With competition on the rise and Families often looking for more flexible care options, it has become increasingly apparent that relationships must sit at the heart of any successful Family engagement and retention strategy.

Fostering positive and reciprocal relationships with new and existing Families is one of the best (and most cost-effective) ways to ensure you’re attracting new Families, building a positive community reputation and retaining existing Families – ensuring occupancy stability and growth.

But don’t be fooled, it takes time, effort and most importantly energy – which is often depleted by the daily administration grind.

It’s time to embrace technological advances and outsourced solutions to reduce your administration burden and give you back precious time to focus on inspiring your team, nurturing your Families, and most importantly creating a stimulating Centre environment for the children in your care.

Our team discuss some of the administrative activities that consume your time and how to easily reduce their impact.

Allow Families to book casual days

Casual days are a great value add for Families, as well as a fantastic source of additional revenue for Centres. Historically we know that many Providers have been hesitant to offer them as they have been cumbersome to arrange and organise. However, with the emergence of many casual day apps over the last 2 years, they’re much easier for Providers to facilitate and Families to utilise.

Apps such as KindNow, provide Families with the ability to book their own casual days at their own time, rather than requesting and waiting for you to respond to an email or message. You can also alert Families when a new casual day become available, allow them to log their absences (increasing the number of casual days you can offer) and send personalised messages – truly creating a personal connection.

Worried about staffing? You can build in parameters and specific rules around casual day bookings (such as they must be booked at least 24 hours in advance) to give you the opportunity to plan your roster and minimise any last-minute request stress on you.

Simply set an hour aside at the end of each day to manage and confirm all the casual booking requests you have received that day. If the app doesn’t already automate the booking confirmation, create a simple email template.

If you’re not already offering casual days to Families, why not chat to the team here about how to set this process in motion.

Digitalise your enrolment paperwork

By providing Families with the ability to complete the lengthy enrolment paperwork online, not only are you removing that heavy administration burden from your plate, but you’re also often making it easier for Families to complete. Rather that you having to chase Families to complete missing details or provide additional information (which can erode positive relationships), the responsibility for the enrolment is shifted to the Family, as they will be unable to move forward with the enrolment until the paperwork has been completed.

Programs such as KidSoft and Childcare CRM are perfect examples of online systems that can allow you to create, adapt and automate the Family enrolment process – alleviating administration tasks from your list whilst at the same time nurturing that Family relationship by customising the Family enrolment process and keeping that communication flowing!

Outsource your enquiry management

Answering and responding to the unrelenting influx of daily enquiries can be an arduous task. With the average enrolment equating to over $12,000 per year, it’s not an option to let any enquiry fall through the cracks.

On average, it takes at 16+ points of contact to convert a new enquiry into a confirmed enrolment – with many Centre Managers already time deprived, the prioritisation of answering enquiries and nurturing positive and personal connections with each enquiring Family can seem like a task that fits neatly into the ‘too hard basket’.

Not all enquiries will eventuate into Centre tours or enrolments. Modern Families shop around for their childcare, gathering information from several shortlisted Centres before making their final decision. It’s time to focus your precious (and finite) time and energy on real enrolment prospects and leave the triaging of enquiries and answering of questions to a specialised team.

Our Enquiry Management teams work in partnership with you as part of your existing Centre team to connect with your potential new families, convert their enquiries to Centre tours and maximise your opportunities – focusing your energy only on those Families that have a real potential to enrol.

That sounds pretty easy right?

Delegate your paperwork and administration tasks

Running a childcare Centre is an immense job and there always seems to be a never-ending list of required administration. From marking rolls, to sending weekly statements, making booking changes, submitting attendance and everything in between, it can consume your days and drain your energy.

There are so many tasks that can be completed quicker and better by another team member, or external team (such as Enrolment Hub), freeing you up to focus on your team, children and the smooth running of your Centre.

Here are just a few examples of things you should probably delegate to someone else:

• Building maintenance and upkeep – we’re not all DIY masters!
• Filing and record keeping – move to online storage for easy access
• Bookkeeping/Accounting – need we say more. Accountants are Accountants for a reason
• Entering enrolment details – this is a time-consuming task that really can be outsourced to an external team or your 2IC
• Sending Family statements and answering Family accounts questions – this often takes a lot of time to work through, so delegate!
• Shopping for food and planning menus – leave this with the Kitchen Team
• Ordering craft supplies – Empower your Room Leaders to take responsibility for this, with a designated budget

Create and schedule your content

It’s important that every Centre or Provider has a presence on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. It allows you to interact with your audience and become a part of the conversation that’s already happening around your brand.  Creating engaging and interesting content is a specialised skill and it takes time – especially when you look at how many different social platforms and channels Families are using these days.

The power of social media should not be underestimated or misjudged. Not only is it an effective (and in-expensive) marketing tool, but it also allows you to engage Families on a completely new level and help to foster a real sense of community.

Scheduling your content across multiple channels saves you time, ensures brand consistency and most importantly allows you to reach your target audience at the times they’re online, even if that time is inconvenient for you. If you get sick or are unable to post at a specific time each day scheduling allows you to have an active social media account.

There are some great programs that can help you to schedule your content like Loomly, Hootsuite or Sprout Social. Want to take it a step further and have unique and engaging content developed for you? Why not speak with our Marketing Team to see how they might be able to help you.

What does the future hold?

Looking ahead, outsourcing key and required business functions such as administration requirements and managing enquiries is going to be the key to success for many Operators.

To ensure that you have the time (and energy) to nurture relationships with your enrolled Families (as well as team members), it’s important to remove tasks from your plate that do not require your special set of skills to complete, things you don’t like doing, or things that someone else could do better. 

Why not chat with you team about how we can support you to allow your Centre and business to thrive? Simple get in touch with the team here.

ENROLMENT HUB – LEADER IN EARLY EDUCATION ENROLMENT,
DEBT MANAGEMENT, AND SO MUCH MORE

We are provide a full service offering including Administration and CCMS support, occupancy and enrolment strategies, brand marketing assistance, debt recovery, new provider set up, CCMS Transfer assistance and consultation services.

Our team are experienced, professional and knowledgeable, and know all there is to know about enrolments in the Early Education and Childcare Sector.

Enrolment Hub – Your Partner

Enrolment Hub offers a comprehensive range of services, including childcare administration, childcare management solutions, childcare centre enrolment, childcare marketing solutions, childcare debt support, new child care centre support, childcare software management, childcare centre resources, vacation care management, childcare enquiry support, and child care consultants

Enrolment Hub are an extension of your team, working in partnership and caring about your business just as much as you do.

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