Since one of the best marketing tools you have for your childcare center is the parent tour, a good first impression of your business is essential. If you have never given tours before, put some effort into planning according to the tips below. If you have been providing tours and are having difficulty persuading parents to close the deal, maybe you need to compare your tour practices with the steps below.
On with the show: How to Give the Best Childcare Tour Ever!
Offer Your Tours on Specific Days and Times
Organizational efficiency is one thing parents are looking for, even if they don’t realize it. If you try to schedule and give tours any day or time, it can make you look disorganized before the parents get to your door. Just the act of asking, “When do you want to come in?” can make you seem less than put together.
You may think you are letting parents know you are flexible but asking them when they want to have a tour takes control out of your hands. It’s highly likely there are better times than others to give a tour of the facility; take advantage of your knowledge of the schedule to provide tours at times when everyone is in a classroom or at lunch rather than moving through the hallways.
- Mid-morning is usually a good time for a tour; the staff and children are settled in from drop off, and everyone is still well rested.
- Once the appointment is made, send a reminder to the parents as another way of showing your organizational skills.
- Start the tour with a short meeting with the parents to learn about any specific concerns they want to address.
By offering tours at set times, you can make up groups and provide a tour for more than one potential client, or you can ensure that you do not have more than one client with you at a time.
Use the Same Person to Conduct All Tours
Practice makes perfect, and if the same person gives all the tours, the presentation will be polished, and the tour host will learn about common concerns and questions parents are asking. You can use the information to tweak the tour talk or to prompt parents who may have questions they don’t know how to communicate. Common concerns include:
- Qualifications of the staff and center
- Safety
- How illness and absences are handled
- The staff-to-child ratio
- Transportation if you provide it
- Visitation policy
- Curriculum style
Be sure to hit the same highlights on every tour, but don’t try to tell the parents everything about your facility. You will overwhelm them with details. Stick to two or three main points, highlighting your business differentiators. Use the selling points you believe make your childcare center the best choice.
Building on the theme of organizational efficiency and professionalism, a smooth tour given by someone intimately familiar with the facility adds to the impression of a well-run center. Because you know a parent's specific concern in advance of the tour, the tour lead can alter the script to include answers to those concerns.
Changing up the tour lecture can keep it from sounding mechanical, preserving the feeling of personal warmth that may be one of the factors in a parent’s decision.
Give a Gift to Say Thank You
When you book the tour, learn the names and ages of their children. Not only will you be able to personalize the tour to leave out irrelevant areas, but you can also select an age-appropriate present for the children to take with them afterward. Such small touches can leave a big impression.
Close the Deal
Rather than simply showing the parents the door at the end of the tour, make your ideal outcome of the meeting come true.
- Do you want them to enroll immediately?
- Do you have a waitlist you would like them to join?
- Are you in a position to make a special offer?
Whatever outcome you want, take the time at the end of the tour to sit down with the parents and make your pitch. Don’t use vague language or ask the parents what they want to do. Say something along the lines of, “I enjoyed meeting with you and your children. Can I get the enrollment paperwork started for you?”
At this time, you can make a special offer such as a percentage off the registration fee or tuition as a sweetener. You are selling your service. You stand a better chance of closing your sale if you control the narrative and leave as little as possible to chance.
Follow Up with Parents
After you have put so much effort into creating a well-run tour and sitting down with the parents to answer specific questions and try to get the ball rolling on the registration paperwork, don’t drop the ball after the parents leave.
Set up an automatic notification in your childcare management system, write it in the calendar, or find another way to remember to call or email to follow up on the visit. If you don't reach out, it increases the chances that you will never see them again.
Call them to thank them for coming and find out if they have additional questions. A handwritten note will definitely get their attention in today’s electronic world.
If at least half of all your initial phone calls result in a tour and at least half of the tours result in an enrollment, you are doing very well. Track your numbers every month and listen to comments and questions to help you make your tour even better.
It's easy to forget in the whirl of starting and operating a business that selling your services is part of the deal. Many people don't think of themselves as salespeople, but if you are passionate about what your school has to offer, most of the “selling” is done while you speak to potential clients.
Strive for a good impression by putting together an organized and well-presented tour that starts with learning about the parents and ends with a closing pitch. Plan your tours at a time of day when everything is relatively calm, and you will not be interrupted. With a clean facility and professional demeanor, you will be filling the spaces on your roster in no time.
