Case studies

The waitlist learned to run itself.

A two-classroom Tucson preschool ran enrollment on a phone, a binder, and the director's memory. Now tours book themselves, files complete themselves, and the roster is always right.

Childcare · Preschool · Tucson, Arizona · 5 min read

The operation

Two classrooms, sixty-some families, an owner-director who teaches until three. The school filled itself for years on word of mouth, with enrollment living in a phone, a binder, and the director's memory. No website. A Google listing with an old phone number and four photos.

Where it leaked

Booking a tour took phone tag: parents called during naptime, the director called back during pickup, and four in ten scheduled tours no-showed. Intake was a printed packet that came back half-filled, so shot records and emergency contacts got chased for weeks into the school year.

The waitlist was a page in the binder. When a spot opened, whoever the director reached first got it. Re-enrollment season meant three weeks of evenings.

What we implemented

It started with a free demo: a working version of their website, built from the school's name and a short call, that the director could look at before committing to anything.

01 A website on their domain

A website on their domain

Programs, photos, and one clear action: book a tour. It belongs to the school, on a domain they own.

02 Tour scheduling

Tour scheduling

Parents pick a slot that fits around the teaching day. Reminders go out the day before and the morning of. A no-show gets one automatic offer to rebook.

03 Digital intake

Digital intake

One form on the parent's phone feeds one roster. Anything missing, a signature, a shot record, an emergency contact, gets asked for automatically until the file is complete.

04 A waitlist that keeps its own order

A waitlist that keeps its own order

Position-stamped when a family joins. When a spot opens, the next family gets forty-eight hours of first refusal, then it rolls to the following one.

05 Parent reminders

Parent reminders

Closures, picture day, re-enrollment windows. Written once, sent on time, every time.

How it runs now

A family gave notice on a Monday. The next family on the waitlist got the offer that afternoon, accepted Wednesday, and had a complete intake file by Friday. The director learned all of it from the dashboard after class.

The numbers

8%

Tour no-shows, down from roughly 40 percent

Reminders the day before and the morning of.

9 hrs

Of the director's week, back

The admin she no longer does by hand.

100%

Intake files complete before a child's first day

Was weeks of chasing paper packets.

4 days

To run re-enrollment, down from three weeks

Opened on a Friday, done by Tuesday.

Re-enrollment used to eat my March. This year I opened it on a Friday and it was done by Tuesday. I teach more and chase paper less.
The director

A representative engagement. Client identifying details are withheld.

Where does your operation leak?

Tell us what your team does by hand. We'll come back with a working demo or a fixed, scoped proposal, whichever fits.

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