Latest / ChildCare Conversations / 344: Are You Using Your Childcare Center’s Data to Its Full Potential?

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344: Are You Using Your Childcare Center’s Data to Its Full Potential? · ChildCare Conversations

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Childcare Conversations, the podcast where early childhood leaders like you get real-world strategies, honest talk, and a whole lot of support.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're running one center or many, we're here to help you lead with confidence and clarity.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: This episode is brought to you by CenterIQ.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever added a child to a classroom, adjusted staffing, or made a quick schedule change, and then spent the next two weeks fixing the ripple effects, you're not alone.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Most leaders make decisions and then see what happens.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: CenterIQ's decision intelligence lets you see what happens before you decide.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Start your free trial today at centeriQ.io.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's get into today's conversation.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: One we think you're really going to love.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: Well, welcome back.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: We are so glad to have your phone buzzing in the background because some of us, meaning both of us, forgot to put our phones in airplane mode.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna go put mine in since Kate just reminded me by having both airplane mode.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Professional podcasters, people.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: We are professional.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're something anyway.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk, let's talk about maybe something that's a little less exciting than whether or not Kate and Gary can figure out how to use their phones.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: But what I'd love for us to talk about today is what are the numbers telling you?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: I know, Carrie, we have heard it day in, day out.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: We even tell folks data, data, data.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not tracking the data, you can't make any decisions.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: But I think what happens is my numbers say that it is 74 degrees, which means that since I'm from Texas, I need sleeves on.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I think what's interesting is that sometimes we end up with the numbers.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have the numbers, but we don't necessarily know how to make better decisions because we have the numbers.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Literally, last night, this was a situation I had with one of my coaching clients.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure that a lot of our other folks who listen have had those same issues, Carrie.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: Now, they don't know whether to wear sleeves or not because they don't know what the temperature is.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: I mean I think that's just a trial and error kind of thing.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's spring in Texas.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I looked at today is that the northern part of Texas, the panhandle was in the 50s, and the southern part of Texas was in the 90s.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So if you don't like the weather, just drive 10 hours south and you're still in Texas.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's backwards.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, all right.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk a little bit about connecting numbers to decisions.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Can we do that?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: We have.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: We've already talked about it.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: This is how you determine whether or not you need to have sleeves on.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: Is that the kind we're trying to decide?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: Is that it?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: No?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: So what numbers do leaders avoid carry because they feel overwhelming or confusing?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, how much money they should be earning that they're not earning because they've left 22 slots unfilled in their center.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: They really don't want to do.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: I have 22 slots, so that means I have two infant slots.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's 1,800 each times two.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: I've had that vacancy for six months.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to know what that number is.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you think it's important for them to know that number?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: So that they can justify ice cream.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Is that not the right answer you wanted?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't want that answer?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: No, that was not the answer I wanted, Carrie.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think it's reasonable.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: So let's let's go ahead and and do that math.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: So it's been two months, and we had an infant room in a metro area, and it was$1,800 a month times two months times two people.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: So$72,000.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: $7,200.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: $7,200.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: I have$7,200 hole in my budget because I didn't want to call the people on the waiting list because they were going to ask me questions that were uncomfortable.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, so, so, so you felt some emotion to it.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think most of the time when you're avoiding looking at numbers, it's because you're concerned that there's going to be an emotion to it.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: So whether it's that you're not looking at what your payroll tax bill is, you're just like, you have the pay, you are the payroll person, just pay the bill.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to know.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so they're covering their face and they don't want to know how much they're paying in payroll tax.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: So they're being, so they're topplers.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like if I don't see you, you're not there.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think there's a lot of that.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not looking at the numbers of how of my gross revenue, what percentage is my payroll cost, and the payroll costs are what I'm paying out in paychecks, what I'm paying in taxes, and what I'm paying in benefits, or the unearned income from benefits.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because again, we talk about the fact that a lot of child care centers do the discounted tuition as part of their benefits.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: All of that needs to go in, and we have to have a number, a percentage of your gross revenue that all of that payroll comes to.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: And they're afraid.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: They're afraid.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: So they're afraid.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I think a lot of things is like, so for example, yesterday's client, she has a bookkeeper, she has an accountant.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: They put the numbers, they give her the numbers, but she doesn't know what decisions to make with the numbers.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, so like for example, we're getting into a season where a lot of people are gonna be looking at enrollment and tours, and you know, you and I know what to look at, but can can we let's just talk a little bit about this, right?