You and your team have a lot of parents to keep up with. Sticky notes and enrolment binders can only go so far when you’re juggling different stages of the enrolment and retention processes for multiple families.
So, what exactly is the parent experience and why is effective communication at its core?
Today’s Parent Experience
The parent experience defines the journey a family takes from initial enquiry to registration, all the way through to enrolment. In addition, retain families for greater enrolment success. Unfortunately, the current process for parents is full of obstacles that can cause prospective families to drop out of your enrolment pipeline and leave enrolled families looking for other care options. If you have a 6-step parent journey, you have dozens of key conversion points where parents can become disengaged with your centre.
In a perfect world, the parent enrolment experience flows easily through each stage. Consistent, meaningful communication that helps guide families throughout the parent experience increases both enrolment and retention rates.
Millennial parents are your key demographic. It’s important to target their needs. Keep in mind that they grew up in the digital age and are used to receiving answers and responses almost instantly. Without immediate responses, self-service, and convenience, you won’t be able to keep up with the needs and concerns of today’s modern parents. In fact, 50% of Millennials prefer to receive reminders about payments, tours, and meetings through their mobile device.
6 Steps for Childcare Center Success
Step 1—Parent Inquires about Several Childcare Providers
The enrolment journey begins with parent research and enquiries.
New enquiries often take place through your website, landing pages, Facebook page, email, or even via phone call. ChildcareCRM found that 51% of our users’ new childcare centre leads came from online sources. However, some centres don’t respond to the first enquiry for days or even weeks due to busy centre staff and administrative overload. Make it easy for staff to follow up by automating email and text messages.
Step 2—Parent Tours the Centre
If the parent makes it to the next step, they’ll want a virtual or in-person tour of your centre. But the scheduling process itself is often challenging. Valuable time is wasted with back-and-forth emails and calls while trying to pick a date and time for families to tour the centre. Enable parents to self-serve with a digital tour scheduler on your website where they can select a date and time that fits their schedule.
Step 3—Parent is Interested but in a Holding Pattern
After the parent completes a tour, they may enter a holding pattern where they’re not yet enrolled or waitlisted but have shown strong interest in your centre. Inconsistent or no follow-up after the tour leaves the parent searching for other options. Be sure to increase communication during this period to keep the family engaged! Use post-tour surveys to gauge their interest in your program and follow-up with texts, emails, and phone calls at regular intervals to ensure you stay top of mind.
Step 4—Family Have Not Started and are on the Waitlist
Touch base with your families on the waitlist, just because they are not enrolling or starting right now does not mean they don't want to hear from you. Simple email or text communications to make sure their start date is the same, this can help you and your staff prepare for new onboarding families. Determine if their family situation has changed, ask yourself "How can my centre help them?" and lastly get them excited and comfortable for their time at the centre.
Step 5—Parent is Ready to Enrol for Childcare
The parents are ready to enrol but first, they must fill out extensive childcare enrolment paperwork and provide required medical documents. This can take weeks and usually requires multiple trips to the centre to pick up and drop off paperwork. Provide easier, faster ways for families to enrol by offering digital enrolment solutions so families can complete forms anywhere, anytime while also speeding up the entire process.
Step 6—Parent is Enrolled but Now You Have to Retain Them
The cost of turnover is extremely high. It's estimated that it costs twice as much to attract new families to your centre as opposed to retaining current families. This makes keeping families enrolled just as important as gaining leads and enrolling new children. Once a parent has enrolled their child, continue to communicate with them regularly. The first 3 months at a new centre are critical for childcare enrolment retention.
Optimise the Parent Experience for Greater Enrolment Success
Keeping up with leads and new families is a tough job, especially considering everything else on your daily to-do list. Missing a lead or delaying a tour every now and then may not seem like it has a big impact, but these small mistakes start to add up quickly. Start focusing on how you can optimise the parent experience at your centre(s) for 2022 to increase childcare enrolment and retention rates.
Download our full 2022 Building Blocks Report to gain a deeper understanding of how to optimise the parent experience; with data-driven insights, childcare industry trends, and detailed best practices to help grow your childcare business.
