Scope

This policy applies to all employees of The Akidamy who interact with customers, either in-person, over the phone or through digital channels.

Audience

This policy applies to all employees, contractors, and representatives of The Akidamy .

Customer Interaction and communication

Without them, we have no School and no income and, therefore, no employment to offer.

Family members (including parents and caregivers) are all customers and must always be treated with respect. Children are also our customers, so they too need to be treated with dignity and respect. Please always speak to the children as if their parent was watching you.

All families and children are to receive a warm, cheerful acknowledgement immediately upon entering the premises. If you are busy, even a smile or a nod is better than no acknowledgement. Try to approach the family – the perception of our ‘customers’ is important. You may have been having a professional, reflective conversation with a teammate – however a family member may perceive or feel that you were simply chatting to your friend!

Seek to engage in meaningful conversations with your families regarding their child. “Mary had a great day” is a fine way to commence a conversation – but should be followed with more substantial information “She wowed me because she participated in our group discussion today…” etc. Families love to hear detail of achievements or behaviour goals being achieved.

Always wear your “professional educator” hat when talking to families – for example, children are never “naughty”, but may “find following instructions challenging” etc. It is important to have ‘real’ conversations with your families about their child, however, you should always remember that your role is to be professional and supportive.
If you need to have a longer conversation with a family regarding their child, it is important to seek support from your colleague/s. For example, you may say to your colleague ‘Alex, when Mary’s mum arrives, I will be following her inside to get Mary’s bag, because I need to have a quiet word with her about Mary’s toileting today’.

Communicate effectively with your colleagues as well as the family members. To Mary’s mum you might say, “Hi Bev, I just wanted to let you know that Mary had a great day today, but I think she may have been a little too involved with some of the activities and forgot to go to the toilet – so she’s had a couple of accidents today. I will make sure that when she is next in, that I remind her to go to the toilet more regularly”. This lets the family member know that you’ve noticed a behavior that is out of the ordinary and that you have a plan to support the child moving forward.
Sometimes more in depth or serious conversations may need to take place and a more extended period with a family member may be necessary. If this is the case, you should approach the director to discuss strategies or the need for an additional meeting or coverage to be provided for you to allow this to occur.

If you are approached by a family member who is upset, they should be dealt with discreetly and quickly. The director must be notified of any issues involving families as soon as possible. It is never appropriate to be smart, sarcastic, insolent or angry at any time.
Sometimes you can build very friendly relationships with family members, however team members must not participate in gossip. It is unprofessional and breaches the confidentiality of the service.
Team members who are also family members of the service must be treated as such. It can sometimes be challenging for team members to be both a team member and a family member of a child at the service If team members are unable to understand or respect the distinction, then they may be asked to move their children to another service.
Family members under the influence of alcohol or drugs are to be discouraged from removing children from the centre. Please notify the director or other senior team member to call another contact for the child’s collection or call the police if the family member has taken the child.

Response Time

Employees must aim to provide prompt assistance to parents whenever possible, and in no case take longer than 24 hours to respond to a parent inquiry or complaint.

In cases where a longer response time is unavoidable, the employee must inform the parent of this fact and provide a reasonable estimate of when the customer can expect a resolution.