ABC Learning Centres to launch Childcare Chat in bid to move agenda on

ABC Learning Centres will tomorrow seek a fresh start with its customers by launching social media forum Childcare Chat, Mumbrella can reveal.  

And despite the problems of the organisation under the previous management, the site will be unmoderated, allowing parents to talk frankly about the company.

The project is being run by ABC’s agency DP Dialogue.

The company has today dispatched around 100,000 letters to parents telling them about the site and ABC’s attempt to foster a community.

 The ABC site also encourages the use of video posts and will be complemented by a Twitter stream to spread the word.

April 15th, 2009 at 5:13 pm

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Comments


  1. AJ
    15 Apr 09
    6:09 pm

    2. Do they really think that by putting a chat forum up it is going to make the parents worry any less? Their centres are understaffed, the government is doing nothing about it, DOCS is turning a blind eye – the parents are just going to find out more and more from each other about the state of the company, and its not just them experiencing the bad issues that plauge nearly each and every one of those centres.

    Its going to be a sharp learning curve for the non-childcare minded PR people, and (hopefully) a wake up call to DOCS and ABC Management,

  2. Tim - Mumbrella
    16 Apr 09
    3:28 am

    3. I think that may miss the point a bit, AJ. Being on Mumbrella, this part of the conversation is focused on the communications strategy rather than ABC staffing etc. What would your communications advice be? Surely better to do this than not do this? Or am I oversimplifying?

    Cheers,

    Tim – Mumbrella

  3. AJ
    16 Apr 09
    9:52 am

    4. The can of worms that it opens by providing this forum for disguntled parents / staff is opening up the company to the negative that has previously been supressed. Previously all you have heard about parent / staff experiences from ABC is their lovely glossy (moderated in a sense) ads in magazines.

    The forum is supposed to ‘unmoderated’ yet there is already the corporate influence in there telling people that they are using the wrong forum etc – I just think that a forum is probably the wrong method for communication, as the negative comments are already showing by the time the moderator says it is not the right complaint method – parents who are happy or do not have a problem will all of a sudden see the negatives and begin to wonder.

    I think it is a great step that ABC are trying to take – unfortunately I think they are trying too much to be the ‘open and transparent’ ABC everyone wishes they were a long time ago – and are opening themselves up to a lot of negative feedback – in a public forum. Perhaps video blogs / twitter streams from key members of staff, from the bottom to the top of ABC, showing the daily life of the company – would be a better method of letting people into the world that has previously been so media blocked.

    There definitely needs to be a feedback forum for the parents, perhaps at this stage of the companies restructure when there are still centres being closed and staff issues – it should be a localised process rather than airing it all for everyone to see?

  4. Matt Granfield
    16 Apr 09
    10:43 am

    5. AJ, I think you may have missed the point a little bit and I think you’ve made some incorrect assumptions about the forum. At the moment the only posts in the site are from parents – there certainly hasn’t been any “corporate influence in there telling people that they are using the wrong forum”.

    We recommended an open forum/social network strategy for ABC because research identified that one of the biggest influences on childcare decision making was word of mouth. Sure, there will be some disgruntled former workers and parents out there who will air their grievances with how things were in the past, but the majority of parents are happy with the care their kids get and have wonderful stories to tell. By allowing both sides of the story to be aired in public, parents can make their own judgement based on honest opionions.

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