CRM ARTICLE
5 Tips for Choosing the Right Childcare CRM
Local Child Care Marketing – Updated March 24, 2024
Choosing the right Childcare CRM system (or Customer Relationship Management) for your child care center can be tough. CRMs come in all shapes and sizes, with a variety of features from which to choose. If you’re looking for a CRM that’s easy to use and offers an array of functions, it’s best to do your due diligence. Research for tools that include the following features.
In this post, we’ll break down why it’s so important to invest in the right CRM system for your child care center.
Gone are the days of spreadsheets and old-fashioned pen and paper
Businesses nowadays increasingly leverage the power of online tools to streamline their business operations. Child care and daycare centers are no exception. If you’re still managing leads through antiquated methods, you’re inevitably going to miss out on follow-up opportunities. These methods include tracking leads on spreadsheets and relying on organizing your email day-in and day-out (or even worse, with pen and paper!).
This in turn will cost you enrollments. CRMs help track and manage your lead generation, tour bookings, communication, and follow-up with prospective parents. Through the use of automation, CRM tools can greatly reduce the stress of running a child care center.
Determining your goals with a Childcare CRM
Every childcare CRM comes with a variety of features and functions from which to choose. It’s important that you choose a CRM that aligns with your child care business’s needs. Additionally, it should align with your goals for success as an organization.
For example, some childcare CRMs include marketing automation tools. This enables allow childcare centers to create targeted campaigns based on their unique lead generation data. Others offer reporting analytics, such as ROI (Return On Investment) reports or management dashboards. They give leaders insight into what is working in terms of lead generation and follow-up.
Childcare CRMs are great because they can help simplify your center’s day-to-day operations. They automate follow-up communication with prospective parents in a timely fashion. Additionally, a good childcare CRM tool should foster collaboration between staff members. It should streamline the process from initial outreach to enrollment.
Choose a CRM that helps with leads AND daily task management.
The CRM you choose for your child care center should be able to help with both lead management and daily task organization. Ensuring that you complete follow-up tasks is one of the many great functionalities of a CRM tool. The more follow-up you do, the more likely a parent will decide to enroll their child at your center.
Task management is also great for accountability purposes, whether it comes to you prioritizing your tasks that need to be completed, or for your staff!
Get a tool that will help you analyze your data.
You’ll want a CRM that provides tools like automation, real-time reporting, mobile access, and even integration with other third-party software so the CRM can grow along with your child care facility as it grows with new families enrolling. CRM tools provide analysis that will help you understand what is working well for your child care facility in terms of lead generation and follow-up.
It will also help you track where these leads are coming from. Whether they are from Facebook, your website, or Google My Business, tracking is extremely important for you to implement. It goes without saying that if the majority of your leads are coming from one particular source (like Facebook ads, for example), you’ll want to invest more into what is moving the needle in terms of lead generation.
Get a childcare CRM that will help you book tours and close them!
When it comes to CRMs, lead management is only one piece of the puzzle. CRM tools for childcare centers should also include functionality that helps you organize and track tour bookings, in addition to follow-up communication with prospective parents. CRM software can help you close tours by automating email templates or call scripts so staff members don’t have to manually communicate with parents via email or phone to ensure that they show up for their scheduled tour.
After all, your staff will be busy taking care of the little ones and ensuring that your center puts its best foot forward when you’re conducting a tour!
Conclusion:
If you’re struggling to manage your childcare business’s operations on a daily basis, it might be time for you to invest in a CRM tool. Whether you need help managing leads and follow-ups, or assistance with the day-to-day tasks of running your center, investing in this kind of tool can make all the difference when it comes to taking your business from good to great.