You've spent hours marketing your center and building a waitlist. ⏰
Don’t let waitlisted families fall through the cracks. Managing your waitlist is just as important as building it - ensure all your families make it to their start date.
Keep families in your enrollment pipeline by improving your waitlist process. Here are 3 tips to help you grow and organize your childcare or daycare waiting list.
Best Practices: Increase Daycare Waiting List Conversions with Ease
1) Capture Everything You Can
Capturing family information goes beyond just the child's name and age. You should learn about families to build a personal connection with them. Start by collecting details about their past experiences in other pre-k programs. Ask questions like:
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Have you been enrolled at a center in the past?
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Have you toured other centers 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 center?
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Are you on a waiting list at any other centers?
Once your childcare workers establish a relationship - your center remains top of mind. Each family will likely enroll faster because you made the extra effort to get to know them. Easily build connections with your waitlisted families through consistent communication. Use marketing automation to send personalized emails and texts to families, with less work.
Check out this free guide to get expert tips & tricks that help engage your daycare waiting list.
2) Create Tasks to Easily Follow Up
Families will often request a start date that is months or even a year ahead. During this period, keep your daycare waiting list up to date. Regularly follow up with families to update their enrollment status. It's tough to play the waiting game. Maintain communication to ensure you don't lose them to the center across the street.
Plus, following up helps you prioritize families who want to start earlier. This will also allow you to remove families who may have decided not to enroll. In turn, you'll free up space on your waiting list and provide educators with a better classroom capacity estimate. Support your staff and give educators the information they need.
3) Keep Your Daycare Waiting List Families in the Loop
You want your families to feel included.
Make them feel a part of your center and community. Invite parents to events, like:
- Open house
- Community breakfast
- Karaoke night
...and more. Get them excited about joining your center - even before their start date. Also, share relevant, age-appropriate information. For example, send 'Toddler Tips, 'How to Strengthen Cognitive Development through Play,' or 'Fostering Creativity at Home.'
That way, you show you're taking the time to establish a relationship with them. And - especially important for waitlisted families - sending consistent emails and texts ensures they don't feel forgotten. While families are on your child care waitlist, it's crucial they still feel involved. Let them get to know your educators better, so their children become familiar with your center - faster. Provide value to the families on your daycare waiting list.
Example content to engage waitlisted families
Want More Tips? Download the Ultimate Waitlist Management Guide.
Building and organizing your waitlist takes a lot of time. Implement these simple tips into your day-to-day routine to increase childcare waitlist conversions. Remember to collect important family information, build a task list, and consistently engage with families on your waitlist.
Check out & download this free guide to learn about waitlist management trade secrets!
Don't have time to read? Watch the 'Increase daycare waiting list conversions' blog recap!
