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How to navigate the parent enrolment journey.

A step-by-step guide for childcare with tips and best practices to help understand changing parent expectations.

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Changing parent expectations have created an environment where the old way of managing the parent experience from initial enquiry through family retention doesn’t work anymore. It’s inconvenient, time-consuming, and full of obstacles that cause families to choose another childcare centre altogether.

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Childcare organisations that make the parent experience digital and convenient will grow enrolment, increase retention, and remain competitive in the childcare market. In this guide, you'll view the key takeaways from our research and provided recommendations to help you grow your business by optimising the parent experience.

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The Challenges with Today's Parent Experience.

The parent experience defines the journey a parent takes from initial enquiry to retention, including key conversion points along the way. Today’s parent experience is often a series of starts and stops that can take several months. It is inconvenient, time-consuming, and full of obstacles that cause families to choose another childcare centre altogether.

A recent LineLeader enterprise customer explains, “Our families have indicated dissatisfaction with the current enrolment process. Families told us that our process for enrolment was lengthy, painful, incorrect, information was lost, and lacked customer service satisfaction.”

Common challenges with the parent experience include:

  • Slow or no response to new enquiries and tour requests.
  • Wasted time with back-and-forth emails and calls to schedule a tour date.
  • No follow-up after completed tours to discuss next steps.
  • Time-consuming and lengthy enrolment paperwork.
  • No options to pay enrolment and waitlist fees online.
  • Sitting indefinitely on waitlists with little communication.
  • Limited or no ongoing communication to encourage retention.
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The Parent Journey - Inconvenient and Time-Consuming 

There are many obstacles for parents to navigate as they move from initial enquiry to retention which contributes to a poor parent experience. With these obstacles, parent communication is affected.

Read more about the challenges of today's parent experience, why it isn't working, and how to fix it.

Parent Journey - 2023 (updated)

 

 

 

 

 

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Standardise enrolment across childcare centres.

For childcare organisations with multiple brands, schools, or programs - increasing revenue and keeping families happy is vital for growth. Your Millennial parents need a uniform, high-quality experience, regardless of location.

Standardising business processes has a significant impact on time savings, costs, and most notably on quality. In fact, standardisation improves quality by 61.9%, on average. Create consistent enrolment processes across all your franchise locations to ensure every family has a great experience and a positive association with your brand – leading to higher conversion success and profitability.  

To achieve consistency, all location marketing approach and advertising material must follow all your corporate brand guidelines. Your organisation should have a lead management system that supports all other location staff as they guide families through the decision-making journey while also ensuring each centre is delivering a consistent parent experience. 

Offer easy ways for parents to then respond quickly.

With 67% of Millennial parents shopping online, having an effective website and digital marketing strategy is essential to generating leads. LineLeader found that 51% of new leads came from online sources and the best converters completed tours with those new leads within 24 hours. Whether it's for initial follow-up, post-tour follow-up, engaging with waitlisted families, or tied to a specific marketing initiative - plan a targeted enrolment strategy that focuses on enhancing ways to enquire about your childcare business online.

 

Phone leads continue to decline and, not surprisingly, walk-ins have decreased steadily over the past few years. In a 2021 survey by LineLeader, 70% of childcare business owners and directors said they leverage web forms and landing pages with 38% reporting they use several at once to capture the most leads from their marketing efforts. LineLeader top converters use a minimum of 6 web forms to capture lead information.

 

In addition, 51% of  LineLeader centres integrate with lead generation platforms, like Toddle and Careforkids, as additional sources of new leads. These childcare listing directories make it easy for parents to browse childcare centres nearby and view prices, reviews, and photos. Childcare centres can create a listing to showcases their programs, receive enquiries, and respond to reviews.

 

Lead response time is the single largest driver of lead conversion. The childcare centre that follows up first with an interested family has an 80% higher chance of getting that enrolment. Contacting a lead within 5 minutes of their enquiry is 21 times more effective than contacting them after 30 minutes. LineLeader found that most top converters respond to new leads immediately by using automated communications and that 75% of their new leads complete a tour within 24 hours. To make it easy for parents to enquire online, follow these best practices... 