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if somebody is getting inquiries, right?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you should be counting the number of people who call you, right?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's what they that's what we tell folks.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you're counting the number of people who call, and then you should be counting the number of people who go from a phone call to actually scheduling a tour.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Phone call or inbound, yeah, inbound inquiry.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: So some sort of inquiry to the tour, and then how many show up?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: What's your show?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a big number, right?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's not necessarily a a one-to-one.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's how many actually enroll.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that for whatever reason, um, and a lot of it's because again, you're not trained to do this job, right?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we have people.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't you don't know what you're supposed to do with that information.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: So you look at it and you go, for every 10 inbound inquiries from messenger, from email, and from phone calls, I get I don't even get one enrollment.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I have 10 people who I've responded to, and I didn't get a single enrollment.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then you feel bad about yourself.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's part of it is that that feeling of, well, I'm I think I should have done better.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: But they don't know what the statistics are.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: But they also don't know what they're like.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: So again, even like what you said, like that where all those calls are coming from, right?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: So if you don't ask when you have them on the phone or an email where they found you, you don't know if the right people are finding you.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Just because somebody's called, if they've called and they're really looking for an infant program and you don't have any infants, then then you're then there's a mismatch.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, but you don't know if you don't ask.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: So finding out where they're hearing about you so that you can go, okay, well, then I need to be clearer in that space.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: So if they're finding you from your local resource and referral board, you need to make sure that the resource and referral board knows that you don't take infants.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: If they're finding you from your social media and you look and you go, I do have pictures of babies in my social media.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: I should stop putting pictures of babies in my social media.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: They need to just be twos and up because I only take twos and up.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, is it your website?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: And again, are there babies on your website?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like, is it clear in your or did they just drive by and see the words of your name and go, well, they must take babies.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: So figuring that out helps you.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: That is looking at the data and actually doing something with it.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Making smart decisions, not even making decisions, because I think we can all make a decision.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like Carrie said, if it's, you know, in 70 degrees, you need sleeves if you're in Texas.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you are in the Midwest and you're in Minnesota, you're like, time for my shorts.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's beach weather, because you know, it feels like it's summertime.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's what it is.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: But so making good decisions with the data, first you have to know what the data means.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I had 10 inquiries, nobody enrolled.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: That means that the people who were inquiring were not a good fit for your program.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: So then we have to see how they found you and then see how we can align it.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: But but there's more.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: There's still even more.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, okay, so what was the phone call?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: So are you recording the phone call?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: How many times did they have to call you before somebody answered the phone?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Did you take notes during that phone call or have one of the note-taking apps on your phone so that you have feedback from it?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: After the phone call, did you send them an email or a text message with follow-up information based on what they asked?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Or or even so again, how long is that phone conversation?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because really the whole purpose of the phone conversation is the tour, right?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: Is to well, no, there's two.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: There's two purposes.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: One is to qualify them.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Are they a good fit for your program?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then if they are, to schedule the tour.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because if they're not a good fit because they have they want babies and you don't have infant care, then you don't want to schedule a tour for them unless they're wanting to get on your waiting list for when they're they have a toddler.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, so, so I want to pause there real quick because I think it's really important for people to understand that this is not an answer everything in the in the in the world conversation.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like this should be about five minutes.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: You should do more questions than answers, right?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: So if um if you don't have a script, you should have one, right?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because again, you don't know if you're doing it right and if everybody's doing it the same.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you're tracking my phone calls and Carrie's phone calls and other staff's phone calls, and we all say something different, and some of us are on the phone call for three minutes, and others of us on the on the phone call for 10 minutes, you know, that's important to know.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: So use there are platforms out there that will record, right?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: We've got, we've had guests on even just a couple of weeks ago uh from IntelliKids, and we know that there are other programs similar to that that will record all of the inbound phone calls so you could actually see what people are saying, but create a script so there's some attempt at continuity.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so qualifying, right?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: How many kids, what ages, what type of timeline or care, you know, what are what are the hours they're looking for?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And when do they look to start?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because some folks right now in the month of May might be calling me because they're looking to make a change in August.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Some might be looking for summer camp, right?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you need to know that, right?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like all of that is going to be slightly different.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: So making better decisions is going to help you, but you still have to have the data.