A composable high-performing digital estate for Bluebird Care.
Bluebird Care was established in 2004 by Paul and Lisa Tarsey, with a core philosophy centred on providing 'Premium Home Care' services, catering to clients seeking private care options.
The company was acquired by Interim Healthcare, and later joined the global Caring Brands International Group operating in over seven countries, which in 2021 had reported combined network sales of $1.3 billion. Fast forward to 2024 and Bluebird Care has now grown into one of the largest home care franchise networks in the UK, with over 200 territories.
Calibrating a high-performance digital solution
As Bluebird Care continue to expand, the need for a high-performing digital estate became evident for maintaining both their premium positioning and clarity of their service offering:
- Premium domiciliary home care.
- Live-in care.
- Complex care services.
Redefining the architecture
With an aging CMS platform, their digital ecosystem, encompassing primary UK and Irish brand sites, career websites, and over 200 franchise microsites, were encountering several limiting challenges. These included:
- An inconsistent design aesthetic across their digital estate.
- A disjointed user experience (UX), with fragmented journeys were now no longer fully optimised for the needs of key stakeholders, such as care seekers, potential colleagues, and local authorities.
- A lack of content agility for franchisees restricted their ability to efficiently manage their microsites while maintaining consistency with the national brand.
A complete reassessment and redevelopment of the technical architecture and UX was needed, prioritising a mobile-first approach to improve efficiency for both national and local content and to lay new platform foundations capable of scaling with its evolving strategic goals.
Balancing creativity with technical discipline
Key components of the overall solution architecture included:
Re-calibrating the UX & UI - A ‘Top tasks’ approach was taken for an intuitive, connected and consistent UX and information architecture (IA).
New brand alignment - The relaunch coincided with the rollout of new corporate brand guidelines to ensure the online presence reflected its premium status providing a unified experience across all channels.
Content management (CMS) - The solutions were built on Xperience by Kentico, a highly performant hybrid headless DXP/CMS. This provided:
- Efficient management and the ability to distribute national content while also maintaining editorial control at the local franchise level.
- Scalability to grow alongside future needs, ensuring the infrastructure remains robust as the company expands further.
Franchisee empowerment - Individual franchisees can manage their own local microsites while also adhering to national branding standards. Other features included:
- The ability to curate campaign pages and re-use content brand blocks for consistency across all sites.
- Easy access to CMS widgets to ensure site quality and brand consistency.
Composable architecture - Several third-party API integrations were implemented, including:
- Vision Maps - "Find a Local Office" feature linking users directly to nearby Bluebird Care offices.
- Application Tracking Systems (ATS) - Integrations with Occupop and Teamtailor helped streamline recruitment processes.
- Mailchimp - For email marketing.
- Trustpilot - Social proof, allowing for customer testimonials and storytelling.
Content and digital strategy - To support the relaunch, a content and digital strategy aimed at optimising SEO and conversion rate optimisation (CRO). This was undertaken in collaboration with ClickThrough Marketing, ensuring that the new digital estate attracted relevant traffic and converted visitors into leads.
Premium delivery
The relaunch of Bluebird Care’s digital estate delivered several key outcomes:
- Premium user experience - The site now reflects the premium nature of Bluebird Care’s brand. Users across all touchpoints, whether seeking care or exploring career opportunities, experience a seamless journey with consistent messaging and aesthetics.
- Improved content management for franchisees - A more flexible CMS, empowers management of their local sites while maintaining the high standards set by the national brand. This allows for localised marketing campaigns, while still ensuring brand consistency.
- Enhanced lead generation and data capture - The new platform has improved lead generation and data capture across all sites, providing HQ with a helicopter view of performance and agility to respond proactively to underperforming areas.
- Third-Party API success - The integration with Vision Maps, ATS systems, and Trustpilot has helped streamline operations, enhance recruitment, and improve social proof for care seekers and potential clients.
- Scalability and future-proofing - Built on a hybrid headless CMS, the platform is designed to grow offering scalability and flexibility to expand both in the UK and internationally
A new benchmark for excellence
Our partnership with Bluebird Care has not only revitalised the company's digital presence but also reinforced its position as a premium provider in the home care market. By leveraging a future-proof composable CMS platform, optimised UX, and a well-integrated content strategy, they are now equipped to quickly adapt, and meet the evolving demands of its customers, franchisees, and staff.
As one of the largest home care franchises in the UK, this digital transformation sets a new benchmark for excellence in the industry, providing Bluebird Care with a competitive edge as they continue to grow.