Turn your website into a lead generator.

Turn your website into a lead generator by using web forms and landing pages to capture interest. A web form can easily be added to your website and allows prospective families to enquire for care or request a tour in less than a minute. Use landing pages to capture interest from your online marketing and advertising campaigns.

 

Fast response to new enquiries generated from web forms and landing pages is vital to conversion success. 

The importance of enhancing your website.

Optimal response time is less than 30 minutes of the new enquiry. Using automatic follow-up communications for new enquiries is a great way to respond quickly and further increase the potential to generate more childcare enrolment conversions. 

Use Facebook as a lead capture tool.

In a 2021 survey by LineLeader, 71% of owners and directors responded that they use Facebook to help grow their childcare business. Your Facebook Business page is a great way to engage with your enquiring, waitlisted, and enrolled families. Share updates about your centre including new teachers and staff, program start dates, and more.

The importance of optimising your facebook.

Use Facebook Messenger to respond faster and answer parents’ questions in real-time. If you’re using Facebook Lead Ads, parents on Facebook can quickly confirm interest in your centre and send their contact information. Look for CRM software that integrates with both Facebook Messenger and Facebook Lead Ads.

Know where your leads are coming from.

On average, tracking leads helps businesses earn 30% more in annual revenue. So, it's essential that you understand what lead sources are generating the most enrolments. Lead sources typically include Facebook, Google, Centre Event, Community Event, Direct Mail, childcare listing directories (like Toddle & Careforkids), and more.

The importance of tracking your efforts

For the most effective marketing, develop a diverse set of lead sources, organic and paid, that work in unison. Look at how many enrolments each lead source generates. This will tell you where to increase your marketing spend by investing in the sources that work best.

Enable Parents to Self-Serve

Since today's parent enrolment experience has dozens of key conversion points where parents can become disengaged, self-service is a great way to give parents more suitable online options. Self-service allows parents to manage common enrolment tasks when it's convenient for them, provides parents with a more personalised experience, and makes the process more efficient for both parents and childcare staff. Some of the most useful applications of self-service throughout the parent journey include parent-scheduled tours, online enrolment, and fee payment.

 

Letting parents schedule tours from your website saves parents and staff from the back-and-forth of scheduling a tour date. LineLeader found that the faster parents can schedule and complete tours, the higher the conversion rate. 75% of LineLeader users’ tours take place within 24 hours. Top converters have almost 2 times as many leads complete tours immediately compared to the lowest converters. In addition, LineLeader top performers convert 76% of their ’completed tours’ to ‘enrolled’ or ‘waiting listed’.

 

Online enrolment is another opportunity for parent self-service. Filling out enrolment paperwork is time-consuming and requires parents to fill in the same information multiple times. In a 2021 survey by LineLeader, 30% of respondents said that it takes more than 2 weeks, on average, for families to return their paper registration forms, with some parents taking more than a month to complete all the required forms and make their registration fee payment. In contrast, LineLeader found that the median time it takes parents to complete online enrolment packets is only 4 days and that the overall completion rate is 65% and growing. Enable parents to self-serve with  3 insightful tips.

Make it easy for parents to schedule tours on your website.

Tours are one of the most important steps in the parent journey. Simplify the tour process by including an online tour scheduler on your website. Parents can schedule their own tour and receive automated confirmation and reminders which increase the likelihood of parents showing up for the tour. See best touring practices to follow at your childcare centre to achieve higher enrolment rates.

The importance of convenient touring.

Look for CRM software that includes parent-scheduled tour functionality. Make sure you can specify how many hours you want to make available to parents and when those hours are. This ensures tours are never booked when you’re already busy.

Offer online options for pre-enrolment.

Online enrolment is ideal for parent self-service. Easily collect family information, emergency contact information, consent and agreements, medical information, and necessary state forms without parents making multiple trips to the centre.

