How can nurseries and childminders stop losing parents to missed calls?
Send an automatic text to every call you can’t answer, saying you’re with the children, when you’ll call back, and asking the child’s age and the days needed. Parents looking for a place often ring several settings in one go, so a quick, clear reply keeps you on their list.
By Sammy Morgan, who runs M1 Studio in Chichester. Updated .
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- Industry
- Nurseries and childminders
- Problem
- Missed calls
- The fix
- Missed-Call Rescue, £800
- Do it yourself?
- Yes, the first steps below
Why it happens to nurseries and childminders.
- Staff are with the children
- Your team’s attention belongs in the room, and a childminder often works alone. The phone is the thing that waits.
- Busy times clash
- Parents ring at drop-off, lunch and pick-up, which are exactly your busiest moments.
- Parents ring round
- When a parent needs a place from a set date, they often phone every setting nearby and visit the ones that call back.
- Waiting-list calls get lost
- A name on a sticky note is easy to lose. When a place opens, you need to know who asked, when, and for which days.
What to do, in order.
Record a helpful voicemail
Say you’re with the children, when you return calls, and point parents to your website for fees and sessions.
Set call-back times
For example at nap time or after pick-up, and say so in your voicemail.
Keep one list
Child’s age, start date, days needed and funded hours. It becomes your waiting list.
Answer common questions online
Fees, sessions, funded hours and how to book a visit, so fewer calls are needed.
Automate the reply
Missed-Call Rescue texts every caller you miss, logs each enquiry in one simple list and sends automatic reminders.
Where M1 can do it for you.
Fixed prices, or a fixed quote before any work starts. No VAT is charged. Any running costs are listed before you agree.
- Missed-Call Rescue £800
It texts back calls you can’t take while you’re with the children, and keeps every enquiry in one list that works as a waiting list.
Missed calls get a text back, automatically.
- Website Chat Assistant £1,800
It answers parents’ questions on your website in the evening, then hands them to you on WhatsApp.
Questions answered day and night, then passed to you on WhatsApp.
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Before you decide.
Something else? Ask Sammy on WhatsApp.
Is it OK to text parents automatically?
A text replying to a call they’ve just made is an expected response to their enquiry. Marketing messages are different and need consent under PECR, so keep the text-back to the enquiry itself. M1 doesn’t give legal advice.
What should the text say?
Keep it warm and short: who you are, that you’re with the children, when you’ll call back, and a question such as the child’s age and the days needed. See what to text when you miss a call.
What does it cost?
Missed-Call Rescue is a fixed £800 to set up, paid half to start and half at launch. Text and app fees are paid at cost or directly by you, and listed before you agree. See what’s included.
Keep reading.
Know what to fix. Then decide.
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