Screening clients

[Suzie_Homemaker]

I have a similar process.

I require a phone interview first. Most people understand when I explain that it gives us both the chance to see how we communicate before giving up our time. It allows me to ask outright what hours of care they need and stop instantly if they've ignored the business hours on my ad and require longer hours of care. It also allows me to explain about my set up and policies, what my schedule looks like and see how well the communication flows and how open they are.

If and only if I am interested in them as a potential client, I end the call by telling them I am sending my paper work for them to read and review before a face to face meeting and I set up a time to meet. If I'm not interested, I thank them for their interest and let them know I don't think they are a good match for the current client group.

The side advantage is that in having already had the questions and answers in the call, in having been given time to read my policies, etc., the time needed to meet in person, see the day care space and show police checks etc is much shorter.

I end the interview by telling them that I will let them know within 24 hours if I am offering the space to them and that until I have the enrollment fee and signed contract in my hand, I don't consider that they have taken the space.

I am clear that I won't hold an empty space without payment so if they want the space even if they don't need it for a little while, they have to pay for it. If I am interviewing for a space that is occupied by a child whose given notice, then they are expected to pay for it from the time it's empty. I don't double dip on the space but I won't take a drop in pay if they don't need the space for several weeks.

Lately I’ve found people are refusing to do the phone interviews, and pushing for a tour immediately. I’m not bending on these rules, but it makes me wonder why you wouldn’t agree to speak to a provider before the in house interviews?

There is no option to refuse a phone call first. If someone is pushing for a tour, I simply explain that having other people's children in my house, I have a responsibility to vet random strangers before giving them access to my home. I clearly state that this is for the safety of the children.
I've never had someone refuse after that and often people reply saying they hadn't thought about that but it made sense. If someone still refused, I would take that as a red flag because if they aren't going to respect your process, they aren't going to respect your home or policies down the line.

My husband guessed that they could be people with something to hide, or people assuming they could just bargain my policies once through the door.

Possibly. I tend to think it's more that parent's mistakenly believe that I will be working for them or that they have an input into the program, opening hours. Since that isn't the case, then I don't really care what their belief is because it's not going to happen that way. They might as well get that message strong and clear from the get go.

Any ideas as to why they wouldn’t want to speak on the phone( assuming language barrier is not the issue)?

- No true understanding that you are a business and have set hours
- No true understanding that fees and hours are non-negotiable
- Mistakenly thinking they will be able to request special considerations
- Lack of thought about the safety of children and why we don't invite people to tour just because they want to.

I find a lot of people seeking care months in advance who want to come and see the day care before I even know if I will have a space. My biggest challenge is constantly explaining to people that I am not giving up my evenings or weekends to conduct house tours unless I know for sure there is a space to fill. It blows them away that I am not open to showing people around just in case so I'm endlessly explaining that if I did that, I would have most of my weekends and evenings allocated to tours with people I will never have a space for. I also explain that business hours are when I perform business tasks and being one carer for a group of children, I cannot just accomodate tours during the day for the sake of it. I have a job to do, children to supervise, a program to deliver that are all affected each time a potential client wants a tour. Unless there's a space to be filled, I am not willing to disrupt my schedule for this.