Your Google profile has no way to book a tour, so parents call during nap time and give up
Many daycare profiles only offer a phone number, so parents searching at night have nowhere to go. The tour booking mistake we see constantly, and the fix.
A parent finds your center on Google at 9:30 at night after the baby is finally asleep. They like the photos. They want to see the place. The only option is a phone number, and your center closed four hours ago.
So they save it for tomorrow. Tomorrow they call at 1 p.m., right in the middle of nap time, and nobody picks up. By the end of the week they have toured somewhere else.
This is one of the most common mistakes on daycare Google profiles: no way to book a tour without a phone call. The fix takes less than an hour.
Why this matters more for child care
Parents shopping for child care are not like customers shopping for a plumber. They are working, often with a baby on their hip, and they do most of their research at night or on their lunch break. Your center's busiest hours, drop-off, lunch, nap and pick-up, are exactly when they try to call.
A tour is also the step that decides enrollment. A parent who tours is far more likely to enroll than one who only looks at the profile. Anything that slows down the tour booking costs you families.
What the mistake looks like
Open your own Google Business Profile on your phone and look at the buttons. If you only see "Call" and "Directions," a parent has two choices: call during business hours or drive over unannounced. Neither works well at 9:30 at night.
Common versions of the same mistake:
- The website button goes to a homepage with no tour link anywhere.
- The site has a contact form, but it goes to an inbox nobody checks daily.
- There is a "Book a tour" link, but it opens a long enrollment application instead.
- The profile lists hours, but not tour times, so parents do not know when to come.
The fix, step by step
1. Pick a booking tool. You need something that lets a parent choose a tour time on their phone without calling. Many child care management systems include tour scheduling. If yours does not, a simple scheduling tool in the $0 to $20 a month range works. Set fixed tour slots that avoid nap and pick-up, like 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on weekdays.
2. Keep the form short. Ask for parent name, phone, email, child's age and preferred start date. That is it. You can collect the rest on the tour. Every extra question loses some parents.
3. Add the link to your Google profile. In your Business Profile settings, look for the booking or appointment link field and paste your tour scheduler link there. Google may show it as a "Book" or appointment button depending on your category and region. Then add the same link to your website's main navigation.
4. Add tour times to your description. One line: "Tours weekdays at 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Book online or call." Parents should know the answer before they ask.
5. Send a confirmation text right away. When a parent books, they should get a text within a minute confirming the time and your address. Add a reminder the day before. The missed calls and speed to lead guide covers what to send and when.
Test it like a parent
Grab your phone after 8 p.m., search your center's name, and try to book a tour without calling. Time it. If it takes more than two minutes or more than three taps after the profile, simplify.
Then have someone outside your center try it. Owners always find their own system easier than it is.
What to do with the calls you still get
Booking online does not replace the phone. Some parents will always call. Two things help:
- A missed-call text-back. If nobody answers, the parent gets a text with your tour link within a minute. That saves the parent who calls at nap time.
- A callback window. Pick one daily time, like 1:30 p.m. after nap starts, when your director returns every missed call.
Check the rest of your profile while you are there
The benchmark report shows a few more things worth fixing in the same sitting. The median child care center has 6 Google reviews, and 58.6% have fewer than 10. Parents trust other parents, so a short review request after a family's first month helps every tour you book. And 33.2% of centers have no website linked, which leaves the tour link with nowhere to live. The Google Business Profile guide walks through every section.
Once tours are booked, the next step is turning them into enrollments. The tuition, tours and enrollment guide covers what to show, what to say and how to follow up.
A realistic picture
Take a hypothetical center that gets ten tour calls a week and misses four of them during nap and pick-up. With online booking and a text-back, most of those four parents now have a way to book without waiting until tomorrow. If even two more tours a week turn into a few more enrollments over a season, that covers the cost of the tool many times over.
If you want online tour booking and text-back set up for your center, any service is available as a free 14-day trial, no card. Text or call (385) 213-2802.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, child care centers and daycares among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor