How to Schedule Childcare Providers: Tips for Childcare Agencies

One of the hardest tasks to get right for childcare agencies is scheduling. With employees going here, there, and everywhere for appointments, it can be incredibly challenging to stay on top of. 

Luckily, there’s an easy way to schedule childcare providers for childcare services. Here’s how…

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How to schedule childcare providers for childcare services in 3 steps 

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1. Determine each provider's availability — depending on how flexible your working hours are, this could differ by day.
2. Identify how far each childcare provider is willing to travel for appointments — again, this might differ for each day, or they might prefer to work in specific areas on certain days.
3. Input both pieces of information into MarketBox, the scheduling software built for mobile appointments, and put your scheduling on autopilot.

With MarketBox, you can create unlimited travel zones and assign unique availability to each zone to control when and where your team works. Suppose your childcare providers work as independent contractors under the umbrella of your babysitting business. In that case, you can even let them create and manage their own availability and travel zones for more control. 

The MarketBox online booking system uses these travel zones to filter providers according to the customer’s criteria. They choose the service type and location, and the platform automatically matches them with the best fit. (Alternatively, you can allow customers to select their own providers for more control over the booking experience.) Either way, once the booking is confirmed, the new job is automatically added to the childcare provider’s schedule, and both parties are notified. 

For independent contractors, you can turn on the provider confirmation feature which lets the childcare provider accept or decline job requests as they come in. If the chosen provider doesn’t accept or respond within your specified time frame, the booking request is sent out to up to 10 other childcare providers with matching criteria so you never miss out on a sale. 

If changes happen to scheduled bookings, MarketBox automatically updates both the provider and customer, so your team doesn’t have to spend time manually phoning around every time. 

To learn more about how MarketBox can handle your childcare agencies booking, scheduling, and payments, book a demo with one of our experts. 

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6 ways childcare software makes organizing babysitting services easier 

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1. Scheduling software for babysitting services allows customers to book online and automates provider scheduling for fast, accurate responses and less admin. 
2. MarketBox automatically filters babysitters based on travel zones and availability for the perfect customer-provider match every time. 
3. Childcare software optimizes travel routes to reduce travel time between appointments.
4. Childcare scheduling software eliminates the need to sort through spreadsheets to assign new booking requests and ensures jobs are given to the right childcare providers. 
5. Scheduling software for babysitters makes creating and sharing schedules and communicating job updates with providers and customers easy. 
6. Babysitting software helps you monitor provider performance by viewing data on acceptance rates, customer ratings, refunds issued, etc. 

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