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Congratulations! After a lot of hard work and brainstorming, you’ve created your own Home Childcare! You’ve got all the materials and tools for success, now it is time to find potential customer. How will you do? By giving a successful Home Childcare tour! Keep reading to understand the 7 steps to success in providing a Home Childcare tour.
Step One: Schedule a Tour And Have a Strategy
It is important to have a set plan and time dedicated to when you give a new parent a tour of your Home Childcare Centre. This will allow for you to properly set up and prepare. While open houses may be able to bring in more potential customers, it is vital to get one-on-one time with the parents, as well as their child. It is also extremely important to schedule the tour at a convenient time for both you and the parents. With effective communication you can determine the parents’ availability and understand the needs that they may have. If you already have children enrolled in your child-care program, you can use this as an opportunity to have parents come tour during open hours, nap-time might be best, for them to see what it would be like if they enroll their child.
Step Two: Talk About The Childcare And Yourself
While it is important to showcase your home and the specific areas you operate your child-care centre in, you can utilize the tour as an opportunity for the parents to get to know you. Parents want to be able to connect and click with the educator and understand who they are and why they chose to open their own home childcare centre. Here is a list of potential questions you should be prepared to answer:
What is your professional background?
What are your interests?
What made you want to start your own Home Childcare?
What does a typical day look like?
Step Three: Get To Know The Child
While the tour of your home childcare centre is mainly to address any concerns parents may have. It is also vital that you take this time to get to know their child as well. You will be able to analyze the child’s behaviour in your home environment and get an idea of what they like and don’t like. A good tip is to have the child play with some toys from your environment so that the child becomes comfortable in the space.
If the parents are changing child-care from another home or facility, it is important to find out why and see how you could make their child fit best at your home. As much as you want to help the child and parents by having them in your program, understand that it is okay to say no if you are hesitant. There will be times where children or parents will not be the fit with your home childcare values.
Step Four: Tour The House
You want to use the tour to showcase your house to the parents. You can do this by mentioning key features of your home and showing your house as if you are selling it. While you are giving the tour point out sections of your house and explain what each section is used for and the importance it has to your child-care centre. If you operate your child-care centre with a set curriculum style, i.e., Montessori-inspired, Waldorf-inspired, Cooperative-inspired, etc, this can be the perfect opportunity to discuss that. Lastly, it is crucial to talk about your qualifications and the safety procedures you have in place.
Step Five: Address Parents Concerns
No matter how you see your child-care centre and the visions you have, you need to understand that not all parents will see things the same way or have the same vision for their children. One way to help address parents’ concerns is to respond with examples to any questions or concerns. For example, if they ask about what the day-to-day plan looks like, show them the schedule you have set in place. You can also use time to discuss your certifications and credentials - First Aid Certification, Health Assessment, Enhanced Background Check, etc.
Step Six: Ensure They Know Why You Are Trustworthy and Dedicated
It is extremely important for parents to trust you to be a special person in their child’s early life. This can help guide parents into choosing your home childcare over their other options because they believe you have the potential to stimulate and grow their child. If parents believe you are dedicated to caring for their child, it can help ease the enrolling process. Make sure to emphasize your abilities and the flexibility you have to cater to their unique needs.
Step Seven: Make Sure To Stay In Touch
The last step is to have open and direct communication skills with potential parents. Once you have the tour, no matter how successful it went, quite often parents won’t have their decision right away. Most of the time parents will want to go home and weigh their options. You can consider sending them an email a day after the tour following up and asking if they have any other questions or concerns about enrolling.
The 7 steps that we have provided are sure to help you host successful tours to prospective parents. You’ve worked very hard in opening your centre so make sure to sell yourself to parents. Let them know that their child is in the best care possible.
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