Business owners know the importance of listening to their customers’ input to their success.
When gathered and analysed, their opinion can enable the organisation to improve its customer experience and adjust their actions to match their customers’ needs.
Businesses that detach themselves from their customers lead to their own downfall. Daycares aren’t an exception.
Centres that ignore their clients’ ideas, input, and suggestions disconnect themselves from their clients and prevents brand loyalty from forming.
No matter how amazing you think your centre is, there’s always room for improvement which you can do once you gather and use the feedback parents give.
Parents are the clients of a daycare. As such, there should be given importance to partnering up with them. Building a partnership with parents is not just necessary for the centre’s reputation or promote positive publicity, but for the improvement of your services as well.
Making lasting connections with the parents leads to their involvement.
Since parents are members of the same community, their participation would ensure that the daycare would develop their services that are relevant to the community and could improve its wellbeing. Their involvement would also ensure that you’ll receive feedback from them as well.
Getting reviews is simple. Most of the time, all it takes to get reviews is to just ask for it.
Here are few ways to help obtain feedback from parents:
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Speak With Them At Every Opportunity
It’s common for parents to come to the centre every day to drop off and pick up their children. Take the time to talk to them about the services you offer and ask if they have any feedback to share.
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Provide A Feedback/Suggestion Box
Place a box where parents can drop their feedbacks or suggestions off. This can be put near the main entrance of the centre or just outside the classroom, so they would be aware of it without the hassle of being asked.
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Parent-Teacher Conferences
When a parent attends a conference to review their child’s progress, why not ask them to fill in a short questionnaire or simply ask their thoughts about the centre and if there’s anything that could be improved.
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Send A Link
These days online forms or survey services are available as an alternative for an easier and more convenient means to collect feedback. Questions on the survey will provide you with feedback about the setting and the improvements needing to be made. You can also include a visible feedback page on your website.
When you’re sending out a newsletter, you can use this opportunity to send a link to your feedback pages or a review website like Yelp where they can rate your services. Encourage them to leave comments so you can monitor how well you’re doing.
Parents are usually inundated with forms at the start of the year, so offering them an online alternative will make their lives easier and make it more convenient for you to review the data.
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Parent Representative
Having a parent representative would also be helpful to establish a channel of communication between the parents, the administration team, and the teachers. If there are any matters needed to be raised, parents should know that they can rely on the parent representative to make sure their suggestions are well-received.
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Group Meetings
Hold group meetings with all parents from time to time. This would not only be a good time for parents to leave some comments to fill out, but this would be an opportunity to answer questions that the majority of them have on their mind.
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Take Complaints Seriously
You should pay attention to each and every single comment you receive, even the complaints. It can be upsetting to receive a complaint, but if you do get one, try not to get emotional. Keep your cool and respond politely and give them a time frame when they can expect an answer.
Instead of getting angry at their negative response, use this as a drive to make positive changes to your daycare centre in the future. Remember that the feedback you receive is a gift. They intend to help you get better and provide better service that would benefit both of you.