Quiet Mondays and Fridays anyone? Our latest update enables parents to request extra sessions on the Parent App. This makes their lives easier, and increases your occupancy. Can everyone say win/win?
First step, activate the feature through your Nursery Settings.
All parents need to do is click into their ‘Child Schedule’, and then select the ‘+’ icon on the top right hand page of the screen.
The parent is then able to request an extra session outside their child’s usual booking pattern. Parents will be able to request any sessions that are available based on your Rooms’ occupancy and your settings.
This will pop up on your Nursery App, for you to review your occupancy, staffing and then approve. Read on to see how Blossom makes this process easy…
When extra sessions are requested
When an extra session is requested, anyone registered on the platform as a Nursery Manager will receive an email to notify them of the extra session request. All you need to do is go into the ‘Parent Inbox’, and you will see a list of all requested Extra Sessions.
Each extra session request will include the availability of the extra session based on your Rooms’ occupancy.
It will also include whether you need an additional staff member to cater for that extra child (based on your occupancy and ratios). For example, if you have four 2 year old children already attending, and another 2 year old child requests an extra session, the platform will flag that you’ll need an additional staff member.
Once approved, parents will see the status of their extra session move from ‘Pending’ to ‘Approved’.
When you approve or decline an extra session request, you are also able to add a note for the parent. The Parent will receive a notification on the Parent App alerting them of the approval/declining of their extra session request.
Within your platform settings, there is a new ‘Parent App’ section. Within here, you are able to:
- Enable or disable the ability for parents to request extra sessions.
- Mark specific sessions as requestable.
- Add a minimum request notice.
- Add a maximum request notice.
- Specify if parents should only be able to request sessions that don’t require an additional staff member.
- Set regular or specific days/times/rooms during which extra sessions cannot be requested.
This has been one of our most requested features, as filling under utilised sessions provides a massive boost to your nursery’s occupancy and finances.
Any extra sessions will automatically get added to children’s following invoices, even if the invoice period has passed.
Top Tips:
- Parents are able to add notes to extra session requests, which you as a nursery will be able to see.
- Parents will need to contact the nursery to cancel pending or approved extra sessions.
- If an extra session doesn’t have the availability from an occupancy perspective, even for 5 minutes, it will show as unavailable. So do check your Occupancy reports carefully.
If you’d like to learn more about how Blossom can help manage your Early Years setting, why not book your 1-2-1 demo?
To get a personal demo, please sign up here
