Customer success story: Famly’s parent engagement was the missing piece

Laetitia Medrano is the Executive Director of a French immersion infant center and preschool, Les Petits Francophones, in Oakland, California. It opened in 2010, but it wasn’t until January 2024 that the center became licensed to care for infants. Today, her preschool cares for children ages 0-5.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Laetitia and asking her why she switched to Famly from Procare, another popular childcare software.

Spoiler alert: it’s largely because of our incomparable parent engagement features. But that’s not the only reason.

Here’s how the conversation went.

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You already had childcare management software, what made you want to switch?

Laetitia was using Procare for billing, attendance and staff time cards, so she was already familiar with the all-in-one style childcare software.

But, “the big chunk that was missing was the community building.”

While Procare does have parent engagement features, they were unsatisfactory – they didn’t truly promote a collaborative community. 

Especially after Covid, the importance of building community is really important to Laetita and to her parents. In fact, a parent recommended Famly because their previous center had used it and loved the parent engagement features. 

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What distinguishes Famly’s parent engagement?

1. Truly interactive

Famly’s communication features are interactive. Many childcare software enable photo sharing and messages or updates throughout the day. Famly’s Newsfeed is the most similar to a social media feed. Not only can you upload as many photos or videos as you want in one post, but parents can actively engage with likes and comments - like social media. Other childcare software don’t have the ability to respond or react. 

Interactive, two-way communication means the relationship is strengthened from both sides. Parents love this and teachers love this.  

“It can be a little problematic when you keep posting very cute things and it’s like crickets. So the fact that parents can interact and say ‘awww how cute’…and I think it's just cool for teachers to be able to see that parents are actually looking at what they’re doing.”

Teachers can show the quality of learning they are providing each and every day. Plus, who doesn’t love getting insanely cute photos of the kiddos throughout the day? Even Laetita says she scrolls through them multiple times during her day because they are just so cute.

2. Teacher-teacher, teacher-parent and parent-parent

Famly is the only childcare software that allows parents to message each other directly (in addition to teacher to teacher and teacher to parent communication). Laetitia absolutely loves this because it’s really conducive to building a community right from the start.

Famly’s in-app secure direct messaging between parents means that community building can continue “after hours” and outside of the center. 

Plus, it gives Laetitia a significant amount of time back in her day. Due to privacy, she couldn’t give out contact information to other parents, so Laetita was becoming “the middle man” for all birthday parties and playdates. Now, parents can directly message each other - without giving any personal information if they don’t want to. This is a huge relief for Laetita. 

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3. Works on your computer, tablet, or phone 

Famly’s software is cloud-based, which means everything is updated in real-time across all platforms - your computer, tablet, or phone. For Laetitia, this means she can always be on top of important communication and doesn’t have to run back to her desk to check emails or messages. 

4. Director’s ability to oversee all messages

At Famly, we know the priority is engaging and spending time with the kiddos. That’s why we know teachers can’t always be reachable - no matter how accessible Famly makes communication.

As the director, Laetitia can always be on top of communication with the ability to oversee all messaging in Famly, which gives her, her teachers, and her parents peace of mind!

Building a community is essential, and boosting parent engagement is at the heart of Famly’s mission, but you are running a business after all, so…

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How has Famly helped boost Laetitia’s childcare business?

1. Meeting requirements and staying compliant

A word that all licensed preschools are childcare centers are familiar with: compliance. At Famly, we want to make meeting those requirements less of a headache. 

Here are just some of the ways Famly helps Laetitia meet California’s requirements

• Registration and enrollment 
• Daily activity logs: naps, bottles, meals
• Injury and accident report with visuals
• Child-to-staff ratios 
• Child attendance and occupancy tracking
• Immunizations and vaccines
• Staff scheduling and payroll management
• Observations and assessments
• Parent communication requirements
• And so much more

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2. Famly works with the way they operate

Multiple times throughout the conversation, Laetitia mentioned how intuitive Famly is. She used the phrase “plug n’ play” over and over. 

At Famly, we strive to be the software that works for your center and fits the way you want to run it. We’re here to help, not to make you change your ways.

“It’s just part of the daily life of the center”

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3. Famly’s dedication to our customers 

At Famly, we take the time to spend personable time with each customer. Whether during the whole onboarding process, or just a quick question here and there, or even if a parent has a question about their Famly app - we are always here to help. 

We also know that we can always improve our product, but we want to hear from our customers what would be most helpful to them. This means a lot to Laetitia, “Another thing that is really appreciated is the fact that the software is evolving. So it's not like set in stone. We had a lot of meetings with my feedback which is great… and just to be able to [share, so Famly] understands the needs for my state.”