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: So what does those numbers mean?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: So we've talked a little bit about the inbound calls and capturing where they got it, asking the right questions.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Carrie, they've got the appointments.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: They're looking at the fact that people have showed up for tours.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: So they've got the show up and not show up.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: So what is happening between show up and not show up?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: Is that when they're really digging into your social media and your reviews?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe they looked at social media before they scheduled the tour, but now they're looking at reviews and they're looking at your licensing history.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes clients when it, you know, they're like, okay, I've narrowed it down to three programs, and then they start looking at reviews and they look at your licensing history and they see something that makes them go, whoa, I don't think so.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: So do you have anything on your platform to like, did you respond to all the reviews that were negative reviews?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: If you had something happen at your program that gave you a ding from a licensing perspective that was serious, they don't get the whole dialogue on licensing of exactly what happened and how you corrected it and all of that.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: They just get that you left a kid in a classroom unattended.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: They don't know that that unattended window was 15 seconds or whether it was two hours.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: They don't know.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: They're assuming two hours.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: So is there anything you can do on your social media or on your website to talk about the systems you have for ensuring that the kids get where they're supposed to go?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: And if some of this is new, so again, maybe you've added, you may not say publicly why you've added, say, a new video system, right?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: So you've added watch me grow and it's AI notifications and stuff like that.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: But maybe you add that in your social media and you talk about it, again, not necessarily saying why you've added it, because you don't want to, if people don't know, you don't necessarily want to bring it to their attention.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to start the negative.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now, real quick on your negative reviews and stuff like that.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you have things that are false reviews like negative staff or disgruntled staff, some of that is who came to your school four years ago and just now decided to leave a review.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: You can go to the review platform and say, this is a bogus.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's what I was gonna say.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Don't necessarily respond.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: Before you respond, pause and go, okay, this person's never been at my program.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is just a troll.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um apparently, and again, this is not something that I've always known, right?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's fairly new.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you see that, don't respond and actually get professional support.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: So reach out to us and we will connect you with the folks to help you um get that review platform to review those fake ones.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: So they've taken, they've called, we've scheduled a tour, we have our who showed, who didn't show.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: We've looked, we've done the assessment-ish, right?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: We think we've looked at it, right?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're looking at um what is our follow through to the time of to the time they show up, right?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: So things we might look at, Carrie, and make decisions about are we texting, are we emailing, are we calling?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: How are we the dentist office?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or are we uh, oh, well, they called, we set an appointment, we're good to go.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: Cause I when you go to buy a car, you set an appointment and they just expect you to show up.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: You make an appointment at your dentist or your doctor's office, they give you 14 messages, one of which is please pre-sign in.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: I got one today at 8 a.m.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: for a 4 p.m.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: appointment.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I got one yet.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: I got one today for an appointment that's tomorrow.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I got one yesterday for the appointment that was at 4 p.m.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I'm not checking in 23, 27 hours early for this appointment.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: I but are you that doctor's office that's giving the 24-hour notice, the eight-hour notice, and the one-hour notice?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: Or are you the car dealership that presumes if you made an appointment and you want to buy a car, you will show up.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: Both of those are fine for their appropriate use.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: You have to decide which one you are.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: But you know what?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great idea.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a great idea.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think people need to decide.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Are you a dentist office or are you a car dealership?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because that also changes your attitude about your type of program.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: Are you something that everybody needs and should be doing and sometimes won't do?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Or are people going out of their way to find you, to seek you out?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: And different childcare programs are different types of programs.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you are a bilingual Montessori program that does Chinese and American, and you're the only one within 40 miles where you're the car dealership.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're the car dealership.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we've got we've got one client that I had this conversation with when we were doing a tour, um, that they do one tour for prospective parents a month because they are the car dealership.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: And there might be three families on that tour.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: There might be one, there might be 15.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: It does not matter.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: They only do one tour a month, but they have a very long waiting list and they're 100% full.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: And they keep their families forever.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: So they have become, like you said, the car dealership.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, but I'm guessing that most of the folks listening to this episode are probably not the car dealerships.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: So they're making those decisions.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what I want you to get out of today's episode is to pause ever at every section and look.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because with your two, so what does your automation sequence look like, right?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: What does that sequence look like?
