Stop losing enrollment calls to voicemail while your team is in classrooms. Lucy answers, captures the family's information, schedules tours with you, and adds qualified inquiries to your waitlist — 24/7, in 7 languages — English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Mandarin, and Portuguese.
Your team is with the children for most of the day. The front desk is staffed during drop-off and pickup, but the in-between hours are when prospective families call — on a break at work, after a partner shift, or after they've finished touring the center down the street.
Calls go to voicemail. The family touring multiple centers calls the next one on Google and books a tour there first.
Centers lose enrollment inquiries in two distinct windows. During the day, when your director is in a classroom, on the playground, or in a parent meeting — calls roll to voicemail. After hours, when working parents are finally able to make the call — there is no staffed phone at all.
The calls lost in those windows are the lifeblood of the program. Enrollment inquiries, tour scheduling, waitlist additions — a family that's actively shopping will tour two or three centers in a week and pick one. Whichever center answers the phone, schedules a tour, and follows up properly wins the family.
That's the call BookedSmarter is built to answer. Lucy — your AI receptionist — picks up on the first ring, around the clock, in English or Spanish. She captures the family's information, schedules a tour on the calendar you connected, and adds qualified inquiries to your waitlist before the parent hangs up.
Three examples of the kinds of calls Lucy handles today.
A parent calls Tuesday evening — toured two centers this week, now calling yours. Lucy runs the enrollment intake you configured (parent name and callback, child's first name and age, desired start date, full-time or part-time, any siblings, how they heard about you), books a tour into your next available tour window, and texts you the lead so your director can prep before the family arrives. Lucy does not speak to tuition, ratios, or curriculum on the call — those conversations happen with your team on the tour.
A parent calls asking whether you take infants or only walkers, or what age you start in your preschool room. Lucy answers from the program-eligibility script you configured in the wizard (the age ranges you actually serve), captures the inquiry, and offers to schedule a tour if it's a fit. If the age is something you don't serve, Lucy says so plainly, captures the inquiry, and texts you the lead in case you want to follow up when the child is old enough.
A parent calls about openings for next September — expecting another baby in the spring. Lucy captures the waitlist intake you configured (parent contact, child's expected date of birth or age at start, target start date, any siblings already enrolled), adds the family to your waitlist queue, and texts you the lead so your enrollment team can follow up with paperwork at the right time.
Hear it for yourself. The demo below is the same intake flow Lucy runs on a childcare call — answer, capture, schedule, route.
Illustrative testimonials representing the kind of feedback we hear from centers like yours.
“Used to catch up on a voicemail box full of touring families at the end of the day — half had already booked tours somewhere else. Now every inquiry is on my tour calendar with the child's name and age before I'm back at my desk. My enrollment rate is up and I'm not chasing callbacks anymore.”— Karen P., director, Little Oak Learning Center, Raleigh, NC Illustrative
“The waitlist work used to be the part I'd put off. Lucy takes the waitlist intake on the phone, texts me the family, and my enrollment team follows up at the right time. The list stays current and parents feel heard from the first call.”— Tania F., owner, Sunrise Family Daycare, Aurora, CO Illustrative
“A lot of our families call in Spanish. Lucy switches automatically and runs the same intake. The tour ends up on my calendar the same way whether the family called in English or Spanish, and nobody hangs up because the receptionist couldn't help them.”— Mariana G., director, Casita Feliz Childcare, Phoenix, AZ Illustrative
You configure your intake fields, your age-eligibility script, your tour windows, and your waitlist questions in the onboarding wizard. Lucy reads from your configuration — not a generic childcare template. Your program. Your words.
What Lucy handles today:
Different question, different routing. An enrollment inquiry books a tour. An age question gets answered if you configured it, or captured and routed if it's outside your scope. A waitlist addition captures structured data and texts you the lead. You pre-fill the configuration once; Lucy follows your form on every call. Setup is one onboarding session. Most centers are live in about 10 minutes.
An honest note on what Lucy doesn't do. Lucy does not speak to ratios, licensing, curriculum, developmental approach, health policy, immunization policy, or tuition. Those are your conversations with your families. Lucy captures the question, schedules a tour or a callback, and texts you the transcript so your team can follow up with the right answer.
Lucy detects the caller's language in the first sentence and answers in English or Spanish from there — not a translation layer bolted on after the fact. Both languages run the same enrollment intake, the same tour-booking flow, and the same waitlist capture.
This matters in the markets where childcare demand concentrates. A receptionist that stumbles the moment it hears Spanish is dropping real enrollment inquiries every week.
Need a language you don't see? Tell us — we add languages where they matter most for your market.
Transparent pricing on the same page as the product. No per-call fees, no hidden setup minimums.
Every plan includes the same Lucy: 24/7 answering, all 7 languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Mandarin, Portuguese), your enrollment intake and waitlist questions, Google Calendar sync, our native scheduler, SMS confirmations, and instant transcripts.
Lucy is not an enrollment counselor. She does not make eligibility decisions, accept families into the program, or commit to a placement. She captures the inquiry and schedules a tour or a callback with you. All enrollment decisions stay with you.
Lucy does not speak to ratios, licensing, curriculum, or developmental approach. Those vary by program, by jurisdiction, and by age group, and they are conversations your team owns. Lucy captures the question and routes the family to a tour or callback rather than answering from a generic script.
Lucy does not speak to health, medical, or immunization questions. She captures the question on the transcript and routes the family to your team.
Lucy does not quote tuition, deposits, subsidy eligibility, or financial-aid amounts. Pricing conversations happen with your enrollment team after the tour, the way they always have.
Lucy is not for emergencies involving a child currently in your care. Parents should reach your team directly using the protocol you've established with them.
Lucy is not a substitute for your director on a tour. The tour, the questions, the relationship — those stay with your team. Lucy gets the family to the door with everything you need to make a great first impression.
She captures the family's information — parent name and callback, child's first name and age, desired start date, full-time or part-time, and whatever other intake fields you configure in the wizard. Then she schedules a tour with you, adds the family to your waitlist if that's the next step, and texts you the transcript. All enrollment, eligibility, and tuition decisions stay with you.
No. Lucy is for scheduling and inquiry intake only. She does not speak to ratios, licensing, curriculum, developmental approach, or any policy that varies by program and jurisdiction. When a parent asks one of those questions, Lucy captures the question on the transcript and routes the family to a tour or callback with you. Your team owns every program answer.
Yes. You set the tour windows you offer — say, Tuesday and Thursday mornings — and Lucy books the family into the next available window on the calendar you connected. If your program is full for the family's start date, Lucy captures the waitlist intake you configured (parent contact, child name and age, target start date, any siblings already enrolled) and texts you the lead for your enrollment team to follow up.
No. Tuition, deposits, and subsidy questions stay with your enrollment team. Lucy captures the inquiry and either books a tour or sets up a callback so your team can walk the family through pricing properly.
Yes. Lucy detects the caller's language in the first sentence and answers natively in English or Spanish — not a translation layer. The same intake script and the same tour-scheduling flow run in both languages once configured.
Lucy can answer routine schedule questions you configure in the wizard — what time you open and close, days you're closed, holiday schedule. Anything specific to a child or a family — early pickup, late drop-off, attendance notes — Lucy captures and texts to your team rather than guessing.
See current plans and pricing. No per-call fees, no hidden setup minimums.
You can read about Lucy or you can hear her work. The demo above is the same flow your callers will hear — on a Tuesday at 6:30pm when a working parent finally has a minute to call, or on a Saturday when a family is comparing three centers. If she sounds like the front-desk lead you'd hire if your enrollment volume justified it, the next step is 90 seconds: