The Child Care Business Podcast
The Child Care Business Podcast
Season 5, Episode 8: Building Loyalty: Strategies for Family Retention in Child Care, with Jaime Rechkemmer
Jaime Rechkemmer is the founder of Aim4Impact Consulting and her work in early childhood education includes helping child care centers with QRIS, compliance, professional development, curriculum, assessments, technology and more. She has worked at some of the largest child care organizations in the country, and she chairs the AI and Machine Learning Advisory Board at Watch Me Grow.
In this episode, Jamie shares her tips for how ECE leaders can build loyalty among families. And that includes staffing.
"You can't have a conversation about family retention and family loyalty without having a conversation about staff retention and staff loyalty," Jamie says.
Teachers play such a pivotal role in establishing family culture and family loyalty and family retention. And when it comes to creating family loyalty, it's all about culture, experience and connection.
Jamie also walks us through how to not fall victim to the biggest factors why families choose to leave a child care center: concerns about quality of care, communication gaps between staff and families and cost-related issues.
Learn more about Jamie and the work she's doing at www.aim4impact.org!
Welcome to the Child Care Business Podcast, brought to you by ProCare Solutions. This podcast is all about giving childcare, preschool, daycare, afterschool, and other early education professionals a fun and upbeat way to learn about strategies and inspiration you can use to thrive. You'll hear from a variety of childcare thought leaders, including educators, owners, and industry experts on ways to innovate to meet the needs of the children you serve. From practical tips for managing operations to uplifting stories of transformation and triumph, this podcast will be chock full of insights you can use to fully realize the potential of your childcare business. Let's jump in.
SPEAKER_01:Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Child Care Business Podcast. My name is Leah Woodbury. I'm the head of content here at ProCare Solutions, and we are so happy to have all of you join us today. And we're thrilled to have on this episode, Jamie Rechemmer. She is the founder. She's a founder of Aim for Impact Consulting. So her work includes helping child care centers with QRIS, compliance, professional development, curriculum, assessments, technology. It's a lot. Everything in between. Jamie has worked at some of the largest child care organizations in the country, and she chairs the AI and Machine Learning Advisory Board at Watch Me Grow. Jamie, welcome. We're so glad you're joining us today.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, Leah. Thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER_01:And today we're going to be talking about something that a lot of child care centers are worrying about or want to know how they improve, and that is building loyalty and how centers can better do family retention in their ECE programs, in their daycares. And this is something that Jamie has some expertise on. And before we get started, started on that. We always like to start these conversations by getting a little background on our guests. Jamie, I'm wondering if you could tell us how you became involved in ECE and chose it as your career path.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. I am an ECE lifer. And from there, my career has taken a lot of different twists and turns. So I have been a child care director. I've written curriculum for early education. I've worked in early ed nonprofit. But for most of my career, I was an executive in early education for, like you said, some of the large companies. And my area of the business was always related to kids and families and teachers and quality. And so the topic of family engagement and family loyalty and family retention, super important to me because all of the areas of the operations that I focused on were the ones that hopefully contributed to that family loyalty being established.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So let's shift to today. Let's focus on how our listeners can keep those families happy. So we here at ProCare Solutions, we do an annual report every year on child care business trends. And one interesting stat from this year was that about 40% of the respondents to the survey that we used to write the report, they said they're facing challenges with maintaining consistent enrollment. And I'm curious if you can kind of Use your expertise to tell us like what are the reasons that so many centers are struggling with enrollment right now?
