high turnover, which is an industry-wide issue.

Many listeners are thinking, 'If Todd can figure this out—or make a meaningful dent in it—maybe there is hope for my business.' Tell us more about that.

[15:58] Todd Treml: High turnover is an industry-wide challenge. I am sure hospitality has its own statistics as well. You have to prioritize retention, and you cannot be reactive about it.

Our industry currently has an average turnover rate of 79 percent. That means an organization is very close to turning over its entire team in a year. That does not help anyone. It does not help client confidence, it is extremely expensive and labor-intensive to onboard people continually, it disrupts service continuity, and it drives up training expenses.

I am proud that our business is outperforming that norm, but we work hard at retention every day. There are no silver bullets. It is hard work and acknowledgment.

If you want to be the employer of choice in your community, whether you are B2B, B2C, or something else, you must focus on this consistently. We track retention every day and every month. We are always looking for ways to improve it.

[17:19] Steve MacDonald: A Harvard Business Review study found that people learn and remember things 22 times better when they are told in the form of a story. Could you share an example of a retention program you put in place and the impact it had?

[17:43] Todd Treml: I love stories, and I think people can learn a lot from them. There are many organizations and tools that can help. We are not sitting here pretending to be geniuses who figure out every next move on our own. Often, we follow the lead of franchisees because they are in the business every day experimenting with different approaches. Our best practices often come from the field.

One tool I particularly like is what we call a survey retention tool. We use a third party to conduct voice-to-voice surveys with employees in their first 30, 60, and 90 days.

It is powerful because employees may tell a third party things they would not tell us directly. This is not simply an email or text survey. It is a real conversation. We can identify issues early in the hiring and onboarding process. In our business, much of the turnover happens in the first 30 to 60 days, so we want to catch those concerns early.

The information comes back and shows us where we need to respond—perhaps scheduling is an issue, people do not feel sufficiently acknowledged, or they do not believe they have enough training. Then we can step in and course-correct. Those 30-, 60-, and 90-day surveys are critical to what we do, and I can point to many franchise owners who have reduced turnover as a result.

[19:16] Steve MacDonald: I wonder whether there is a second benefit. I had a guest from a subscription-based business who said that when they began reaching out to subscribers for feedback, people appreciated that the company was taking time to talk with them.

You mentioned that these are one-on-one conversations. You are giving people a voice and allowing them to share what is going right and what is going wrong. I imagine that the communication itself has a significant impact as well.

[19:57] Todd Treml: I do not have any doubt about that. It does not matter what employee group we are talking about—caregivers, administrative staff, or corporate teams. It is hard work, and you have to be intentional about it.

You have to listen. You have to build a culture of listening and a culture that makes it possible to understand people’s challenges. We do this at the corporate level with franchise owners, too. One of our key missions and priorities is to listen and learn.

If you listen long enough, you will learn something. Then you can respond, react, and ultimately become proactive.

[20:35] Steve MacDonald: You also talked about lessons from the B2C world and how they apply to B2B. Many people listening are in B2B, but B2C expectations around customer experience have moved into B2B. Amazon, for example, has changed expectations for speed and convenience.

What retention lessons from the B2C world apply to B2B?

[21:11] Todd Treml: The B2B side of our business is the franchisor-to-franchisee relationship. It is a highly interdependent relationship. If you sell software in B2B, you could probably say the same thing about your relationship with key customers and clients.

For us, it is a little different because when a candidate joins our network and signs a franchise agreement, it is a 10-year agreement. They may sell the business or take other actions, but that agreement is the framework we live by together.

The best franchise companies provide ongoing support, training, innovation, technology tools, programs, marketing, and systems. That support makes the franchise owner feel connected to the brand. It is why franchise owners stay and are willing to continue paying royalties and ongoing fees: they receive meaningful value and strong support.

The other essential part is listening to franchise owners—just as you listen to a client in any B2B relationship. Their feedback matters. This cannot be a top-down strategy. It is about giving them tools and helping them execute sharply in their business.

The goal is to help franchise owners be successful and profitable, achieve their goals, and want to renew when their 10-year agreement ends.

[23:08] Steve MacDonald: That is no different from continuing a contract in B2B. It leads to another 10 years. Is renewal rate the key metric for a successful franchise company?

[23:16] Todd Treml: Yes. The most important metric of a successful franchise company is renewal rate. Our renewal rate is about 99 percent. That means nearly everyone is renewing for another 10 years.

It is something we track closely, and I think there are similar retention metrics across all B2B industries. Ours happens to be renewals. That is how we think about retaining current franchise owners while bringing in new ones.

[23:48] Steve MacDonald: There are people listening who would love to have a 98 or 99 percent net retention rate. That is phenomenal in any business.

We have covered a lot, but people can only remember two or three things at a time. If there were one thing you wanted the audience to take away from this conversation, what would it be?

[24:23] Todd Treml: There is more than one thing, but when it is all said and done, this comes down to people. You cannot run companies without them. We do not have clients without caregivers, and we do not have caregivers without clients. We are all in this together.

We are in an industry about heart—Touching Hearts at Home—and I am proud of the brand we have built. But you have to focus on people and keep purpose at the center of your business. Do not treat culture as a throwaway term. It matters, and it makes a difference in retention.

Retention is the new growth. The organizations that win tomorrow will be the organizations that invest in people today. Culture, support, and trust are competitive advantages. That is the message.

[25:23] Steve MacDonald: That is so important. Another CEO told me that company culture is one of their greatest talent-acquisition strategies. People ask about culture. They talk to employees. They want to work somewhere they enjoy.

Culture is not only a retention strategy; it is an acquisition strategy. When we think about the cost savings and all the benefits you discussed, it raises the priority of how much we need to focus on it.

My biggest takeaway is this: if there is one thing I do in my business, I will focus on the employee and employee engagement. If I can do that really well, I will attract the right people, keep the right people, keep clients happy, and keep the business growing.

The mission of this podcast is to bring perspectives from C-suite leaders around the world. We speak with people across Europe, the United States, India, and Asia. If we can share insights drawn from years of experience, it creates a rising tide that lifts all boats. Todd, I think you were an important part of that tide today. Thank you for joining us.

[27:02] Todd Treml: Thank you for allowing me to share the message. It is wonderful to have formats like this. Thank you, Steve, for everything you have done for me.

Build a Purpose-Driven Business With Touching Hearts at Home

Touching Hearts at Home is seeking entrepreneurs who want to build a meaningful business while serving a growing need in their local communities.

The opportunity is designed for leaders who value people, believe in compassionate care, and want to build a team that helps seniors and adults remain safe, supported, and independent at home.

With a franchise model built around training, operational support, brand resources, and a people-first mission, Touching Hearts at Home offers more than a business opportunity. It offers the chance to create lasting impact.

Learn more about the Touching Hearts at Home franchise opportunity Learn More