-
Business Skills Health Check Tool
Customer service
Good customer service is very important to make sure that you keep your existing customers happy with your provision. Hopefully, if your current group of parents think that you’re doing a good job, they will tell friends and family about it and it can lead to new business opportunities for you.
If your customer service is poor, you will lose customers - never forget the adage that a happy customer tells one person about their experience, an unhappy customer tells nine!
- Identify and focus on your customers’ needs
- Make sure that your staff understand what you expect of them when dealing with parents
- It could be worth running a short staff training session on customer care and developing relationships with customers
- Ask parents for feedback – both through formal methods, like a suggestion box, and in informal everyday conversations
- Have a parents’ group or forum or invite one or two parents to part of a team meeting once a month to hear what they have to say
- Make sure your children can also get involved in telling you what they like and don’t like!
- Have a clear complaints policy – make sure that all staff are aware of it and use it
If you have lost some customers, check if there is an explanation eg., family moving, child moving on to next stage etc. If there is no obvious explanation, ask the former customer for some feedback. Most people are happy to provide some feedback and it can be quite reassuring.
As well as marketing to raise interest in your setting, you need to think about how to convert that interest to a “sale”.
Most settings will have an information pack of some type which prospective customers will receive. Make sure that yours is up to date and includes all of the relevant information that you think your customers are interested in – including reference to your USPs!
- Contact details - including names, telephone numbers and e-mail / web-addresses
- Overview information about the setting – how long you have been in business, any growth / changes / partner organisations etc
- Service information – including your opening hours, how many children you can care for, what age ranges, what facilities you have etc
- Experience and quality information – including up to date staff qualifications and quality awards
- References – such as testimonials and quotes from existing parents and other local organisations that you’re linked to
- Registration information – including your OfSTED registration information, any summaries of recent reports, membership of national and local organisations and links to your Local Authority
As well as your information pack, you should make plans for how to show potential customers around the setting when they first visit. As well as simple things, like making sure that someone is available to show them around promptly when they arrive for their appointment, try to think in advance about any questions that they might have and have your answers ready.
It is advisable to “walk-through” the setting regularly and look at it from the perspective of a customer. You may want to consider:
- Where appropriate, are premises clearly sign-posted?
- Does the exterior of the premises appear well-maintained?
- Is there a display of information for parents?
- Is the interior well maintained and clean?
- Are there ample resources for children – clean and in good repair?
- Are parking areas tidy and well lit?
- Are outdoors play areas clean, tidy and secure?
- Are staff attentive and engaged at all times?