SPEAKER_02:I think that, you know, probably we would all agree that one of the largest factors and enrollment challenges today is consistent staffing. And so you can't have a conversation about family retention and family loyalty without having a conversation about staff retention and staff loyalty. But also, you know, having gone through the pandemic, families were forced very quickly to figure out other solutions, things that they may not have considered. At the same time, employers became much more compassionate and thoughtful and listened more about the challenges that families had finding childcare. And so I think that there have been some really creative solutions that families have been able to find. we find childcare in a lot of settings outside of the traditional childcare program. We've got pre-K, we've got Head Start, we've got Early Head Start, you've got nonprofit, faith-based, family, there's just so many options for families to choose. And I think families are a lot more discriminating in looking for, you know, not just programs that are affordable, but programs that really represent the values of their families and And so they're looking more deeply into the choices. So I think there's a lot of different reasons.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And it does seem like there's a lot of focus maybe on growing enrollment, but not as much on making sure current families are happy and that they're not looking or not maybe looking down the street or elsewhere. Why do you think that is, that that focus is so different when it is so important to them? retain those families.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I have a couple of ideas. One, you know, when I think of acquisition of families, I think of that as being a task of an administrator. That's the front office. It's the director. It's the person who's greeting the family in the door. It's the owner. It's the operator, right? The acquisition of the family is up at the front of the house, whereas the retention of families is really at the back of the house. It's the teachers. It's the experience that the families are having in the classroom. It's the children's, you know, joy of walking in the door and running to their teacher and having a great day. But really, I mean, if we get down to it, who's probably listening to this conversation? It's the administrators. We talk about enrollment in families with the administrators. But it's really the teachers that play such a pivotal role in establishing family culture and family loyalty and family retention. So I think part of this conversation starts with who's at the table when we're putting together strategies for family retention. I think that also... When it comes to retaining a family, when it comes to creating family loyalty, that is all about culture and all about experience and all about connection. And it's happening every single day. And sometimes you don't realize that there's a breakdown in those things until it's already broken. And so you're scrambling to repair something rather than proactively really making it strong day after day after day. And, and I think that, you know, there's a lot to be said for once a family loses trust in their childcare provider, it's, it's really tough to gain it back. And so it could be under those circumstances that the real energy expended to acquire a new family seems to be the right energy. But I think we would all agree, absolutely not. It costs so much more to acquire a new family. It's so much harder on the child and the family and the childcare provider and the teacher to see this churn of families. It changes everything about the classroom experience and the classroom environment. And so really focusing on retention of families and creating a culture where they feel welcomed and where they feel like they belong is one of the best investments you can make in your business.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I was just thinking as I'm getting ready for this podcast, my youngest just wrapped up preschool like a year ago. And the number of times that I talked to his teachers compared to the director, I mean, it was 10 to 1 that I was talking to the teachers versus, yeah, somebody in an office. And I think that sometimes does get lost. So I'm really glad you brought that up. Yep. And I'm also curious how the expectations of today's families change. differ than families of maybe 10 years ago, five years ago, whatever metric you think is a good one for comparison.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I think that, um, I think that our world has changed so much in the past five years that I'm not sure looking back a decade ago would give us much more than historical insight. But I think that we can definitely talk about ways that families have changed their expectation. I remember when we used to think about affordability, when we used to think about convenience, when we used to think about word of mouth referrals and and when you know if your neighbor or your colleague or your best friend was a family in the child care program then then that was a great place for you to be so much has changed about our communities to start with um that that for me one of the things that has changed is how much families put weight on the connection that they establish with their child care program. And it starts with that very first visit. It starts with every interaction that they have in that first week or that first 30 days. And families are really wanting to feel rooted and grounded in this place where they drop their child off every day. And so, you know, whereas cost might have been and still is of tremendous importance. It's not the only consideration. As it relates to cost too, I think that families are certainly much more in tune with the value of their investment. So it's not just whether or not they can afford it, but it's whether or not they feel like they're getting everything that you promised them when you walk through the door, right? And so we give a great tour and we talk about all of the wonderful things about our program, but our parents are expecting to see it and feel it every single day. And so when they don't, it's not about whether I can afford it. It's about whether or not this is the right place to be putting my dollars in care for my children, right? And then, you know, I think that we have to talk about, you know, health, safety, sanitation, all critically important. But our families, today's parents, are much more informed about what quality early education looks like We have quality rated improvement in so many states. And those states have big campaigns where they teach our families what do we look for in quality care. Child care is in the media often. And, you know, there is often a lot of positive stories about the impact of early education as we're advocating for more funding and all of those types of things. And so parents know what to look for. And so the quality... The communication and the cost, I think, are three things that are just at the top of the list for families, whereas there was a time where it may have been a little different than that.
UNKNOWN:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So let's talk about the reasons that families do make that decision to leave a child care center. And you found the biggest factors are concerns about quality of care, communication gaps between staff and families and cost related issues like we just talked about. So I wonder if we can break down each one and maybe start with quality of care.
