When it comes to managing a childcare center, daycare, or preschool, it’s crucial to build strong relationships with families. Your families determine the success of your center so it’s important to keep their satisfaction top of mind. With tools like technology and social media, engaging with parents can be quick and easy. With strong family connections, you will see a boost in parent satisfaction, increased referrals, improved center culture, and a better hiring pool. In this article, you will learn how to better connect with families at your childcare center using various approaches.
How to Connect with Families at Your Childcare Center
When building relationships with parents at your center, keep these ideas in mind.
Use a Personal Approach
When new families start at your center, be sure to introduce yourself and your staff members. Start off their experience on a positive note with a tour of the center and a warm welcome. Include a Welcome Letter in their Parent Handbook to get them acclimated with your center and learn more about your mission, vision, and values.
At your center, put a strong emphasis on culture when it comes to your staff to ensure parents are always treated with kindness and respect. This makes it easier for parents to build trust in your center and staff.
Create a Facebook Group
Creating a Facebook Group exclusively for families at your center is a great way to build a community. Here, they can share ideas, questions, and comments while getting to know other parents at your center. Make it a private group to make sure you have full control over who joins and what is said to avoid any mishaps. At Kangarootime, we have Facebook groups for both customers and community members to better connect with the industry.
Allow for Feedback
Create a schedule to check-in with parents and ask for feedback. These could be parent-teacher conferences, an automated email, a physical newsletter, etc. Having a way to collect feedback from families helps you improve your center while allowing your families to feel heard and valued.
Communicate Often
Today’s parents are always connected through technology and love to be a part of their child’s day. By communicating often you’re offering immense value for parents. Using a software to provide digital daily notes in real time is one easy way to simplify this process. Providing a weekly or monthly newsletter is also a great way to keep parents in the loop. Any chance you have to update parents on their child or your center will be greatly appreciated.
Host Events
Hosting events can bring parents together at your center. You can even involve parents in the planning process to make things easier. A meet and greet breakfast, open house, or parent nights are all fun and simple event ideas to connect with families.
Share Ideas
In our industry, it’s crucial that we continue to collaborate and share ideas. Try joining Facebook Groups, watching webinars, and reading articles related to all things ECE. This can help you grow your center and offer a new perspective to other childcare providers across the country.
