Tonia Crowley understood the importance of in-home support before she bought a Comfort Keepers® franchise. Growing up with a quadriplegic family member gave her an early look at what families experience when a loved one needs ongoing assistance and how much the right support can matter.
Her professional career eventually took her in a different direction. Crowley spent nearly 20 years with Lowe’s Home Improvement, including 15 years in operations, where she developed an understanding of processes, customer service and team management. An opportunity to return home to New Mexico to work with Comfort Keepers eventually brought those two parts of her life together.
“A family member had gotten into the business, and she called and asked if I was interested in making the transition,” Crowley said. “I came home and worked for her to see if I liked the business. I fell in love with it, and eventually I was able to get a franchise of my own. Here I am.”
Today, Crowley owns Comfort Keepers of Las Cruces, which provides in-home senior care across a dozen communities in southern New Mexico. The role brings together the business experience she built over her corporate career with a connection to caregiving that goes back much further.
Crowley entered home care with years of experience working within the systems and structure of a Fortune 500 company. Many of the lessons she learned during that career proved directly applicable to running her own Comfort Keepers franchise.
“My focus on processes and customer service that I gained from working for a Fortune 500 company really set me up for success,” Crowley said. “Understanding that if you are always taking care of your customers, your team and your business equally, it’s a recipe for success.”
That operational mindset has become especially important because of the geography Crowley and her team serve. Southern New Mexico includes Las Cruces as well as rural communities where delivering consistent in-home care can require additional flexibility.
“Having a team that’s open to understanding the needs of both metropolitan Las Cruces as well as the rest of the rural state has been key in us being able to take care of as many clients as possible,” Crowley said.
Consistent care across a large service area requires a team that understands how individual decisions affect the people receiving care. Crowley uses cross-training to help employees see the business beyond their own roles.
“My team regularly goes out with each other so that they keep their fingers in other parts of the business,” Crowley said. “They understand how scheduling, a missed shift or a call-off affects the person in the home, not just the experience they’re having over the phone.”
Caregivers receive the same level of attention. Recruiting and retaining caregivers remains an industry-wide challenge, but Crowley has worked to distinguish her business by creating an environment where caregivers know their contributions matter. That has helped her build and keep a successful team.
“We make sure that we’re the best employer,” she said. “We make sure that we pay our caregivers the best and give them an environment where they are included and celebrated and understand that they’re as much a part of our team as anyone else.”
Crowley’s return to New Mexico also gave her an opportunity to become more involved in the community where she was raised. Her team has made community service an important part of the business, including a longstanding commitment to serving veterans.
Comfort Keepers of Las Cruces has also supported a new children’s garden, sponsored a home and participated in local initiatives such as Jars of Love and Men Who Cook. Crowley sees that involvement as a natural extension of the work her team already does each day.
“We like to partner with our community and help give back to the families that are growing into it, not just the ones that are growing out of it,” she said.
That community-minded approach also shapes the experience Crowley wants families to have when they contact Comfort Keepers. Her team works to address the immediate reason a family reached out while helping them prepare for how their care needs may evolve.
“We want them to understand that we are a full circle of service and that we can help them not only with their immediate needs, but with understanding their needs as they change,” Crowley said.
Crowley’s experience has shown her that professionals leaving corporate careers can bring many of the skills they have developed into franchise ownership. Structure, processes, leadership and customer service remain valuable, even when the industry changes completely.
“Corporate work is very lucrative and very structured, and all those things that you learn from that corporate environment you get to bring into this,” Crowley said. “But there is nothing better than the feeling we take home at the end of the day. It’s very different when you’re impacting lives on a personal level.”
Crowley’s career has come full circle in that sense. Growing up in a household that needed additional support gave her an understanding of caregiving, while nearly two decades in corporate America gave her many of the tools she needed to build and operate a business providing that support to others.
“I feel very blessed and very fortunate for what I get to do every day,” Crowley said. “I feel very lucky that I am surrounded by a team that lifts me and the community up. I’m thankful to have the opportunity to do what I do.”
To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/comfort-keepers.
