Childcare occupancy consultant for Australian centres
Empty places are a symptom. The useful question is which part of the journey is losing families, and whether the gap sits in demand, in follow up, in the tour, or in families leaving earlier than they should.
I'm Martin Niedenfuhr. I have spent more than 15 years in Australian childcare marketing, starting in the G8 Education marketing team across 250 services. Since founding Enrolment Boost in 2019 I have supported more than 300 centres. I am based on the Mornington Peninsula and work with providers across Australia.
What the role involves
An occupancy consultant looks at the whole path a family takes, from the first time they hear of your centre to the point they either enrol, or do not, or leave a year later. The output is a clear view of where places are being lost and an order to fix them in.
Diagnosing occupancy by room and by day
A centre sitting at 78% is not 22% short everywhere. It is usually close to full in one room and well short in another, and short on particular days. Averages hide that, which is why a centre can advertise hard and still not fill the places it actually has.
As an illustration only, and not a claim about your centre: a service might be full Monday to Wednesday in the toddler room and half empty on Fridays in the babies room. Broad advertising will bring in families wanting the days you cannot offer. Targeting the actual gap is a different piece of work.
The areas I work through
Enquiries and follow up
How enquiries arrive, how fast they are answered, who owns them, and whether anything happens when a family goes quiet.
Tours
Whether tours are booked at a specific time, what is covered, and whether the family's actual concern gets answered before they leave.
Retention
Why families leave, whether anyone asks, and the points where confidence usually drops.
Additional days
Where a family genuinely needs another day and it has simply never been offered clearly. This only works when it suits the family.
Local visibility
What a parent finds when they search for care in your suburb, including maps, reviews and your website.
Availability data
Whether you can see vacancies by room and by day, and whether that view is current enough to act on.
How it starts
- You send a Full Rooms Review request through the form on the home page.
- I reply within one business day to organise the review and tell you what I need.
- I work through visibility, enquiry follow up, tours and your vacancy pattern.
- We talk through what I found and what is worth changing first.
That first reply is not the finished review. I'll confirm the review timing when I reply.
Consulting, and delivery
The consulting work is the diagnosis and the advice. Some centres take that away and action it with their own team. Where a provider wants it delivered, the work is carried out through my company, Enrolment Boost, under a separate arrangement. The review itself does not commit you to that.
What to expect, realistically
No consultant controls local demand, staffing, licensed places or what a competing centre charges. Changes to follow up and tours can move numbers relatively quickly because they act on families who are already interested. Anything that depends on building new demand takes longer. I would rather set that out at the start than promise a figure.
Common questions
What is a childcare occupancy consultant?
A childcare occupancy consultant works out why a centre has empty places and what to change first, looking at demand, enquiry follow up, tours, retention and how booked days line up with available days by room.
How is a childcare occupancy consultant different from a marketing agency?
A marketing agency is usually asked to produce more enquiries. An occupancy consultant starts by asking whether more enquiries is actually the problem, and often it is not. Slow follow up, weak tours or a mismatch between the days families want and the days you have free can leave places empty however many enquiries arrive.
Does Martin Niedenfuhr deliver the changes as well?
The consulting is diagnosis and advice, and some centres take the plan and action it with their own team. Where a centre wants the work delivered, it runs through Enrolment Boost, the agency Martin founded in 2019, under a separate arrangement.
How long does it take to see a change in occupancy?
Changes to enquiry follow up and tours usually show in tour numbers within weeks, because they act on families who are already interested. Anything that relies on building new demand, waitlists or word of mouth takes months. I will not put a date on a result I cannot control.
Can a consultant guarantee an occupancy lift?
No consultant can honestly guarantee an occupancy lift. Local demand, staffing, licensed places, fees and competition all sit outside their control. What I can do is show you where places are being lost and what is worth changing first.
Do you work with childcare groups as well as single centres?
Yes, from single sites through to national groups. With groups, the useful question is usually why one site performs differently from the others under the same brand, the same fees and the same marketing.
Related pages
Start with the Full Rooms Review.
Send through the form and I will reply within one business day to organise the review.
Request your free Full Rooms Review