You've spent hours marketing your centre and building your waitlist. Don’t let waitlisted families fall through the cracks. Managing your waitlist is just as important as building it because it helps ensure all your waitlisted families make it to their start date.
Here are 3 tips to help you better manage your childcare waiting list and keep families in your enrolment pipeline.
1) Capture Everything You Can
Capturing family information goes beyond just the child's name and age; you should also be capturing details that can can help you build a personal connection and gain a competitive advantage. Start by getting details about their past experiences with other childcare providers. Ask questions like:
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Have you been enrolled at a centre in the past?
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Have you toured other centres in this area?
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What did you like or not like about those?
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What learning goals do you have for your child?
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How did you find out about our centre?
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Are you on a waitlist at any other centres?
- Does your family have any specific care needs?
By knowing the finer details and documenting them in their lead profile, you’ll be able to start a strong bond with that family before they start. Once that relationship is established, the family will already be reassured and will most likely enrol faster because they feel safe and comfortable with you as their childcare provider.
Learn more about how to grow and manage your waitlist here.
2) Create Tasks for Yourself or Staff to Easily Follow Up
Families will often request a start date that is months or even a year ahead. During this waiting period, keep your childcare waitlist up to date by regularly following up with families to see if their circumstances for care or personal preferences have changed.
By following up, your centre will remain top of mind for parents and help you prioritise those families who want to start earlier. This will also allow you to remove families who may have decided not to enrol. In turn, this frees up some space in your waiting list for other families and provides your educators with accurate capacity estimates for their classrooms so they can prepare accordingly.
For more information on how to keep families in the loop, listen to the podcast below that details how to grow your waitlist.
3) Keep Them in the Loop
Even though they’re still on your waitlist, you want families to feel included, like they’re already part of the centre and family community. Invite families to events such as open days, breakfasts, information nights, and more to get them engaged before their start date. Also, share relevant, age-appropriate information such as parenting tips and blog articles to let them know you care and that they're still a priority to you and your centre.
While they’re still on the waitlist, it’s important that families still feel involved and can get to know the educators better, experience the centre’s values, and allow their children to get comfortable with the centre’s surroundings.
See below for examples of content you can share with families on your childcare waitlist.
Share Daycare Waitlist Content to Engage Families
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Family Success Stories and Testimonials: Get quotes or happy stories from families in your centre using an online survey. Then, share the positive results with your waitlisted families. Also check sources like Google, Yelp, and Facebook for the positive feedback you’ve received in the past that you can share with your audience.
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Unique Programs and Classes. For example, explain the significance of your centre’s multi-sensory toys, why your classrooms are arranged in a certain way (to promote positive interactions and teamwork, etc.), or highlight the programs you offer that other centres don’t (such as going outside and showing toddlers the basics of gardening). This helps set you apart from the competition and positions you as the number one place for their child to be.
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Captivating Video Content: Parents love getting a glimpse into what a day looks like at your centre. Give a ‘day in the life’ tour – show off a classroom, explain where drop off and pick up happens, highlight age-appropriate food options for lunch, and even introduce them to some of your educators or staff. Engage your child care waitlist with interactive content.
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Parenting and Childcare Waitlist Resources: Show your childcare business’s personality by sending an email roundup of helpful social media accounts or blogs with parenting tips for families to follow. Including a bit of a ‘why I like them’ will allow people to get to know you more.
Managing your waitlist takes staff time and marketing resources, so implement these simple tips into your day-to-day routine to increase childcare waitlist conversions. Remember to take every chance to collect important family information to personalise your waitlist messaging. To ensure you don’t miss out on an opportunity to convert a waitlisted family to enrolment, build a task list. Map out all necessary follow-ups and consistently engage with families on your waitlist.
To learn more about how to manage and engage your childcare waitlist, check out this free guide.
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