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In a rush? Here’s a quick breakdown.
This might be a bit out of the ordinary, but today I want to feature a customer who just started using Famly’s platform less than a month ago - such a new customer that they have not even had the chance to use all of our features just yet!
I want to take this time to really show just how much Famly prioritizes supporting our customers, specifically during the onboarding process. Onboarding is arguably the most important time to determine whether a childcare management software is the right fit for your team and your center or not.
And I don’t want to brag (well maybe I do a little), but we really do have a top-notch, 5-star rated customer support team. Plus, I think I have permission to brag when I’m not the only one. Read below and you’ll hear it directly from Caren Crow and Julia Mason, the Director and Office Manager at Angel Land Preschool at Cross Church in Texas.
Located in North Richland Hills, Angel Land Preschool serves children from birth to pre-K. They used [another popular childcare software company] before switching to Famly.
“I wasn’t looking for another software, but I wasn’t happy with this last year,” Caren begins. So when someone on Famly’s team reached out, she was open to listening, and fortunately for her (and us!) she liked what she heard.
Caren explained that the previous year with [the other childcare software] was hard because of the lack of support when they ran into some bumps: “The biggest frustration was just not being able to get a hold of anybody to help us.”
“If the customer relation part is on point, then that helps us because when we’re in the middle of it, and we can’t understand, we can’t move forward, we’re just so stuck.”
Caren Crow, Director of Angel Land Preschool
There was no phone number, there was an email but no one was responding, and when they finally got a notification, the meeting wasn’t for another 3 days and then as soon as the meeting began, they were told there was a hard cut off after 45 minutes - whether they had come to a solution or not.
Caren did say that the problem was eventually resolved. But, not in a satisfying way. “We were never told what happened and why it happened, so I don’t know that we did anything wrong, and if we did we didn’t even know how to correct it, so that was another frustration.”
And on top of that, it made Caren and Julia feel stuck and unprofessional. When the [other popular childcare software company] didn’t answer their questions, they couldn’t answer their parents’ questions about the payments: “It looks really bad on our part for us to overcharge and undercharge and look like we don't know what we’re doing.”
We know that as important as it is to us to keep you - our customers - happy, it is that important for you to keep parents and families - your customers - happy.
We will always work through problems with you, so you feel empowered to use the software in a way that best fits your center, your needs, and your management. Childcare management software is supposed to help you feel more confident and reduce stress in your day-to-day. It should not be another inconvenience.
So, circling back to the original question, Caren was not specifically looking for new software, but when Famly reached out, she was open to it because of the frustration explained above. When talking with our team about Famly, she was immediately excited.
To quickly summarize why Caren decided to switch to Famly, she said, “There was no reason to not change.”
Making the decision to change childcare management software is just the first step. But, learning and integrating the software can feel overwhelming for staff that already have a million things on their to-do list. In fact, onboarding is arguably the most important time to support our customers.
Caren explained,
“The onboarding and the help with the onboarding made a huge difference for us because that’s just so much work, and it’s so hard on our end to piece-by-piece do everything...I can’t even tell you how that was huge for [Julia]…’I can breathe, I can breathe,’ she kept saying. I’m not exaggerating that. She just was very very happy and she mentioned it so many times. That made a big difference for her...It’s a bigger deal on our end than maybe y’all even realize.”
Julia joined late, but jumped right in to the conversation about the stress-free onboarding process.
“Oh onboarding - it was great, I mean what was done for me, you know ‘we’ll take this’ and ‘we’ll do that for you, just send me the kids, their information and we’ll take care of that.’ Just that alone, if it would have been nothing else, that alone was worth everything because that cut down,” and Caren jumps in, “hours” and Julia agrees, “literally hours of time that it would take for me to input things that y'all put in for me to have it set up to go. That was tremendous.”
The parents have had no real issues or setbacks when creating their own profile. Caren says any issues have been because the parents are not following the directions on the paper she has given them.
But, guess what? Once everyone is all set up - that won’t be an issue, thanks to Famly’s in-app Newsfeed, which is perfect for community updates and announcements. Caren was going to make her first post the day after we chatted to remind parents of “Yellow Day” that was coming up.
At Famly we talk about how we make our software to be used less – we want to streamline all early childhood staff’s responsibilities so that they can do what they enjoy most, and what they are best at – teaching and interacting with the little ones.
So, I had to ask...
I asked specifically how Famly has helped Caren and Julia save time with billing and finances because that is the feature they have used the most from day 1.
“If you add it up, it's quite significant…I mean that would be 15 minutes here, you know, 10 minutes there, another 10 minutes, you know, so it adds up throughout the day,” Caren said.
She did say that Julia is mostly in charge of the finances, so Caren explains, “I just know that there have been several times that she said ‘Oh this was so easy, this was so simple…I just had to push a button and it happened!”
Caren then looked over to Julia and asked her what she thought. Julia was speechless, like she couldn’t put a number to it, but whatever the number would be, it was good. “It makes me deliriously happy, I know that!"
“Half the time that it was before,” and Caren jumps in, “It was magic!” Although Caren said it as a joke, Julia reiterated, “Well it really is! Compared to what I was doing before, oh yes, it takes me half the time or less for me to do things.”
Julia Mason, Office Manager at Angel Land Preschool
And once again, the domino effect -- but this time in a positive way. With Julia having so much more time on her hands, Caren explains,
"It’s significant for me because…now we have more time to address these other areas that we’ve had to neglect.” Now, they can spend more time with the kiddos, and more time finding ways to make their childcare business even better. "
I’d say this is a success story for Angel Land and Famly - and it’s just the beginning!
Guidance from the Danish Health Ministry, translated in full to English.
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The full recommendations from a working group of over 70 nursery chains in the UK.
Please note: here at Famly we love sharing creative activities for you to try with the children at your setting, but you know them best. Take the time to consider adaptions you might need to make so these activities are accessible and developmentally appropriate for the children you work with. Just as you ordinarily would, conduct risk assessments for your children and your setting before undertaking new activities, and ensure you and your staff are following your own health and safety guidelines.
Take an interactive tour of our easy-to-use early childhood platform, and see how Famly takes your center to the next level.
Take the tour
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