The power of parent reviews - And how to make them work for your service

Are you proud of the work you do as a provider of early childhood education and care? Do your staff members go above and beyond the call of duty? Is your service offering a unique range of play based learning opportunities? Do you pride yourself on offering innovative menus, an environmental focus or amazing extra curricular experiences?

If you answered yes, then chances are the parents and carers in your service greatly appreciate the job you are doing and would be happy to trumpet your praises to the wider world as well.

Encouraging parents to rate and review your service on your CareforKids.com.au profile is a truly effective way to spread the word about your centre and the environment you offer for children and families.

Our simple and effective star-based system offers providers an unprecedented opportunity to build their reputation as a great place for child care and boost occupancy rates.

As anyone who has ever used online reviews to make a purchasing decision will tell you, it's always helpful to hear from people who have tried the product, visited the hotel, or used the child care service.

This is supported by recent research which shows that 90 per cent of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business and 88 per cent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Hearing it from the horse's mouth really does matter!

In addition to assisting parents, ratings greatly boost the visibility of a service – they are displayed on the CareforKids.com.au map page and in Google search results. The more visible and transparent a service is the more likely it is to be found and contacted by parents looking for care.

The great news is CareforKids.com.au makes it easy to encourage and prompt parents to write a review about your service. All you need to do is log in to your CareforKids.com.au profile and trigger an invitation from the dashboard.

The ratings invitation is a free service and will be sent to all parents currently enrolled in your system. Parents simply need to follow the link to supply a review.

Remember, our ratings system has built in safeguards to protect services from malicious reviews and only currently enrolled families or families who attended in the last 12 months can write a review.

All services have the ability to read and reply to reviews and comments before they go live. This makes it easier to manage your reputation and to address concerns and issues privately, instead of in the public domain.

For services who have never sent parents a ratings invitation before, or are a little unsure about the process, we encourage you to contact support@careforkids.com.au, and we will send you a unique link along with simple instructions on how it works and how to invite parents to rate and review your service.

Visit our Wall of Praise to read some of the reviews recently submitted by parents in the CareforKids.com.au community.