SPEAKER_02:Sure. Quality is where my heart is. That's, you know, in each of my roles across early education, quality has always been a benchmark of what I hoped to deliver and what my team, you know, is really looking for. As I mentioned, most of our states have QRIS programs that kind of define quality benchmarks for us. But certainly we're talking about, you know, really rich, developmentally appropriate environments that are full of lots of great toys. One of my favorite, favorite mentors ever, you know, used to talk about the toy store effect and how when a child or a family member walks into a classroom, you really want them to take a breath at just how magical that space is the same way that they would take a breath if they walked into their favorite toy store, you know, because play is how we teach and play is how children learn. And so you want that sense stepping through the door that the This is a magical playground with everything that we might ever want to do inside. And also that all the people in the room are lots of fun to play with too. So those interactions between children and teachers and those interactions between children and each other. You talked about your benchmark survey and I remember a survey that I read once and I don't recall who the author of the survey was, but It was asking parents, you know, what is your biggest worry when you go to bed at night? What is your biggest worry? And it was that their child is liked, you know, that their child has friends. And so that's one of the things that we promise families in our early education programs is we promise that your kid's going to have such a great time and they're going to make so many friends. And so really encouraging. showcasing the interactions between teachers and children and children and children um another you know element of quality and then certainly the curriculum um that that any program chooses and And there are lots of great curriculums out there. And there are even more really talented teachers who build curriculum as children's interests emerge and day by day by day. But knowing developmentally appropriate practice and celebrating milestones and having really rich experience for kids, those are all things that parents look for. One of the difficulties though, Leah, is that they can't always see it, right? They're not there all day long. So we have quality benchmarks, but we don't have a really great way of making sure that families see those quality benchmarks. you know, the kind of segue into communication is we got to have a great methodology for how we share those moments. And it might be video streaming cameras. It could be, you know, digital platforms where we send photos and notes about daily routines. But hopefully it's also those conversations that you've said you had with your child in preschool, 10 to 1, right? Every day we should have something really great to celebrate about kids.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Where do you think those communication gaps start? Is it just that teachers are so busy? Is it that families maybe don't know the right questions? That's
SPEAKER_02:a really
SPEAKER_01:good question.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's a tough
SPEAKER_01:one, I think.
SPEAKER_02:It's a really great question. You know, I think it starts, unfortunately, right now, it starts with our just tremendous teacher turnover in early education. There isn't enough time to really form a trusting relationship. And it's not just there's not enough time in the day. There aren't enough days because teachers, unfortunately... come and go, but frankly, so do families. We were talking about enrollment and retention, and one of the consequences of family retention rates that are low is that you have that churn of families. And so you don't get to establish this great communication cadence. I think another really important thing to bring to the table is that kind of dynamic between families and teachers. And in my best experiences, there is not a hierarchy there whatsoever at all. It is... Totally and completely a partnership. And families are teachers and teachers are family. And we are both here in order to provide the best for kids. And to do that, we have to talk to one another and trust one another and accept one another's strengths, but also really build each other's opportunities up, right? Yeah. But all of that does take time. And most of our family relationships exist, you know, between 7 and 8 a.m. and between 5 and 6 p.m. And everybody comes at the same time. And you're either really busy to get to work or you're really, really tired from work and you want to go home. Like there's just not a lot of really quality work. opportunities to engage in great communication with families and so we have to be intentional as as operators as or you know as directors as teachers we have to be intentional but i think we also have to really make it clear to our families that we need them to be intentional as well right we need them to to really want to get to know us and want to be part of this wonderful experience that we're making for their child
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Yes. It's because it is true. And everybody's always picking up at the same time or dropping off at the same time. It's all, it's, it felt like it was never staggered either.
