I arrive at my center on August 22, 2011 and I checked my telephone message log. As I scanned the message log, I noticed that several parents called the center to inquire about enrolling their children.
After checking the message log, I went to the talk with the Assistant Director about the enrollment inquiries. As we began to discuss the telephone message, she also informed me that a mother of a School-age child had stopped by the center shortly before I arrived to pick-up enrollment information.
I was thinking to myself…Wow! I love it when parents inquire about enrollment. After our conversation, I immediately wrote down the mother’s phone number that stopped by the center and went to my office to call her.
When the mother answered the phone, I introduced myself and thanked her for visiting my center. I asked her if she had any questions in regards to enrolling her child. She said, ” I would like to schedule a tour to get started on the process of enrolling my child and what is your registration fee?
After my phone call with the mother, I realized the importance of follow-up with parents. When parents are visiting your program, they may forget to ask you something, however, if you follow-up with them, they may have more questions.
Several days, prior to writing this blog post, I decided to contact all the families that had recently visited my center, to see if they were still interested in enrolling their children.
I was quite surprise to discover that many of the parents that recently stopped by center, had already enrolled their children in the program.
One of the parents on the visitor log had already found a center for her two-year old child. She seemed so excited when I called her and she thanked me for following up with her. In addition to me calling her, she assured me that if her current baby sitter did not work out, that she will keep my center in mind.
Here are six ways to follow-up with parents and help to build enrollment :
- Create a visitor log that ask for the parent’s name, phone number and email address
- Collect contact information from parents when they call your home or center.
- Follow-up within parent 24-48 hours of calling or visiting your program
- Send an email or e-newsletter to potential customers every week so that they won’t forget you.
- Invite parents to follow your program on social media. This allows the parent to check our your program.
- Send a post card in the mail to the family and consider offering a “Free Day”
With Your Child Care Business in Mind,
The Child Care Business Owner Institute 
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