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: What does that workflow look like?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm using a lot of terms people may not know, right?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't, that's fine.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Email us.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: So go to Kate and Carrie at Childcare Conversations and go, what's a workflow?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so whatever your system is from call to show up.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: And again, Kate keeps using call because we're old.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: We know that that could have been on Messenger or it could have been a text message.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: Inbound communication.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: It could be an automatic.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: You might just have a scheduler and people just schedule and maybe there's no phone call.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever, whatever it is to get to the tour.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: So now they've showed up or their time has been here.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: How many showed up, right?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: So that's part of what we were looking at.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: They've now showed up, you've done the tour.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: What happens now?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Are you following up?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: If they brought it, if they brought, if they if you did not get an enrollment at the tour, what are you doing up to follow up from that tour?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: If they did not enroll on the day, which again, if you've got 15 people and you tell them you've got two spots, somebody's going to be paying you that day.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: But um, if they didn't enroll that day because they have to go ask their abolita or whatever, right?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: That's okay.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: But there needs to be a follow-up process.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: But wait, wait, wait, wait.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Can I add something?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: I guess you're already stole my steam.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: Don't let the don't let them leave without the next appointment.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: So if they have to go check with Abu Lita, then when will they be able to go talk to Abu Lita?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then you'll call and check and see if there were questions abuelita had that you need to answer.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: So put that on your calendar.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: But also, if they brought their child on the tour, hopefully your staff was trained well enough to take a picture of their child engaged in an activity in your building, print that out at CVS or Walgreens or Snapfish or one of those things, right?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: Vit this to print.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: There's like 27 different ways, right?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: What is the one I do on my phone where I get them for free?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: I can't even remember.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: But you print out an actual photograph, physical thing, and you stick it in an envelope and you mail it to them inside a thank you note saying, thank you for coming to my program, and then putting a resource based on a question they asked on the tour.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: So again, if this child was three and they're asking about how do you get these, all these three-year-olds are not in pull-ups.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: How did you do that?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: You put an article written by your threes teacher about how she gets everybody potty trained in the first two months of the school year, put that article in the thank you note.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: And then they know what they have to look forward to when their child enrolls in your threes classroom.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And like Carrie said, we we do, we like the tangibles.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've realized that not everybody thinks everybody's gonna want the tangibles.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: So at the absolute least, do this exact same thing as an email.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: Include the picture of the child or in the communication app.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a system that's working for you, awesome.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: But how do you know it's working, Carrie?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: How do I know?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: You track the numbers.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Track the numbers, right?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: You can't make a decision if you don't know the numbers.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: But if you've got 10 tours and you only have one enrollment, it's not working.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Something's broken.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's either your tour script, it's your qualification, or you got the wrong people coming.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like um qualification, right?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: But if people don't ask, should you be telling them how much you charge?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: No, let people ask the questions they want to ask.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: And some of them are gonna call and be like, hey, you got any spots for a three-year-old?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: And you're gonna say yes.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then they're like, Great, I'll be there on Thursday, and they hang up and you're like, When on Thursday?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Who are you?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Who are you?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: What gender?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: What planet are you coming from?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: Other people will call and they'll want to talk to you all about like what is your policy on biting?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: And they're asking you 500 questions about your biting policy, which tells you either their child was a vic a repeated victim of somebody's uh who was going through that transition, or they are a child who was having difficulty with biting behavior.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: So one of those two things is happening if they're asking you 15 questions about biting.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: You can't ask them on the phone call, was your kid the biter or the bite-ee?