The importance of online pre-enrolment and registration.

Find CRM software that provides online enrolment including the ability for parents to upload documents like immunisation records. You'll also need a solution that lets you post documents, like your Parent Handbook, for review. Make it easy for parents to e-sign the packet—no faxing or dropping off required.

Pre-fill form information whenever possible.

Filling out the same information on multiple forms is time-consuming. Choose online enrolment software that integrates with CRM software, so you can pre-fill enrolment packets with information you’ve already collected.

The importance of saving time with digital forms features.

When parents open their online enrolment packet for the first time, details like their name, phone number, home address, and expected start date are already filled out. Save parents time by pre-filling as much enrolment information as possible.

Communicate the Way Parents Want 

Each type of parent requires a level of quick, personalised follow-up - whether it's to generate prospective enrolments or reengage lost opportunities. Your target parent audience - Millennials - were one of the first generations to grow up in the digital age. Enhance your enrolment process with quick, streamlined communications. 

60% of today’s parents prefer to communicate with businesses through text messaging. They see text messaging as less invasive than phone calls and more personal than other forms of communication, such as email. Childcare centres that use text messaging to communicate see higher and faster response rates. Compared to email, open rates for text messages are as high as 98%, and on average it only takes 90 seconds for someone to respond to a text. 

Another important part of text messaging’s appeal to the Millennial audience is largely based on convenience, speed, and flexibility. Text messages such as tour and payment reminders are a great example of using text messaging to effectively communicate. In a recent survey, 48% of Millennials said they prefer to receive notices about payment information through text, while more than half preferred to receive appointment reminders through their mobile device.

LineLeader top converters send 13 times as many individual text messages and 76 times as many group text messages to their leads compared to the lowest converters. Use a few simple tactics to ensure your messages are as effective as possible. Keep messages short and to the point. Texts are viewed on smaller screens than most emails so the shorter the message, the better. Keep the tone friendly, rather than too formal. Texting a parent is a more personal communication than emailing so they expect the tone to match the channel of communication. Plus, the Marketing Rule of 7 states that you need to engage with a family seven times to gain that childcare enrolment.

Use group text messaging to communicate with new leads and engage your waitlist.

It’s essential that you stay top of mind with both enquiring and waitlisted families during the enrolment journey. Send group text messages at regular intervals to maintain their interest and keep them excited about enrolling at your centre.

Keep families updated about events, open houses, holiday hours, and more. Establish a personal connection by including the parent’s name either at the beginning of the text message or within the body.

Use individual text messaging to schedule tours, send reminders, and more.

Today’s parents are busier than ever before. It’s not uncommon for them to accidentally miss appointments because they didn’t receive a reminder. Keep parents on-track with automated tour and enrolment reminders.

Look for CRM software that enables both individual and group text messaging directly from the software. Automate text communications to nudge parents through the enrolment journey.

Provide multi-language options on forms.

In a 2021 survey by LineLeader, 56% of childcare owners and directors said that families at their centre request forms in languages other than English. A parent's inability to read registration forms in their native language prevents them from being able to fully understand the terms of care which leads to decreased conversion rates for those who use English as a second language.

Find a solution that offers enrolment forms in multiple languages so parents can easily complete forms in their preferred language.

LineLeader Millennial Texting Infographic

Guide Parents through the Journey

There are many steps in the parent journey from new enquiry to tour scheduled, tour completed, and waitlisted or registered. Without guidance, parents can get lost along the way. Guide parents through the journey with automated communications that let them know what to do next and how to move forward. Use automated marketing to not only provide parents with clear, consistent communication, but also save staff time by minimising the number of manual email and text reminders they need to send.

LineLeader found that 5-10 workflow automations is the ideal number to guide families through to enrolment and retention, saving staff more than 40 hours of work every month. Workflow automations include pre-scheduled emails and text messages sent to families at each stage of the enrolment journey. For example, a new lead might get an immediate, automated ‘thank you’ email with information about your centre and a link to schedule a tour. After two days, a text message is automatically sent to remind the parent to check out your website and schedule a tour.

