How to Get Daycare Reviews

There’s no marketing like word of mouth marketing and as a child care provider, daycare reviews should be your first priority.

It’s not always easy to get daycare reviews even though your customers are satisfied, so we’ve come up with strategies you can use right now to motivate parents and get that five-star boost to your enrollment.

Give something great, get daycare reviews in return

Even though incentivizing customers to leave a review is frowned upon by Yelp, Google, Facebook etc…, that doesn’t mean you can’t do something great for the parents every once in a while.

It’s good to always offer something as a thank you such as a tuition break or a gift card as a thank you for a nice review. A satisfied customer will leave a glowing review, but it often takes a little push to remind them to do it. Check with your legal counsel as to what is allowable as a possible incentive for a review or just a “thank you”, post-review.

Add a reminder to your email newsletters

If you are using email marketing to stay in touch with your existing customers and get feedback about your daycare, why not use it to get daycare reviews?

You can follow up with a request to leave a review on sites of your choosing in every email.

What’s important is to invite parents to do it. Preferably, they’ll be satisfied by yet another great piece of news, which will motivate them to click through and leave a daycare review.

Handle negative feedback

Bad reviews are normal. There are always going to be complaints, but the good news is that it doesn’t have to affect your business.

If you receive a bad review, don’t ignore it. Instead, reply politely and be proactive. What are you doing to make sure that the situation doesn’t happen again?

Accepting the mistake and assessing the situation tells a lot about you as a daycare owner. There’s nothing worse than a negative review left to simmer.

Show that you are a professional child care provider who wants to improve, and don’t be surprised if that negative feedback brings you new customers. Mistakes happen, but it takes a good leader to take them in stride and learn from them.

Use a long-term strategy to get daycare reviews

A good daycare review is just the tip of the iceberg. What’s under the surface are layers and layers of careful planning and customer satisfaction.

It’s vital for every daycare to differentiate itself, and that’s where the best reviews come from.

Maybe you encourage creativity in your daycare, and that’s an approach the parents love (even if it means spending more laundry detergent on the paint smudges on their kiddo’s clothes).

You may use Hopping In and help parents book extra care or drop the spots they don’t need (while filling vacant spots in your daycare to make extra income).

Whatever it is that makes your daycare special, show it.

Give a great daycare tour, motivate your employees and know how to deal with difficult parents. So when the time comes to ask for reviews, your customers will be more than happy to leave them.

Author: Hopping In Blog

Sholom Strick is an expert on the business of running daycare centers and founder of Hopping In, a tool that helps childcare centers and family daycare providers fill unused spots.

To contact him or for media inquiries email s.strick@daycareteam.com