Help wanted - what make's you choose a nursery...?

[teabelly]

I've just started working at a local nursery, we're trying to increase volume without increasing costs to parents. When they started there was only one other in the area, a few years later and there's now 7 main competitors.

Need some help trying to work out what we could offer to encourage new attendances...for example when I chose ds's first nursery it was because although more expensive they offered milk and nappies in the price, so dh could litterally pick ds out of his cot take him straight to nursery and not have to worry about packing a daily bag of necessities (important as I was 7-7 in London and dh was as capable with a baby as a man can be!)

Thought I'd ask the MN great and good (and not so good ) what would make you choose one nursery over another...?

TIA for your help

Sorry I haven't been able to come back to this, only work tues-thurs and have noooo chance of getting on the PC at home with a walking 9mth old and a 3 3/4 year old!

Thank-you all so much for your comments. Funnily enough chatting with a friend over the weekend she also mentioned the wrap around care (before & after school times) as a need for her, and I will definitely mention the school hours idea too. Rarrie my ds would be very happy with the idea of a colour for the week - esp. as his alltime fav colour is yellow

Lippy - where have you been young lady? I thought you'd given up on us welcome back don't go awol for so long again!

I am greatly swayed by personal recommendations from trusted people. Have a reputation that is talked about. Let people know what you're good at.
Encourage personal recommendations, ask for referrals from existing parents, and thank them if they refer someone. It doesn't have to be a big thing, a local nursery gave the referring parents a bottle of champagne. Ours gave a discount on fees for the refering parents.Keep them and their kids happy. Check what they really want with parents meetings/surveys etc.

Concentrate on the things that really matter to your existing customers so that they will recruit new kids for you and won't themselves leave -cleanliness, staff retention (treat them well, pay fairly, develop them) and a real relationship
If you are looking for a different edge, try organic food, even milk is a start.

DD's nursery is small, has a nice garden, does 9-3.30 (as well as 8-6 and half days). We have to take in nappies every few weeks. Negative - not much space for storing the buggies out of the rain.

I have just chosen a nursery for DD. First thing I did was read the OFSTED reports and eliminated those that did not read well. I made a shortlist and visited three.

The first was far too rigid and had staff that looked glum and were not relating to the kids. It was super efficent.

The second was part of a chain. It was dark and the floor was dirty and when I walked into one room two kids were on their own. I wasn't shown every part of the nursery.

The one I chose had :

good security;
was light and airy;
was very clean;
and had a staff member who obviously knew a lot about kids and their development;
proudly took out work of their charges and showed me how they had developed over time;and
had home cooked fresh food.

Generally I could just imagine DD there. I thought she would be in a safe, bright, clean place with people who knew what they were talking about (two of the owners are trained primary school teachers).

It's often a vibe and if the nursery is a happy place where the kids and staff are happy parents tend to pick up on it.