Comfort Keepers
SPONSORED
After nearly 20 years with Lowe's, Tonia Crowley returned home to New Mexico and found a way to combine her operations experience with a personal understanding of family caregiving.
Tonia Crowley understood the importance of in-home support before she bought a Comfort Keepers® franchise. Growing up with a quadriplegic family member gave her an early look at what families experience when a loved one needs ongoing assistance and how much the right support can matter.
Her professional career eventually took her in a different direction. Crowley spent nearly 20 years with Lowe’s Home Improvement, including 15 years in operations, where she developed an understanding of processes, customer service and team management. An opportunity to return home to New Mexico to work with Comfort Keepers eventually brought those two parts of her life together.
“A family member had gotten into the business, and she called and asked if I was interested in making the transition,” Crowley said. “I came home and worked for her to see if I liked the business. I fell in love with it, and eventually I was able to get a franchise of my own. Here I am.”
Today, Crowley owns Comfort Keepers of Las Cruces, which provides in-home senior care across a dozen communities in southern New Mexico. The role brings together the business experience she built over her corporate career with a connection to caregiving that goes back much further.
Crowley entered home care with years of experience working within the systems and structure of a Fortune 500 company. Many of the lessons she learned during that career proved directly applicable to running her own Comfort Keepers franchise.
“My focus on processes and customer service that I gained from working for a Fortune 500 company really set me up for success,” Crowley said. “Understanding that if you are always taking care of your customers, your team and your business equally, it’s a recipe for success.”
That operational mindset has become especially important because of the geography Crowley and her team serve. Southern New Mexico includes Las Cruces as well as rural communities where delivering consistent in-home care can require additional flexibility.
“Having a team that’s open to understanding the needs of both metropolitan Las Cruces as well as the rest of the rural state has been key in us being able to take care of as many clients as possible,” Crowley said.
Consistent care across a large service area requires a team that understands how individual decisions affect the people receiving care. Crowley uses cross-training to help employees see the business beyond their own roles.
“My team regularly goes out with each other so that they keep their fingers in other parts of the business,” Crowley said. “They understand how scheduling, a missed shift or a call-off affects the person in the home, not just the experience they’re having over the phone.”
Caregivers receive the same level of attention. Recruiting and retaining caregivers remains an industry-wide challenge, but Crowley has worked to distinguish her business by creating an environment where caregivers know their contributions matter. That has helped her build and keep a successful team.
“We make sure that we’re the best employer,” she said. “We make sure that we pay our caregivers the best and give them an environment where they are included and celebrated and understand that they’re as much a part of our team as anyone else.”
Crowley’s return to New Mexico also gave her an opportunity to become more involved in the community where she was raised. Her team has made community service an important part of the business, including a longstanding commitment to serving veterans.
Comfort Keepers of Las Cruces has also supported a new children’s garden, sponsored a home and participated in local initiatives such as Jars of Love and Men Who Cook. Crowley sees that involvement as a natural extension of the work her team already does each day.
“We like to partner with our community and help give back to the families that are growing into it, not just the ones that are growing out of it,” she said.
That community-minded approach also shapes the experience Crowley wants families to have when they contact Comfort Keepers. Her team works to address the immediate reason a family reached out while helping them prepare for how their care needs may evolve.
“We want them to understand that we are a full circle of service and that we can help them not only with their immediate needs, but with understanding their needs as they change,” Crowley said.
Crowley’s experience has shown her that professionals leaving corporate careers can bring many of the skills they have developed into franchise ownership. Structure, processes, leadership and customer service remain valuable, even when the industry changes completely.
“Corporate work is very lucrative and very structured, and all those things that you learn from that corporate environment you get to bring into this,” Crowley said. “But there is nothing better than the feeling we take home at the end of the day. It’s very different when you’re impacting lives on a personal level.”
Crowley’s career has come full circle in that sense. Growing up in a household that needed additional support gave her an understanding of caregiving, while nearly two decades in corporate America gave her many of the tools she needed to build and operate a business providing that support to others.
“I feel very blessed and very fortunate for what I get to do every day,” Crowley said. “I feel very lucky that I am surrounded by a team that lifts me and the community up. I’m thankful to have the opportunity to do what I do.”
To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/comfort-keepers.
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