• 21:35
  unknown: Like you can't ask.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you, but you absolutely can.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: If somebody's asking you a whole train of thoughts, go, you know what?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Those sound like a great set of questions for us to talk when you come for the tour.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Would you like to come tomorrow at 10 or tomorrow at four?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing, if you've got a lot of turnover or you got a lot of people who leave and say, Oh, I have to check with somebody, you might start adding that in maybe your qualifications.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Call, right?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you've got everybody having to leave to go check with their the significant other or the grandparent or something like that, you might even ask, hey, are you going to be able to make that decision to get your child enrolled?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: We've got three others scheduled this week.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Do you need to bring your spouse or grand?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, is there somebody else who needs to come with you?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because we actually had a program that this is what was happening, right?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Very much like what Carrie said as far as her story.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's easier if you can just get everybody to come at one time, right?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: If you've talked to most car dealers, very few car salespeople will sell to a single person who is identified as married.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you come in and you're married, they're not going to try to sell you a$100,000 vehicle because they know it's coming back.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: They try to sell you the sports car.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if they try to sell you the four-door sedan, maybe you can buy that by yourself.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: So look at the numbers and see what the story is that the numbers are telling you.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: If you have a 10% conversion number in our industry, that is not a good conversion number.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: If you were trying to sell coaching programs that were$100,000, that would be an amazing conversion level, right?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: So it depends on.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: So you can't just ask somebody who's in sales out of every 10 prospects, one person is signing on the dotted line because it depends on what they're used to selling as to whether that's a good number or not.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: In childcare, we expect about a 50% conversion rate from the tour.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: But in reality, though, kind of like that number was the pretty standard number when people were shopping more centers.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so, um, and it really depends on who's doing the like who's in charge of that whole sequence.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's the other thing.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: If you can put one person in charge of the whole sequence, the person who answers the phone is the person who does, or the email, is the person who schedules the tour, is the person who does the tour, is the person who does the follow-up and does the close.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: That person has that relationship with that family from the get-go.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: You can get people and you can have numbers as high as, you know, 90% conversion and higher because your ads are on target.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: Your inbounds are getting qualified well, so that the people who come in into the tour are either making a decision between you or somebody else, and that's it.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you've asked at the end of the tour for the enrollment.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that is by far, if if you take nothing away from this episode, it is don't forget to ask.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you go, oh, it was so nice meeting you, give us a call when you're ready.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: That is not asking for the enrollment.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: At the end, you say, So, are there any other questions that you need answered before you can make a decision?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Give them that opportunity to ask additional questions, and then you say, Great.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, based on your phone call, you said you were looking for care before the end of the month.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want to start on Monday or do you want to start tomorrow?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: Or I'm gonna always go with a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't start anybody on a Monday or Friday.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: We all know what those days are like if we don't have to.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's much better to start on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, if a Thursday if you have to, but a Tuesday or a Wednesday is a much better time to start.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: You can be pushier if you want to.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: You can just say, hey, it's been great to know you.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, is Johnny gonna start on Tuesday or Wednesday next week?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you've gone with the assumption, in other words, everything about the tour seems to be going well and they're nodding their head and they're into what you're telling them and you're hitting their pain points because you got a script and you're staying on script, you're not wandering off.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you've stayed on script and you've hit all their pain points based on the conversation you had with them when they inquired, if you had a phone call, awesome.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so you just get them right up.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that I know is a huge problem, I don't know about you, Carrie, but if you looked at the amount of paperwork that goes into enrolling a child, and a lot of it is duplicated because the school paperwork and the state paperwork have a lot of the same information, but a good software system will allow the parents to enter their name and their child's name and the child's birth date one time and it will self-populate across all of the forms.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: That is one of the best things about putting your paperwork um automated, is that you don't have to type your name on 13 different pieces of paper or write it out on 13 pieces of paper.