Ask Julie | Creating Positive Center Impressions

Here is a question asked by another director like you:

How do I make sure a prospect feels good about their first center visit?

Julie’s Answer:

One of the best things you can do is give the prospect a quick call within 24 hours, just to let her know you enjoyed having her child and her visit your center and to see if you can answer any questions that might have come up after she left. This positions you as the professional helpful resource, and makes your prospect feel good. Continue to follow up using my Mail-Mail-Call Follow Up System.  

-Julie Wassom
Julie@JulieWassom.com
http://JulieWassom.com

Opportunity Knocks – Are You Opening the Door to More Enrollment?

For years it has been a frustrating reality for parents that child care services have failed to keep pace with the changing workday…” quotes Exchange Everyday in a recent post, Round-the-Clock Demand, citing Sabrina Tavernise’s January 15^th article in the New York Times.

 Are you turning inquiries away as ineligible when you could easily serve these families with minor adjustments in operations? What marketing message is that sending? How can you capture un-served enrollment opportunities and make it easy for parents to enroll with you? Consider these options:

Track ineligible inquiries. According to Harriet B Presser, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, “About 40 % of the American workforce now works some form of non-standard hours.” As you speak with enrollment inquiries, track those who are ineligible because your hours of operation do not fit their needs for child care. (Use a contact management program to help you efficiently track inquiry sources and ineligible prospects. See Resources column below for an industry-customized CMR program to consider.) If the number is significant, take the next step.

Extend hours of operation. Survey your marketplace (and your own parents) to determine the level of demand for hours of care beyond what you and nearby competitors offer. If it is strong enough to cover expenses, consider extending hours to accommodate the need. Once your new schedule is in place, promote this service as a unique benefit of your center. Be sure to alert area employers of this benefit, working with them to relay this message to employees who work longer hours or odd shifts.

Offer flexible programming. Though you may already offer some form of part-time or drop-in care, determine what schedule would serve unmet needs in your target prospect audience. Be open to possibilities that make your child care the one that will work for those parents with flexible work hours or hours that alternate regularly.

Encourage position sharing. If you have customers whose work schedule or workplace means they only need part time care, work with them to find another parent with the same need who could share a full-time position with them. With clear guidelines, this arrangement can save two enrollments, be a sigh of relief to the parents, and generate higher revenue for your center than a single full-time enrollment would.

Though your center may have specific reasons for the hours it keeps, it is always wise to stop and think in your prospect’s perspective. Take a good look at your center’s hours of operation and decide if they are truly serving the needs in your current audience of parents, especially those whose work schedule does not match yours. Ask yourself, “Do we make it easy for prospects to enroll with us, or do we send them into the waiting arms of our competitors who do? Easy to enroll is better for everyone and not all that hard to do.

Read more about child care enrollment marketing

-Julie Wassom
Julie@JulieWassom.com
http://JulieWassom.com

Low Cost Advertising that Gets Results

Are you looking for a way to advertise your business other than purchasing space in publications?

Advertising is communicating your message through print, broadcast or electronic media, with the intent of informing your prospects about you and persuading them to inquire or purchase. Carefully selected advertising mediums, such as industry trade journals, local newspapers, the Internet, etc. have their place as effective methods of marketing. However, there are many lower-cost forms of accomplishing your advertising goal that, when combined with other forms of marketing communications, can give you great reach and frequency of your message.

1. Voice mail. Does your message include your company name and your web address?
2. Email signature. If your business email signature does not include your company name and tagline, and multiple ways to contact you, you are missing a cost-efficient method of advertising.
3. Advertorials. Though these are paid advertising, they have an editorial look and read, and can thus be perceived by readers as publicity. This gives you the third party endorsement benefit of publicity coupled with the advertising advantage of being able to include all the information you want to communicate.
4. Premiums. Hats, bags, stickers, notepads, pens, and cups are examples of an array of smaller items that can be distributed to prospects and customers to remind them of you. Be sure all display your company name, phone and web address.
5. Business Card. Your business card is your most cost-effective marketing tool. ALWAYS carry some with you. Give them out freely, giving people two – one to keep and one to pass along.
6. Pay Per Click Ads. Another paid method of advertising, but one that you should REALLY consider. When it comes to drawing leads to your Child Care Center PPC Advertising is a great option because it is quite literally guaranteed traffic for your money, in that  you ONLY pay for the clicks you receive!  The more specified you can become with niche markets based on your industry and geographic location – the less expensive the ads will be.

When you think about advertising, think beyond publications and banners and flyers to the endless methods you can use to inform and persuade your target audiences without eating into the budget you need for other forms of marketing.

-Julie Wassom
Julie@JulieWassom.com
http://JulieWassom.com

Ask Julie – Turning Center Features Into Benefit Statements

Here is a question asked by another director like you:

How do I make a center feature into a benefit statement?

Julie’s Answer:

Good questions! Instead of saying “This is the toddler room. Here are some of the activities the children are doing to learn about colors?,” say, “Here in our toddler classroom, Seth would learn about colors in activities like you see the children doing here.” That change in HOW you say it tells the parent what they GET, versus merely what you have to offer. Small difference that makes a HUGE impact on parent perception.  

Learn more about Julie’s “Five Non-Negotiable Conversion Skills” 

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com