In the words of Dale Carnegie, famed author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, "Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration, and resentment."
Three of the most common frustrations we've heard from directors are lack of time, staying on top of their inquiry and tour follow-up, and lack of processes. This makes a lot of sense because these three things can completely derail your enrollment efforts and make it seem like your classrooms just aren’t growing.
So, if Carnegie is correct, then when we address worry, frustration, and resentment, we will be less fatigued and enrollment rates will rise.
1) Fill Enrollments with Automated Email Marketing
How many times this week have you caught yourself worrying that potential enrollments might be slipping through the cracks? Do you wake up at night and remember you were supposed to call a family back and totally lost track of time? Do you worry whether you will reach enrollment goals every month? If so, you are most definitely not alone.
We hear about these struggles on a regular basis at all center levels. From assistant director to the owner, fears can arise if processes are not adapted and followed. To combat worry, talk to your team about gaps they see in the system and ways the process can be improved.
Listen, then adapt your current processes. Don't worry about filling your enrollment slots on time - use a childcare solution that automates beautifully-crafted, personalized emails to send at a time and day you choose. You'll be able to easily store templates and schedule initial inquiry confirmations, tour schedules, waitlist engagement, registration paperwork reminders, and much more.
2) Track Your Campaign and Email Performance
How many times have you worked really hard on an outreach campaign only to never see results? Five? Ten? This can be extremely frustrating because of the work that goes into these campaigns.
Wouldn’t it be better if you could back your marketing decisions up with data and lower the risk level for each campaign? Data-backed campaigns outperform wide-reach campaigns on every level most of the time and these campaigns ensure you're making the most of your time, energy, and money. You'll optimize your return on investment (ROI) by tracking your email performance. Use a childcare solution to pull reports on your email performance, campaign performance, staff productivity, and more. Check out a few email performance metrics that really matter for enrollment success.
-
Open rates measure the number of emails actually opened.
-
Click-through rates help you understand campaign engagement. It tracks the number of parents that clicked your email links and/or CTA buttons.
-
Bounce rates are the number of emails sent that don't ever reach a parent's inbox. This number should stay below 2% - all systems can experience a temporary error from time to time.
3) Invest in a CRM to Never Lose A Lead
Does this situation sound familiar? Your assistant director says she will remember to call a potential family to book a tour, but then she's pulled into the 2-year-old class to cover for the afternoon and forgets. This happens all the time, and not just in the childcare industry.
Resentment toward coworkers is one of the most commonly cited reasons for staff turnover nationwide in every industry. Combat this problem by automating your enrollment processes with a CRM, or childcare solution, to ensure communication is consistent between all members of your staff and families. With a CRM, leads from your email marketing automatically flow into the platform for fast follow-up. Save time and gain more childcare leads, with less work.
Dale Carnegie is certainly an influential figure and he definitely knows what he's talking about when it comes to work-related fatigue, but it is important to remember another quote of his:
"...the best possible way to prepare for tomorrow is to concentrate with all your intelligence, all your enthusiasm, on doing today's work superbly today. That is the only possible way you can prepare for the future."
Let LineLeader by ChildcareCRM help you build your future. Schedule a demo today to find out more. 💻