74% of marketers say that the biggest benefit of marketing automation is saving time. By automating outreach and follow-up efforts, reply rates can increase by 250%. Many marketers also saved 80% more time by setting appointments or meetings with an automated tool. While marketing automation clearly saves time on repetitive tasks, it also ensures all leads are followed up on and moving towards enrolment.

See a standard enrolment funnel to better understand how to help parents navigate each enrolment stage.

Use workflow automations to help families navigate enrolment and re-enrolment.

Consistent and fast follow-up is an essential component of childcare enrolment success. Marketing automation allows you to build email and text templates in advance. You can then schedule them to send to every family after a specific stage in the enrolment journey is complete.

Personalise each communication with information like the parent’s name, desired room, or special care requests. These communications ensure that parents move forward towards enrolment as quickly as possible all while saving hours of manual work for centre staff. Plus, you retain more children after a family's initial enrolment start date with streamlined communications and a consistent workflow. 

LineLeader Workflow-03

Save staff time and reduce manual work with task management.

Nearly 70% of workers say the biggest opportunity for automation lies in reducing time wasted on repetitive work. Managing tasks for your entire team in CRM software is like having a virtual office assistant guiding everyone through their daily priorities.

Staff members can see their current and upcoming tasks in one place, and you can monitor progress towards completed tasks. Save hours each day, boost productivity, and increase organisation across your business with task management and automation.

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Use software integrations to increase enrolment retention.

The average manual data entry error rate in management systems is 62%. Enabling your CRM software to automatically communicate with your Childcare Management System ensures that family information is accurate and stays up to date. For parents, this means that they don't have to enter the same information multiple times and that they won't miss out on important communications due to wrong information in their records.

63% of LineLeader centres integrate with Childcare Management Systems, ensuring higher rates of parent satisfaction and retention.

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The Impact of COVID-19 on Childcare businesses, parents and children.

Our analysis of LineLeader users across more than 4,000 childcare centres shows an increase in several indicators for 2020-2021 compared to 2019-2020. First, the average number of monthly opportunities has increased. Additionally, conversion rates from ‘tour completed’ to ‘waitlisted’ or ‘enrolled’ have increased. And finally, the number of ‘tours completed’ in 24 hours has increased.

 

Together, these findings indicate that families are looking for childcare services as they return back to work. Not only are families looking for childcare services, they are also engaged and converting. With opportunities and conversion rates back to pre-pandemic levels, childcare centres should invest in their marketing to build waitlists, grow enrolment, and improve retention.

 

In addition, Covid-19 has drastically affected children's mental health. Ensure your directors, staff, teachers, and classrooms are equipped to provide all the necessary resources to support the mental health of each and every child enrolled at your centres. Build mental health into your classroom curriculum and provide a safe space to talk with families. 

 

The average number of month opportunities has increased.

Conversion rates from 'Tour Completed' to 'Waitlisted' or 'Enrolled' has increased.

The number of 'Tours Completed' in 24 hours has increased.

The number of tours scheduled is rising.

However, 71% of parents believe Covid-19 has negatively impacted their child's mental health.

Learn how to provide support and advocate for children's mental health awareness week in your classrooms.

Download the full 2022 Building Blocks for Success Report.

Download and access the report to view a comprehensive list of Covid-19 impact statistics,. Plus, see childcare industry statistics and additional tips to optimise the parent experience for a streamlined enrolment journey.

Execution Plan: Marketing and Sales 

The marketing and sales plan section of your business plan details how you propose to reach your target market segments, how you plan on converting those target markets, what your pricing model looks like, and what partnerships you may need to make your centre a success.  

Your Positioning Statement

Once you understand your audience, the first part of your marketing and sales plan is your positioning statement. Refer back to your value proposition to create a simple, straightforward sentiment, explaining where your company sits within the competitive landscape and what differentiates your venue from the alternatives that a customer might consider. This statement should be written for an investor or loan provider, rather than for your customer. 

