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I have a big problem saying no to families that are not a good fit before and/or at the interview. How do you guys do it?
Today I got an email from a family saying they needed care starting monday for their 23 mo- they also referred to us as a center (which we are not) but said they spent lots of time on our website and loved our program (I would think they would get that we are not a center if they had!).
A couple of red flags for me are looking for care starting immediately and wanting a center when we are not one so I figured I would respond to the emal monday, that will be too late for them and problem solved.
Then she called this afternoon. My home phone is the same as work so I answered.
She says the "fired" their home dcp Thursday because provider's child bite theirs twice (but they didn't talk to dcp about it, just pulled w/ no notice because she "must not be doing anything about it")
I tell her don't have any openings until next week at the earliest and we don't do temp care. She says she understands and can find someone temp because she really likes what we offer (even after I explained we were not a center as she thought)
She is a teacher so will I want to be paid during summer when he is not here? (um yes, then she says oh okay, well I will talk to hubby about it, I am sure it will be fine
)
We do lots of field trips- she says "that's fine w/ me as long as you think you can handle him in public"
We do lots of preschool/pre-preschool activities- she says "and you find they will sit down and do any of those?"
He doesn't talk at all, he has never been in an environment w/ learning activities
Oh, and the kicker- he would be here 7-5:30, open to close for us (then a 1 hour drive to and from daycare since they live an hour away and work here so no time w/ parents at all, except in the car)
So obviously not a good fit- but how do I go about telling them that on the phone and not setting up an interview? She SAID our program would work for them, but I get the distinct impression that she will either use us as temp care until she finds something she likes more, or that she will pull him this summer so she wont have to pay, and that he has no "in public" training, that he will not like our learning environment, that he will have behavior problems based on lack of time w/ parents...
What would you say? Would you go ahead and set up an interview ( I did, I didn't know what to say to not set it up) but for future I would like to avoid a wasted interview!
Today I got an email from a family saying they needed care starting monday for their 23 mo- they also referred to us as a center (which we are not) but said they spent lots of time on our website and loved our program (I would think they would get that we are not a center if they had!).
A couple of red flags for me are looking for care starting immediately and wanting a center when we are not one so I figured I would respond to the emal monday, that will be too late for them and problem solved.
Then she called this afternoon. My home phone is the same as work so I answered.
She says the "fired" their home dcp Thursday because provider's child bite theirs twice (but they didn't talk to dcp about it, just pulled w/ no notice because she "must not be doing anything about it")
I tell her don't have any openings until next week at the earliest and we don't do temp care. She says she understands and can find someone temp because she really likes what we offer (even after I explained we were not a center as she thought)
She is a teacher so will I want to be paid during summer when he is not here? (um yes, then she says oh okay, well I will talk to hubby about it, I am sure it will be fine
)We do lots of field trips- she says "that's fine w/ me as long as you think you can handle him in public"
We do lots of preschool/pre-preschool activities- she says "and you find they will sit down and do any of those?"
He doesn't talk at all, he has never been in an environment w/ learning activities
Oh, and the kicker- he would be here 7-5:30, open to close for us (then a 1 hour drive to and from daycare since they live an hour away and work here so no time w/ parents at all, except in the car)
So obviously not a good fit- but how do I go about telling them that on the phone and not setting up an interview? She SAID our program would work for them, but I get the distinct impression that she will either use us as temp care until she finds something she likes more, or that she will pull him this summer so she wont have to pay, and that he has no "in public" training, that he will not like our learning environment, that he will have behavior problems based on lack of time w/ parents...
What would you say? Would you go ahead and set up an interview ( I did, I didn't know what to say to not set it up) but for future I would like to avoid a wasted interview!
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