Thread about Parent Surveys

[wahmof3]

The thread about giving DCP surveys got me thinking about my program in general.

Do you ever evaluate your own program by asking yourself:

Would I send my kids to me?

I have never done a DCP survey in this context. When I did HR we always used surveys, especially exit surveys. Survey's are wonderful tools, but in this profession, IMO surveys could be counter-productive. IMO you could open doors you are not prepared to open. Even a harmless survey question like "What would you like to see added to my program" could be a recipe for disaster. Meaning if a parent said I would like see you add preschool curriculum, would you be able to do this? I almost think that if you are not prepared to incorporate at least some of the questions in your survey, you would just be wasting you time. Thats just an example.

So rather than a survey, take a look at your program & ask yourself: Would I send my kids here? What kind if program would I want my own kids to attend?

Sorry to ramble, I'm just curious if any of you do this?

[e.j.]

So rather than a survey, take a look at your program & ask yourself: Would I send my kids here? What kind if program would I want my own kids to attend?

Sorry to ramble, I'm just curious if any of you do this?

I do this all the time. I quit my job and opened my own day care business because I wasn't happy with what I saw when my son was enrolled in a couple of day cares in my area. I'm very sensitive to how other parents view my day care and am always asking myself if I'm offering the kind of program I would want my own kids to attend.

[MarinaVanessa]

I do think it's still important to know what your families are thinking and wanted however. If a family wants pre-school curriculum but the rest of your families don't you can simply speak to this family and explain that the majority of your clients want things to stay the way they are. If most of your families want and ask for a curriculum the least you can do is research it and then get back to the parents. If it's costly you can give the parents who want the curriculum the option of paying extra to cover the cost.

Personally I think that from a business perspective it's more dangerous to not ask these questions and not know what your clients want. Either way if they want something that they are not getting from you bad enough they will leave anyway. I'd rather have someone ask me for a "curriculum" so that I can ask them why? "Well I want my child to be prepared for kindergarten", now I can explain how I already do these things without the need of worksheets. This works pretty much with anything that they could possibly ask for. A lot of times they may think you are not providing them with something when in fact you already do, just not in the way that they first thought of. Does that make sense?

I guess I'd rather know where my areas of opportunity are so that at least I am aware of them and can "fix" them either by changing something or by explaining it to clients in the respect of group care in an FCC setting. And let's not forget that what I want and what I am looking for in a daycare may not be what is important to others. I believe that it's good business practice to at least know what the demand is.

[daycare]

I make sure that I am in complete communication with my parents about what we are doing here each week.

I have progress report meetings with the families once every 3 months. I show them how much progress their child has made since they started with me.

I also take pictures daily of what we do. I spend an awful lot of time posting pics online to our website. Almost daily. I try to blog about what we are doing in the pictures weekly. I have only ever had one parent complain and it was because she wanted her child to do worksheets at age 2.

I do have the parents fill out a questionnaire when they start their child. It covers a lot of simple questions about what they expect out of the daycare and what they want for their child.

I don't do surveys anymore, as it only created an opportunity for me to have to put out fires. I even had one parent say well if you had no intentions of offering a "(fill in the blank) why did you even ask. So now I just make sure that I am on the same page with the parents and give them the chance to ask questions or offer suggestions....

I would send my kid to me.....