For childcare centres
Every educator is with children.
A parent looking for a place rings four centres in one sitting and takes the first one that gets back to them.
- Price
- $50 a month, no contract.
- Your number
- Stays exactly as it is.
- Setup
- Two minutes. We do it.
- Reply time
- Seconds, not this evening.
01 The moment
Why childcare centres miss calls
Not because you are careless with the phone. Because of where your hands are.
It is eleven in the morning. Every educator is in a room, the director is covering a ratio because someone is off, and the office phone rings out to a machine nobody will check until after three. The caller was a parent going back to work in six weeks and ringing every centre in the suburb.
02 What they get
The text that goes out
Within seconds of the call dropping, in your words, with your name on it.
Your business
It’s [CENTRE] — our educators are with the children and we couldn’t get to the phone. Text us your child’s age and when you’re looking to start, and we’ll call you back today about availability and a tour.
The caller, a minute later
Looking for three days a week for our 2 year old, starting February. Are you taking enrolments and can we come and look?
That reply is the job written down. You ring back knowing what it is, where it is and whether it is worth stopping for.
03 What changes
What it changes for childcare centres
- 01
Ratios mean nobody can leave the room
This is the one industry where not answering the phone is often the legally correct thing to do. The cost of that decision should not be a lost family.
- 02
Age and start date is the whole question
Whether you have a place depends entirely on the room and the date. Getting both in writing means your callback is an answer rather than a set of questions.
- 03
A tour booked is most of the enrolment
Families who visit generally enrol. The purpose of the reply is simply to get them through the door before somebody else does.
04 Questions
What childcare centres ask
The questions that come up on the phone, answered the way we'd answer them there.
Is a text appropriate for enquiries about children?
For arranging a callback and a tour, yes — keep it to age, start date and a time to talk. Nothing about a specific child beyond a first name needs to be in a text, and it is better if it is not.
We use enrolment software already.
This sits on the phone line in front of it. It does not touch enrolments, attendance or CCS — it captures the enquiry so your director can follow it up.
What about parents ringing about their own child during the day?
They get a reply within seconds instead of a machine, which for a parent ringing about their child is the difference between reassured and worried. The message should say plainly what to do if it is urgent.
We have a long waitlist.
Then say so and offer the list. Parents plan months ahead and will join a waitlist readily — but only if somebody tells them there is one.
See what you’re missing before you pay anything.
The audit counts the calls to your business that went unanswered last month, from your own records. It costs nothing and nothing changes on your line.
05 Read next
Related
- Trade Swim schools Parents ring about lessons in the same fortnight every term, and a phone nobody answers costs you a place in the class.
- Trade Tutoring services Parents ring after school and in the evening, which is exactly when every tutor you have is in a session.
- Trade NDIS and home care providers The people ringing you — support coordinators, families, plan managers — are arranging care for somebody who needs it, and they will not ring twice.
- Explainer How missed-call text-back works The mechanism, plainly, including what it does not do.