SPEAKER_02:You know, as you mentioned that as a parent coming in, there were probably also a lot of days that you didn't see the same teacher in the morning and in the afternoon. Because, you know, we forget that we are trying to staff, you know, sometimes a 12 or 14 hour day with traditional working hours. And that doesn't always line up very well. And then because we've got such tremendous responsibilities to ratios and group sizes and things like that, you know, those very early early morning hours and those late afternoon hours, sometimes there is a lot of movement, whether classroom movement or teacher movement or kid movement, whatever it might be. There's a lot of moving parts to make it all work for everyone. And so as much as we rely on the in-person communication and how critical that is for connection, which our families are looking for, We also need to be very intentional about our digital processes, whatever they might be. You know, very consistently sending home the same information day after day so that parents reliably get those tidbits that they're looking for. And then being sure, too, as teachers, that we make a commitment to communicate with one another about the families. You know, if you're going to see one of the little families, you know, in the afternoon and I was there in the morning, you need to know what I saw in the morning so that you can share that information with them so that there's no gap in, in understanding because of the time of drop off and pick up and our work schedules and things like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. All right. Let's go to the third one. Um, cost related issues. How's that affecting loyalty? Our pocket books, the pocket books, all of them.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know what? Like, The cost conversation, there are so many stakeholders, right? Like there's... There's the cost of actual quality. Like, what does it really cost to deliver what children and families deserve in early education? There is the cost or rather the expense that families can truly afford. And then there is kind of that more maybe ethereal idea of, is this expense worth it? Am I getting... is it worth it not just in am I getting value and good stuff for my kiddos, but also the things that I have to do to earn the money for this service, the transportation that I have to pay for to get back and forth from this service for my child. There's just so many parts to it, right? We could have hours and hours and hours of conversation just on cost. But I think when it comes to family loyalty, You know, families, when they enroll in your program, they know what the cost is, right? It's their responsibility to make sure it fits their budget. And it's also your responsibility as an owner operator to make sure that family knows that just like any other expense, When your costs go up, so will your tuition, right? So that there's not this unrealistic expectation that from zero to five, I'm gonna have the same expense related to early education. But I think that once the enrollment takes place, then the retention and the loyalty comes. And what I mentioned before is do families see everything that you promised for their child every day, right? And so I oftentimes will coach owners and operators and directors, give me a tour and let me make notes on all the things that you promised me as a potential parent. And then for the next couple of days, I'm gonna look for all of those things in your program. You know, I'm going to start by looking for those things from 7 to 8 in the morning and 5 to 6 in the afternoon. Because that's when I'm in your building. How much of what you promised me do I see during those times? Then I'm going to look for all those things throughout the day. And I'm going to ask questions about how are you ensuring... that mom and dad see this learning experience? How are you ensuring that mom and dad know that soccer shots happen? How are you ensuring that mom and dad see the sign language that you're using in the infant room? And at that point, we start talking with teachers about how intentional they are about those things that were promised. And, you know, Leah, sometimes I find out that the teacher's not even necessarily aware of all the things that were talked about in the tour. So they aren't even 100% sure exactly what they're supposed to be doing, much less how they do it in such a high quality way that it shines even when parents aren't around. You know, like, I mean, that's a tough order. So from a retention perspective, Cost is really about reframing to value and to making sure that families see what they're getting, making sure they know not just what you are charging them for tuition, But also knowing what you're investing those dollars in, right? You're investing it in your staff. And so you've got staff qualifications and staff, you know, continuing education. You're investing it in safe facilities. And so share with parents when you upgrade security systems, when you install new ACs, when you have a tune-up on the bus, because then they see their dollars at work, right? Right. If you have differentiators like soccer or Spanish or technology or dance, those kinds of things, they're happening, but are families noticing that they're happening? And so how do you really make those shine as well? It's really all about making your families not just hear you say that it's worth their investment, but that they feel it and they know it and they're part of it.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and that's a great segue. You beat me to my next question is what center owners and leaders should do to keep those current families happy. And yeah, that seeing that they're getting what they pay for and that their children are happy. And I think that's huge, but what else should they be doing?
