Effective communication in a child care setting offers a number of benefits: it builds trust, prevents misunderstandings, increases productivity with staff and creates more engaged parents.
My name is Christine DeSanti, the chief customer officer of LifeCubby, a top-rated childcare center management software developed by an actual center owner. Prior to joining LifeCubby in 2011 as the company’s first employee, I spent my career teaching children and managing childcare centers — at one time, I oversaw almost 200 children. So, I understand the importance of effective communication to maintain a strong center.
Below are five ways for upping your communications game with the people who matter most to your business.
Go paperless
One of the quickest and easiest ways to improve communication in your center is to ditch paper. By incorporating a digital system to share important information, such as class newsletters, you’ll simplify center communication and ensure consistent delivery. Another benefit is it guarantees everyone is on the same page, like keeping track of upcoming events. Additionally, by eliminating paper correspondence, it will prevent parents from misplacing or losing important documents.
LifeCubby’s software, including its classroom app and family app, simplifies and digitizes communication to keep your staff, teachers and parents in the know.
Celebrate the little moments
Happy teachers stick around longer, and one of the easiest ways to increase staff engagement and employee retention is acknowledging the good work they do. If you’re not already in the habit, make sure you’re letting your staff know when they do a great job at every opportunity.
LifeCubby’s in-app messaging lets you easily give praise to high-performing teachers throughout the day.
Talk about student progress
If experience has taught me anything, it’s that teachers spend a lot of time discussing student progress with parents. After all, we’re in the business of providing a strong educational and developmental foundation for students.
If you haven’t already, consider incorporating a formal student progress tracking system that provides info and updates in real-time. By doing this, parents are able to see student growth so there’s no ambiguity when it comes to their child’s progress.
LifeCubby’s software makes it easy to track student progress throughout your center with its proprietary Vine Assessments. Teachers are able to easily upload evidence of skill mastery, and parents can access observations in real-time so everyone is always on the same page.
Start “healthy” communication
With flu season upon us, as well as other ongoing health concerns, make sure you’re communicating with parents every day about the health of their child through daily health checks.
This easy preventative measure can happen quickly as parents drop off children. As you greet each child, the simple screening, which takes less than a minute, should include a conversation about reported or observed illness/injury affecting the child or family members as well as any changes in the child’s behavior. These questions, as well as a temperature check and other visible symptoms, can help mitigate the transmission of illness throughout your center.
You can use LifeCubby’s Daily Health Checks feature to help institute these screenings and keep track of changes in a child’s health throughout the day.
Anticipate the most difficult conversation (and avoid it altogether)
No one likes to talk about money, and the billing conversation can be especially uncomfortable.
One of the easiest ways to help avoid this difficult discussion is by implementing an automatic billing system. By automating your tuition processing, you’ll give parents payment predictability and can avoid these awkward conversations.
LifeCubby’s automatic billing and tuition processing offers a number of features. With our tuition log, parents have 24/7 access to their payment history and can easily review charges.
If you’re interested in learning more about LifeCubby, please visit our website to see how we can help you efficiently and effectively communicate with the people who matter most.
Christine DeSanti is the chief customer officer of LifeCubby. Throughout her career, she has held a number of positions in the early childhood education space and served on several organization’s boards. DeSanti was instrumental in launching the Central Ohio Christian Directors group and served on several committees for education licensing in the state. DeSanti holds a Bachelor of Science degree in early childhood development from The Ohio State University.
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