Early childhood education isn’t just an occupation— it’s a community . 👨👩👦 From the teacher who’s been at the same preschool for four decades, to the new parents leaving their child for the first time, there’s a whole lotta love that goes into early learning—and as a leader, it’s up to you to utilize that love to create the best experiences possible. And it starts by listening to your extended ECE family to build a community that works for everyone. ✅
Parent surveys are the process of collecting feedback from families to understand how they feel about:
Studies show that parental involvement can improve a student's academic achievement. And it’s not just the kids who benefit. Asking for parent feedback on your entire child care center operations can also help boost overall enrollment and increase revenue. What’s not to love? 😍
But collecting parent feedback is more complex than it used to be. Gone are the days of impromptu chats at pickup. These days, parent feedback is done almost entirely online. And while this new tech-reliant approach to collecting parent feedback certainly has its drawbacks, the upside is that your preschool can benefit from insightful analytics that has a real impact on your center’s success.
So, what does the best practice for preschool parent survey questions? How can your systems adapt to this new way of collecting data? And what are the most impactful childcare parent survey questions to ask?
In this clear-cut guide (with 25 free parent survey questions), we’ll share the best ways to drill down on parent feedback, simultaneously showcase your brand, and bring your ECE community closer together.
Parent feedback can influence decision-making, so your business actually works for the people it serves.
Here’s why it’s worth the effort:
Gigi Schweikert, CEO at ECE forerunner Lightbridge Academy explains how they use parent feedback to influence their services: “At Lightbridge, we use an NPS or Net Promoter Score, which is really about gauging loyalty versus satisfaction. We also do customer surveys which are more about satisfaction, but the NPS score is about loyalty.”
In other words, marrying parent feedback with regular ‘how are we doing?’ check-ins is a great way to keep your family with you. Parent feedback surveys help you gauge how your center's doing. 👍🏻
Increase family participation by reading this ultimate guide to Family Engagement (+ free tips and best practices)!
Parents with child
Parent feedback forms come in all shapes and sizes.
From traditional paper printouts to Typeform questionnaires, there are samples of a parent survey type for every center. Your results will depend on the length, ease, and interface of your surveys.
Whatever parent feedback method you choose, make sure to consider this first:
Michael Miller, Executive Chairman at Kiddie Academy believes tech is the way forward. He told BizJournals.com, “Twenty years ago, the brand experience was about a parent coming in and touring an academy and getting a feel that way. That’s all changed now. Today the brand experience happens on mobile devices, the internet, and online reviews. That’s where parents become comfortable with your brand.”
Once you collect these family responses - what's left to do?
The best way to measure parent survey questions will depend on the specific questions you are asking. For example, if you are asking parents to rate their satisfaction with the school, a Likert scale would be a good option. If you are asking parents about their thoughts on a specific issue, a multiple-choice question would be a good option. And if you are asking parents for their general thoughts on the school, an open-ended question would be a good option.
Once you have collected your survey responses, you will need to analyze them. This can be done by hand or by using software. When analyzing your survey responses, it is important to look at the overall trends. You should also look at the responses from different groups of parents, such as parents of different ages, parents of different income levels, and parents of different ethnicities.
Easily measure family engagement and parent feedback with an all-in-one childcare solution. See a status bar of how often families are being communicated with. Boost family retention by building strong relationships with families.
Communities grow stronger when everyone has their voice heard—and parent survey questions are the best way to let parents have their say.
Investing in parent feedback also helps to improve family engagement and customer loyalty for your unique childcare brand—making it that much easier to keep your revenue consistent.
But there’s one stand-out rule to remember: Always act on parent feedback.
If you ask parents to take the time to fill out a survey, you’ve got to follow up. Even if that just means explaining why you’re not going to act on it. Transparency goes a long way in building trust with today’s parents, so use your parent feedback surveys as a way to strengthen that relationship.
As long as you always act, use a tool your parents and staff are guaranteed to love, and weave feedback collection into your wider brand strategies, you’ll end up with powerful data that leads to better business choices.
Want to learn how LineLeader can save you and your staff countless hours of work? Watch our handy explainer video under 'video resources,' (or - better yet - click the button below to schedule a demo)! ⬇️
Schedule a demo to see LineLeader in action.
Download the benchmark report to expertly grow and manage your childcare business.
