What's inside the Book?
Section 3. The Art of Getting Customers
Locating customers is an essential part of running a childminding business, so we have dedicated a whole chapter to the topic. A successful advertising campaign is more than just popping up a few postcards. This section discusses who your potential customers are and how to design and place adverts to target them.
Contents
- Who are your Potential Customers?
- What do your Potential Customers Want?
- Where to Advertise for Customers
- Your Competitors
- Designing an Advert (with examples)
- Other Marketing Ideas
- Advertising Feedback
- Meeting Prospective Customers
- What are Visiting Parents Looking for?
- After the Visit
Some Quotes from this Chapter
What do your Potential Customers Want?
You know your potential customers want childcare, but what exactly are they looking for that will make them choose one service over another? You need to know what your potential customers need, want, like, dislike, expect and can afford. As you have worked out above, there are different types of customers and they will want different things. A new parent may consider the most important thing your experience with babies, where as distance from school might be important to the parent of a school age child. If you know what your potential customers want you can make sure that when you advertise or talk to them you promote those aspects of your service.
Ask yourself why a potential customer should choose you instead of another childminder or childcare provider. What do you offer they cannot get elsewhere? These unique selling points are different for each childminder, for example home cooked meals, a large garden, proximity to a local park or school, play equipment, overnight care, your experience or qualifications. Childminders in general also have some unique selling points over other forms of childcare including being home based, having high child to adult ratios and being able to pick up/drop off children from school or nursery. You need to know what makes you a good choice so you can tell potential customers about these points.
Having run a successful advertising campaign your telephone is, hopefully, ringing off the hook with potential customers. Don't relax yet though, you still have to convert these potential customers into paying ones.
Your first contact with a prospective customer is often by telephone. Make sure you, and any other family members, always answer the phone politely, as you never know when it may be a potential customer calling. Have a clear and friendly answer phone message for missed calls and a pad by the phone for messages.
When a parent calls the first thing to establish is whether they are a suitable customer to fill your vacancy. Check whether you can fit in the hours required, school/playgroup pick ups and child's age. If the parent hasn't used a childminder before it may be helpful to give a summary of how you work. Explain what a childminder is and how they differ from a nursery or other types of care.
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