It seems like each day in our center we're trying to squeeze so much in that many important things aren’t discussed. Items that have a huge impact on our enrollment conversion might be overlooked because of heavy workloads and unexpected circumstances that require the director's attention. In the midst of our busy days, there are seven pressing questions to which all bosses demand answers. Have them ready at a moment's notice and be ready for the praise to roll in!

1. What is customer lifetime value?

Customer lifetime value is how much future revenue can be expected during the course of enrollment with the prospective family. There are complicated formulas you can use to calculate this metric. This value is different depending on when the child starts and how many potential years they could attend your school. If the prospective family has more than one child, this can be even more complicated. Let ChildCareCRM do the hard work for you. Having this number handy will let you know which age group will provide the highest marketing return and gives you a better idea of where to focus your efforts to target that specific audience. You will have more confidence in knowing what kind of specials to run for advertising purposes to build enrollment.

2. Where did prospects learn about the center?

Always ask, “How did you hear about us?” You will be surprised to find out who or what is your best advertising platform. Keeping track of where all your leads come from will tell you if you are wasting money advertising somewhere that isn’t generating any enrollments. Calculate your cost of each marketing campaign and divide by the number of new customers to find out how much you spend on each lead. You could save the marketing dollars from a source that brings you very few prospects and invest them into the more promising lead sources. For example, if you have a lot of word-of-mouth business, it might be time to revisit a referral program for your families and teachers!

3. How quickly do you respond to leads?

Today’s culture demands instant results. When do you have time to stop everything to reach out to a prospect and hope they get back to you when they have a chance. Playing phone tag is not very fun when it comes time to build enrollments. The fact is the faster you respond to the lead, the less time they have had contact with other competitors.

4. Why are prospects interested in the center?

Finding out why prospects are interested in your center can give you great advantages. Knowing what they're looking to receive that they might not have been getting at their previous center can help with retention and marketing efforts. If your center is the only one around that offers a special program that attracts others to you, then you will hear about it and know that it is worth the investment and effort. Stand out from your competition and be proud of your unique benefits.

5. What are people frequently asking about?

There are going to be some common questions that are always asked. Pricing, ratios, teacher experience - we're all used to fielding these concerns from our prospective families. There might be a question that isn’t asked by everyone, but it's asked often enough to mention it to your boss. For example, whether you have cameras in the classrooms or what type of electronics or programs are used for educational purposes. These types of questions are important for your boss to know so they can investigate the ideas more and make changes according to trends and new technology.

6. When do the most tours happen?

If there is a window of time that more parents tour, that's important to bring to your boss’ attention. This may help justify your front office schedules, marketing collateral needs and more. At any given time, you need to be sure you are stocked on tour information and have the most trained and trusted team member answering your phones and doors.

7. Which part of the enrollment process are prospects losing interest?

Take notice to when your prospect families lose interest. If it's when you tell them the price or after they take the tour with a certain staff member, you can make adjustments to improve the issues. If you continue to ignore the issues, they could get worse and your competition might use it to their advantage when prospects contact them and tell them why they're interested in their center instead of yours.