Have you looked at your childcare centre reviews lately?

If you haven’t, it might be time to take a peek.

Why? Because reviews are incredibly influential. In fact, 88% of consumers make the effort to consult reviews when discovering a local business – like a childcare centre.

Not only that, 74% of consumers trust a business more if it has positive online reviews and they can impact local search and SEO, improving rankings on average by about 12%.

Reviews are all part of online reputational marketing – an incredibly powerful tool that is not only free but also often undervalued. Utilising reviews will help you to showcase your centre’s reputation, improve search rankings for your website and increase your enquiry conversion in the processes.

 

So how can you acquire positive reviews without being overly pushy?

Here our team at Enrolment Hub explain 5 easy ways to ask your enrolled families for a review – and we’ve thrown in some free review email templates to help get you started!

 

1. Ask families directly

Go directly to the source. Asking families in person to write a review is a fantastic way to boost your online reviews – and it doesn’t have to feel formal or forceful. Inevitably, over the years you have built up incredible relationships with your families – some closer than others.  Start by hand-picking these families and ask them to leave a review of your centre or your team. It can be as simple as a quick question at pick-up time or pulling them aside at your next centre event.

Easier still, when your centre or team receives a compliment or piece of positive feedback, why not ask the family if they would be willing to share their comment online? You can provide them with the links directly to your Facebook page or Google Business listing so they can share it for all to see.

It’s important to also empower your Room Leaders and Educators to feel comfortable asking for reviews – as they spend a lot of time with families at drop-off and pick-up. Take the time at your next team meeting to provide them with tips, a script, and ideas of how they can subtly ask families for reviews when they feel it’s appropriate.

 

2. Email families (or send a message through your app)

If you’re not comfortable asking families for a review directly, why not email them instead?

Crafting a simple message and sending an email request allows you to include direct links to your Facebook or Google Business accounts – making it quicker and easier for families to complete a review.

You can then either send this email to certain families – or send it out to all your families to increase the possibility of gaining more reviews. Just know that this could open you up to potentially receive not so favourable reviews as well.

Our top tip? Create a specific email template that you can send to families whose children are transitioning to Primary School. Inevitably, they have been with your service for a while and would be happy to review your centre during this exciting and emotional time.

Not sure where to start? Enrolment Hub have you covered with their free email templates to help you craft the right message.

 

3. Use your centre newsletter

Do you send families a weekly or monthly newsletter? If you do, a newsletter is a great place to include a link to your Google Business profile or Facebook page. A post on your social media profiles, every once in a while, will also serve as a good reminder as well.

To make leaving a review easy for families, try to align the channel where you’re asking for the review with the channel they can write the review on. For example, on Facebook, ask for Facebook reviews. You can even use Messenger to ask individual families for reviews if they comment or send a message to you directly.

 

4. Create a sign with a QR code

If you’re not comfortable with the more direct approaches, creating a review request sign and placing it in a central location within your childcare centre could be an ideal option. Create a simple sign in Canva and add a QR code that will link directly to your Google Business profile so they can quickly and easily leave a review on the go.

 

5. Ask your community partners

Who says reviews need to be from families? If you have any local or small businesses you work with regularly, why not ask them to leave a review about your relationship? Don’t forget, you can also leave them a review which will go a long way in fostering that relationship.

So, there you have it, 5 easy ways to ask your families for a review.

If you need a little extra help with your childcare marketing, Enrolment Hub are here.

Working with our Marketing Team, Enrolment Hub can create a bespoke marketing support package tailored specifically to your Centre’s goals and requirements. Please reach out to the team for more information on our bespoke packages.

Enrolment Hub would love the opportunity to discuss how we can partner with you to deliver fantastic results for your Childcare Centre. Reach out to our Marketing team at marketing@enrolmenthub.com or please give them a call on (02) 8123 2300.

Share