Customer is Always Right Approach

[Unregistered]

Do any of you run your daycares this way? The customer is always right approach?
I fear if I did I would always have to say yes to every parent about every thing and that will just not fly with me. 9 out of 10 times the parent is not right. Any one use the customer is always right philosophy if so how does it work for you? How do you do it and not have pare ts walk all over you??

[Meeko]

NOPE!

This my home. My business. My rules.

Parents are not forced to sign up with me. They have oodles of time to see the daycare, ask questions, read contracts and handbooks.

If they don't like anything at all, they are free to look elsewhere.

So no excuses. No exceptions. All kids treated the same. All parents treated the same.

[Blackcat31]

Do any of you run your daycares this way? The customer is always right approach?
I fear if I did I would always have to say yes to every parent about every thing and that will just not fly with me. 9 out of 10 times the parent is not right. Any one use the customer is always right philosophy if so how does it work for you? How do you do it and not have pare ts walk all over you??

Depends on what you mean by the customer is always right.

Right about what?

Some things parents absolutely have a right to dictate and other things, not so much so the idea that "the customer is always right" simply cannot blanket everything.

[midaycare]

Well I'm not selling burgers or clothes, so I don't approach it quite that way. I do a lot to please the parents I like, but nothing I'm not comfortable with. That's just good business.

[nannyde]

No. They are newbie parents so their knowledge of child care is very limited. Their knowledge of group care is very limited. Their financial interest is getting what they paid for. Their view of what they are paying for is vastly different than what I am charging for.

It would be disastrous to have them dictate my work. I would loose my business in weeks.

[Sugar Magnolia]

If what a parent is asking for, in terms of how their child is cared for, it's reasonable and within my policies, the customer is always right. Technically, they may not be right, but good business people will know how to make the customer feel they are right. It's all about perception.

[Heidi]

If what a parent is asking for, in terms of how their child is cared for, it's reasonable and within my policies, the customer is always right. Technically, they may not be right, but good business people will know how to make the customer feel they are right. It's all about perception.

My other career was banking, and we rarely said "no" to a customer. Even there, though, sometimes you respectfully did, and they either accepted it or not.

[Josiegirl]

To answer your question, it depends on the circumstances.
But I had to laugh. I have come up against soooo many places where I, being the customer, was not right, never was right and never will be right. I honestly don't think PR or service is what it used to be.

[permanentvacation]

No! This is my company. I have created policies for reasons and they will be followed. If parents don't agree with my policies, they can find childcare elsewhere.

Some of the parents' requests are due to being new parents, parents with no backbone and let even a 1 year old walk all over them, parents who think their child is entitled, parents who think they are entitled, parents who want me to be the child's parent and do everything for them that they should do, etc.

I feel that parents need to be trained at daycare just like the children need to be trained at daycare to get prepared for their child to enter school. A parent is not able to go to their child's kindergarten teacher or 1st, 2nd grade teacher and demand that the teacher do special things just for them or their child. They also need to learn that a daycare is a multi-child/group atmosphere in which they can not demand all sorts of special things just for their child. Their child has to blend into the group and they need to conform to the expectations of the parents.

If they want special things just for their child, they need a personal nanny or babysitter.

I am a licensed provider. I have specific rules that I must follow to maintain my daycare license. Therefore, I must demand that my daycare parents also follow those rules. The other rules that I have are either ways that I wish to operate my daycare so my company works best for me or rules that I learned to create through 25 years of experience as a licensed daycare provider.

[nannyde]

I do try to give a yes with a fee attached. That helps a lot.

No nap.... yes with a 25$ fee per day

Kid inside during outside time... yes with a 25$ fee per day

Baby held during nap... yes with a 25$ fee per day

Every business has fees for service so I try to offer a true price for their request. Usually conflict happens when they believe that their four dollars an hour buys them the ability to decide what is done with the kid. When they are asking for services that cost more than what I make, I can't do it.

[permanentvacation]

I actually started a thread on here a while ago about losing pride and interest in my own daycare. A big reason that happened was because I started letting the parents run my daycare instead of me. I am a broke single mother and was having trouble getting daycare kids. I had decided to do whatever the parents wanted to get them to hire me. And kept letting the parents run over me so I would keep the income from their kids.

I started allowing the parents to demand that I do special things for their child or the parents. I had different parents wanting me to do different things whether it was changing my hours, the way I taught the kids, feeding the children their favorite foods rather than my typical meals, taking payments late, etc. I got to the point that instead of holding my head high and saying I am a small business owner; a licensed daycare provider, I started calling myself a babysitter! I had given the parents all control of the way my own company would be operated!

I finally started posting how frustrated I was on here and telling you guys how I had lost interest and pride in my company. After my posts on here, I pulled myself up by my bootstraps, and took back ownership of my company! I started telling my parents that by everyone wanting me to do their special things for their particular children had created complete chaos in my daycare. I told them that I need the group of children to be on the same page doing the same things at the same time just like in kindergarten or 1st grade. I can't be one woman letting up to 8 kids do their own thing all day long. I told them my original rules for the parents and children and the way that I had in the past, and will again, starting that Monday, run my daycare on a day to day basis. Basically I told them that as of the coming Monday, they were going to do things my way or they needed to find other daycare. I didn't lose any of the children and I am again a proud small business owner of a licensed home daycare.

So, I tried to let the customer be right. It doesn't work for me and my company.

[MOM OF 4]

Do any of you run your daycares this way? The customer is always right approach?
I fear if I did I would always have to say yes to every parent about every thing and that will just not fly with me. 9 out of 10 times the parent is not right. Any one use the customer is always right philosophy if so how does it work for you? How do you do it and not have pare ts walk all over you??

No. And the customer is NOT *always* "right". I hate that approach. Sometimes, they just plain WRONG or RUDE, or very unreasonable in their requests, and need to be put in their place. Additionally, we don't want ALL customers. Sometimes, there are some that just didn't fit in with our group/philosophies/etc, while others are just big fat jerks, sneaky liars, trouble makers or amoral. Money is NOT everything and unless I was comfortable making an exception for a person (in SOME cases, it's necessary and appropriate), I would not bend on a single policy I have.

[AmyKidsCo]

My goal is to always do what's best for the child. If there's a conflict I try to see the parent's point of view and weight it against mine, the good of that child, and the good of all the children.

For instance, I won't give your child a bath, even if you didn't have time last night.

At the same time, if your child is extra tired after a long weekend I'll let him or her take it easy and move nap up if needed.

[TwinKristi]

If I had this motto I would have potentially given a baby sour milk because the mom insisted it was good til the exp date, not 5-7 days from opening like the carton said. Or allowed sick children in my care when parents "insist" it's just allergies or teething. Or just "smack" someone's kid for being naughty. All things I have been trained as a professional not to do. Parents often have their best interest in mind, not ours. I worked at a few large companies that had this type of attitude and it was just lame and a miserable place to work when it comes down to dealing with customers who insist they're right and typically at their financial advantage. My guarantee is to keep their children safe and well taken care of, if they aren't happy they'll have to take their business elsewhere.

[e.j.]

Before I started doing day care, I worked as a trainer/supervisor in the customer service/complaint department of a company. I was home sick from work one day, I was flipping through the channels and caught a show where the people on it were talking about customer service. During the discussion, a flight attendant spoke up and said, "The customer is not always right. In fact, they're usually wrong. However, the customer should be accommodated whenever possible." That made a lot of sense to me. I keep her words in mind even now that I'm doing day care. I try to accommodate parents' requests if they're reasonable and it works for me. If not, I explain politely why it won't work for me. Like others have said, "My house, my business, my rules".