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've seen people actually include that the enrollment paperwork actually in the confirmation because they get them to fill that out before they even show up to the tour.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's genius because then that is, and then the other thing is kind of what they called a quick app.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it basically is the birth date and the emergency contact information.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: They have the parents fill it out on the spot before they leave.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's getting, it's, it's called micro.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, it's a psychology term, uh psychology process of microcommitments.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that wasn't our topic.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: Our topic was not psychology and microcommitments.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: It was how to use the numbers to help you make better decisions.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so we've just picked one system in your business and gone through where are the decision points, where, where can you use the data to make a better decision?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: So if everybody who's doing inbound is asking for a type of care that you don't provide, then you have to make a decision.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: Should we provide that type of care or should we change uh the information that is out in public to make it clearer that we don't offer that care?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: Both of those decisions could be the right decision for your program.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what's going on in your program.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: If everybody's looking for infant care and you don't offer it, maybe you should think about it.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: If everybody's looking for school age and you don't offer it, maybe you should think about it.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: But that's a different question.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: But it's the where do the numbers show you that you need to make a decision?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: We had 10 people call, only three of them booked tours.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: That tells you there is a decision that needs to be made.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: We could do the same thing with your staff hiring, your staff retention, your curriculum, your suppliers.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: None on this episode.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: We're already done.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm just saying look at the numbers.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: And when there's something that makes you go, I don't know that that's a good number, then stop, dig into the numbers, and see what decisions might need to be made.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: The numbers you brought up a great point though.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's stopping and looking at the numbers because we know that a lot of folks will get number, number, number.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't stop and look at them and ask questions related to your numbers, if you don't know what to do, sign up for one of our profitability pivots.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: I don't do this very often in our episodes, but Carrie's got one coming up May 12th or something.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I think like next Tuesday, um, Carrie has a profitability pivot masterclass.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: Come to that.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Come learn some more.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to do this by yourself.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we're here for.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: And if you really are stuck, you could always reach out to Carrie or I as coaches or consultants to actually help you with your numbers.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you can do that by going into the show notes and hitting email the show.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's an easy way to do it, or you can email us Kate and Carrie at childcareconversations.com.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: But that's a lot to type.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: Clicking the email the show is much easier or text the show.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, absolutely.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: So, Carrie, we've gone a little long today.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: So hopefully it was worth it for you guys.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: I sure hope so, because I think we delivered.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_02: I want you guys to share this show with someone else who needs to know and make sure you are subscribed or are following the show on your platform of choice.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: If you haven't come to the YouTube channel, go look at us on YouTube.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: We put makeup on almost every time.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: We look pretty presentable.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: You should come on over so that you know that that work is worthwhile.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Don't go look at episodes 100 to 125.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to see that.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: No, we didn't.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: But they're there.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: We did not even brush our hair every time in those first few that we recorded with video.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: But we'd love for you to go there so that you can, you know, see all of our squirrels because we also put some of our weird things on that page.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I will talk to you in a few days and probably with that other lady.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: So see you soon.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: Bye.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: We love bringing you real talk and fresh insight from the world of early childhood education.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to follow us on social media to stay connected and catch all of the latest episodes.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're planning a conference, training, or special event, Kate and Carrie would love to speak to your audience.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can learn more about their keynote sessions and workshops at kateandcary.com.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you learned something today, share the show and leave us a review below.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time on Childcare Conversations.