For example, a positioning statement for a 24-hour childcare centre in Sydney, New South Wales may look like this: 

“For the Sydney-based family who is seeking childcare around the clock, Jenny’s 24-Hour Childcare Centre is a safe option for young children with nutritional meals, best-in-industry sleeping arrangements, a clean outdoor play area, and highly trained care teachers and educators. Jenny’s 24-Hour Childcare Centre is the first centre of its kind within 10 km of the Sydney city centre and offers competitive pricing and competitive daily rates.” 

Use this formula to develop a positioning statement for your centre: 

Your Mission Statement

Your mission statement is a scaled-down version of your positioning statement. This should be just one-two sentences that are geared toward your target consumer and describe what your business plans to accomplish. This statement usually includes company core values that explain your childcare’s purpose and how you serve your audience. 

For example, Busy Bees is a leading early childhood education provider with the mission of “high quality childcare and exciting learning opportunities that give every child the best start in life.” 

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Pricing 

Your positioning strategy will typically determine how you price your memberships and packages. There are some basic rules that you should follow when deciding on your price point: 

  • Cost-plus pricing: For the most part, you should be charging your customers more than it costs you to host them at your centre to ensure your venue is profitable and is appealing to investors. 

  • Market-based pricing: Look at what your competitors are charging and then price based on what your audience is expecting. 

Strategic Alliances

As part of your marketing plan, you may wish to collaborate with other organisations such as local camps, after-school programs, pediatricians, or even other childcare centres that don’t offer the same activities that you do.  

This partnership should benefit both of you – it may help provide access to a target market segment for your venue while allowing your partner to offer a helpful recommendation to their customers. If you’ve already established an alliance, it’s important to detail that in your business plan. 

Operations

The operations section is all about how your business works. This portion details the essential logistics such as staffing and sourcing and fulfilment. But remember, your goal is to keep your business plan as short as possible, so too much detail here could easily make your plan much too long. 

Milestones and Metrics

It’s critical that you take the time to look forward and schedule the next critical steps for your business. Investors will want to see that you understand what needs to happen to make your plans a reality and that you are working on a realistic schedule.

Then, determine how you will measure the success of each milestone by listing out the key performance indicators and metrics needed to see progress. These will be the numbers you monitor on a regular basis to evaluate the trajectory of your business. For example, you may look at how many families tour your centre each week, how many children you enrol each month, or the amount of revenue you bring in per quarter. 

Company and Management Summary

The structure of your staff and teams sets your daycare up for success. In a new childcare centre, there’s typically an owner, a centre director, staff members, an enrolment or marketing team, accounting/administration, teachers, assistants, cooks, bus drivers, and janitorial staff. For example, the average small daycare business has 8-10 fully licensed and/or certified early education teachers. 

 

Financial Forecasts 

A typical financial plan will have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first 12 months, and then annual projections for the remaining three to five years. Break your sales forecast down into several rows, focusing on just high-level buckets at this point.  

Knowing how much your childcare will cost to open ahead of time can save you money, stress, and time. Childcare start-up expenses vary by size, enrolment capacity, and miscellaneous needs. 

Keep in mind that you can save on staffing costs and cut down on overhead with technology that helps to streamline your centre’s operations. After all, 40% of Millennials prefer self-service over human contact when interacting with businesses.  

It’s essential that you find ways to enable families to book tours and enrol online without ever having to make a phone call to the centre- reducing time spent on necessary-but-manual tasks for both your staff and enquiring families. 

Finally, articulate your profits and losses based on the data from your sales forecast and your personnel plan plus a list of all your other ongoing expenses associated with running your childcare centre. 

Formula

Step 1: Average daily rate per child x your expected enrolments x 12 (annual revenue – assuming each family is still enrolled during the holiday periods). 

