Childcare Center Tour Secrets and Strategies

Childcare center tours are your single greatest opportunity to persuade parents that your school is the right choice for their child. Tours help build relationships with prospective parents and encourage enrollments at your preschool, and in order to make a lasting, positive first impression there are several best practices you will want your staff to follow. 

Initial Interaction
Whether via the phone, email, Facebook messenger, or face-to-face, your first contact with a parent needs to be timely, confident and warm. Always answer the phone within the first three rings and reply to messages within the same day. Another great tip: Find out the name and age of the child during your initial interaction to help personalize their tour.  Use the child’s name frequently and customize the tour based on the child’s age and classroom.  Each parent will have a different set of wants/needs for their child. It is important to find out what these are in advance and address them during the tour.

Timely Tours
Mid-morning is the best time for childcare center tours—teachers and children have settled in for the day and the curriculum should be in full swing.  Visitors will see your center, staff and students at their very best.

First Impressions
As soon as the parents arrive, they will judge each and every aspect of your facility. The foyer will be their first inside look. It should be clean, have a pleasing smell, be organized and be seamlessly secure. Speaking of which…

Security
Parents want to know that their child is safe within your care. Doors to your facility should be shut and locked, and you should have a logbook for all visitors to fill out. Additional tip: Ask for a photocopy of licenses. Parents will appreciate this added level of security.

Hit the Highlights with Tour Stops
What are your center’s core values? Know them. Name them. Boast them. You don’t have to cover every feature of your center, but you have to sell your best ones. Create tour stops that highlight your center’s core values. Make them easy to remember and visually recognizable to prospective parents during the tour. For example, if parental involvement is at the center of your mission, create a parent board that provides opportunities for parents to engage in activities with the children. Or if encouraging children to adopt a healthy lifestyle is one of your basic principles, create a professionally designed menu board to highlight the healthy meals you provide each day.

Close the Deal
“Thanks for stopping by!” isn’t going to cut it at the end of the tour. You need a call to action to make things happen. Something like, “Can I get your enrollment application started for you?” or “Can I add you to our waiting list?” Even if you don’t have a waiting list, it provides a heightened sense of urgency. It also gives you an out if you feel the family isn’t the right fit for your center.

Follow Up
Be proactive. It’s your job to follow up, not the parent’s. A simple phone call a few days after their tour will help them feel wanted. Want to impress them even more? Send a handwritten thank you note.

Ideally, half of your inquiries will lead to center tours and half of those tours will lead to enrollments. Keep track of your numbers month to month and see how much they improve as you implement the above tips. For more tips on how to boost enrollment, get in touch with Client Relations team member Kathe Petchel at kpetchel@hingeadvisors.com.

What center tour strategies would you add to our list above?