SPEAKER_02:So I heard a quote the other day and it was, let me say, connection is the currency of for loyalty so connection is the currency for loyalty so what we how we are able to connect with people is kind of the the dividend that we get in return is their loyalty their retention their commitment you know those types of things that we all about connection and relationships and and so i think that we have to start with how do we form those relationships with families And again, we talk a lot in early education about how we form relationships with kids. There are tools that measure how successful we are in our interactions with our children. I think to other agencies, I'm sorry, to other industries and how often Other industries, for example, have a net promoter score, right? Would you recommend us? And why? What is it about your experience that's so positive? Or they do customer service training or customer service surveys. Because we have a really, really hard, hard job to serve kids, to serve families, and to serve teachers. Three very specific stakeholders with very unique needs. And so... definitely want to focus on that relationship that we build with families so that they feel seen, they feel heard, they're valued every single day. And remember that it's the day that it doesn't happen that families will remember, right? So we could have a full calendar of getting it right. And then that one day that there's a misstep or a missed opportunity to connect with a family, that's the one that's gonna stick with them. So being very consistent, I really recommend an onboarding for families, the same way that we onboard staff. You know, we might have, you know, one day of really intentional onboarding. Then we have five days of experiences. We do a check-in, we make a phone call, right? Like those kinds of things are really important to families too. And so having a plan for family onboarding, making sure that there are multiple touch points the first 30 days, but also that it's not just the director. right, that it's the director, it's the teacher, your cook, your bus driver, any adult who is gonna be involved with a child should in those first 30 days make a really intentional effort to introduce themselves, to tell the family a story about how they interacted with their child and started building that friendship. Like those are the core memories that are gonna make everything better when you miss an opportunity to connect down the road, right? I think personalizing the experience, Leah, making sure that you know not just the child's name, but that you know mom and dad's name, that you know something about that family and what's important to them, and not just where they work and when they pay their bill, but things that are interesting to them. I remember in my role across multiple childcare centers, I would visit our facilities, which means I didn't have those relationships. I didn't know families by name. I didn't know children by name, and they didn't know me. Now, the kids would always run up and ask, who are you? And are you somebody's mommy? And where do you live? Like they would want to know a lot about me. Families would be very suspect of me, right? They, why are you here? Are you monitoring something? Are you, are you with the state? You know, they, they'd ask those kinds of questions. And so I just really took it upon myself to always introduce myself to any adult that I came across, no matter who they were and, and let them know who I was and why I was there and, and that I was, you know, really, really interested in their kids' quality experience. But what that showed even years later, right, because they recognize or they remembered me because I made an effort. So if I was in that program a year later and they were in that program a year later, chances are that family would remember me. And that always made me feel like I'd done something right in that first introduction. Two more things come to mind. One, like really special moments for families, you know, wow moments for the families. If you know that something really cool happened, if there was a promotion, if they're having a family vacation, if grandparents are in town, if they got yard of the month in the neighborhood club, you know, those kinds of things that you just hear in the hallways. Yeah. remember them and celebrate them. Or even just sending thank you notes, check-in calls, you know, how are things going? Those mean a lot. And then the last thing that comes to mind is really authentically asking families for feedback. So I said, you know, partnerships are really important and families need to feel like they're part of their child's learning experience. And that means you've got to ask them, not just for the Google review, but also you've got to ask them, you know, how are things going and what could we do better and where are we missing the mark and where are we getting it right, you know, and so that we can keep doing those things. But really asking for feedback because I think that, That families who feel seen and who feel heard and who feel valued, those are the families that stay through thick and thin. And that's what you really need.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Well, those are all the questions I have. Did I not ask you something I should have? Or is there anything left hanging that you think our listeners might want to know? Oh, man, that's always at you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you read that question about how at the end of the interview, you should always, is there something I didn't ask you that you would like to tell me? You know, I think that, I think maybe just not avoiding hard conversations, you know, and I think that's a life lesson for us all in so many areas. And we talk about that a lot when it comes to teacher retention, but family retention, not avoiding the hard conversations, But also don't miss the small signs that a family is on their way out the door. And some of the small signs, I think, you know, one, when families go silent, I think that that's always an indication. If they were knocking on your door every day, all day long, either with praise or with problems, at least they were knocking, right? If they go silent, then you want to check in on them and find out what's going on. And
SPEAKER_01:yeah, I think that's it. I think that's it. That's a great way to end it. Like keeping those lines of communication open and being willing to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. That's right. Hard conversations. Jamie, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. Could you let our listeners know... where folks can find out more about you, your work. Yes, I would love to do that.
SPEAKER_02:So I have launched kind of an independent business, Aim for Impact, website aimforimpact.org. And what that allows me to do is just take all of the many interests and experiences that I've had in early education and piece them into a job description. It's like the best of the best opportunities. But right now, I'm most proud of some of the work that I'm doing with Watch Me Grow, a technology company in the ECE space. And there's some great information on their website about the Machine Learning Advisory Board and smart observations and the way that we're imagining using video. to retain teachers. And we can have a whole nother conversation about how that video experience, the real life, real time nature of it can be so valuable for our families as well. So either of those places, you can check me on my website or learn more about the work I'm doing at Watch Me Grow.
SPEAKER_01:Wonderful. Well, thank you again. Thank you to everybody who took the time to listen today. And thank you to everybody out there doing the important work that you're doing in ECE. And we know it's a hard job. We at ProCare Solutions are so glad to support you. And we'd like to say thank you, as we always do. We hope you all have a great day. And we will see you on our next episode. Bye, everybody.
SPEAKER_00:Until next time.