Step 2: Childcare businesses make around 16% profit from their overall revenue, after Childcare expenses. Multiply your number from step 1 by .16 to get your predicted profit.  

Example: Let’s say you plan to charge families an average of $110 per day for childcare. With that, your goal is to enrol 60 students by the time your childcare centre opens. Multiply ($110 x5) 60 x 12 (annual revenue). This should come out to $396,000. Lastly, multiply your revenue of $396,000 by .16, which equals a net profit of $63,360 per year. 

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Consider various funding sources.

Depending on your situation, there’s both loan and grant funding in childcare. Between state tax credits, loans, and grants – there are financing options for a variety of situations. 

Collect childcare grants for your business.

Often, startup costs for opening a childcare are high. Certain states and councils offer grants for new childcare businesses. There are several grant options, depending on your child and family details.  

For example, companies and associations such as Australian Grants or Early Childhood Association Australia can help you with more information or support towards applying for these grants and funding.

Form Your Childcare Business

All legitimate businesses, including childcare will need to apply for an ABN (Australian Business Number) that identifies your business to the government and the community. 

 

Find the Right Vendors

Choosing the right suppliers for your business is essential. If your vendors aren’t reliable or don’t deliver quality products, your new centre will struggle to attract families. As a childcare provider, you will likely need the following vendors at one point or another: 

 

Electrician 

Plumber 

Food and Beverage Supplier 

Educational Materials Supplier 

Substitute Staffing Provider 

Accountant 

Cleaning & Maintenance 

Childcare Management System (CMS) 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software 

Digital Payments Provider 

Online Forms Software 

 

Research Your Vendors

Check their most current reviews and current list of clients.

Review Your Options

Don't settle for the first vendor you see, research and receive quotes from at least 3 vendors.

How to gain enrolment at your childcare.

The next step after successfully starting your daycare business is to grow your centre and gain enrolments.  

Begin by building a string company culture, actively marketing your childcare centre, and finding the right childcare technology to optimise your enrolment process and save time. 

Create a culture where staff want to work.

A childcare centre that stands out from the rest has happy staff members that want to work hard. Create a diverse employee culture that feels comfortable openly talking about situations. Provide support, patience, and room for growth.  

Market your centre.

A childcare marketing strategy starts with an achievable goal. Do you want to fill your enrolment spots? Do you want to build a waitlist? Should you focus on scheduling more tours?  

Choose an objective and measurable results – so you can track and analyse your marketing performance.  

Market, promote, and advertise your childcare centre with... 

  • Social media (especially Facebook – 83% of Millennials have a Facebook account). 

  • Landing pages and contact forms on your website 

  • Listing directories 

  • Email and text marketing campaigns 

  • Referrals 

  • Digital advertisements 

  • Flyers 

  • Word of mouth marketing 

Tip: Childcare software that automates the reports you need helps you to saves time and improve your return on investment (ROI).  

For example, with a Source of Families report, you can see where your leads are coming from. It helps you enhance your marketing efforts and refine your spending. Invest in the channels that are popular and spend less on the ones that aren’t working to generate more high-quality leads. 

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Find the right childcare CRM software to manage enrolment with less work.

LineLeader is revolutionary childcare software that automates lead capture, follow-up, scheduling tours, and reports. With digital enrolment forms  – you and your staff will save hours of time. Plus, craft beautiful, personalised marketing campaigns to continually grow your business. 

 

Further, marketing is the growth engine for every new childcare centre. But missed leads, slow response times, a complex parent experience, and lack of reporting make marketing difficult. Busy and overworked staff often don’t have time to complete every manual-but-necessary marketing activity, so opportunities are lost.   

 

Get more from your marketing while saving educators and centre directors 10 hours every week with LineLeader. Automate everything from lead capture to reporting—all from one place.

For Current Users

Visit our website to learn more.

For Interested Users

Schedule a demo to take the next step and effortlessly increase occupancy and gain enrolments from the get-go. 

Get started With LineLeader.

Resources to help you run your childcare business.

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