Working with families and young children, you quickly learn parents aren’t just customers. They are people navigating one of the most emotional, vulnerable and transformative periods of their lives, sometimes beginning even before pregnancy.
Carla Davison, our founder, has more than 13 years of experience, both personally and professionally, with building nurturing communities for parents at every stage of their journey.
Success in this sector isn’t only about delivering a great service. It’s about building trust and reassurance that lasts far beyond the early months of pregnancy and parenthood. Carla’s tips help franchisees grow a thriving community, while connecting and supporting parents and babies in a meaningful, lasting way.
One of the most powerful tools you have is your ability to build trust with parents. That trust doesn’t come from having all the answers, it comes from understanding the emotions parents are navigating. Whether it’s through personal or professional experience, supporting families, recognising worries and responding with empathy helps parents feel understood.
Some of our franchises have gone through their own parenting journey, have a strong sense of empathy from experiences with close friends and family or draw from prior professional childcare settings. Whatever your experience, the sense of being truly ‘seen’ is often what brings parents back time and time again.
Early parenthood can be exciting, overwhelming and isolating in equal measure. When parents walk into our supportive group settings, they are often seeking connection just as much as guidance. Creating a space to listen, without rushing to fix or give advice, allows parents to feel heard by people who they recognise are in a similar position. Connection comes from listening and being listened to, that shared experience reminds parents they are not alone. Over time, this collective understanding can build deep, lasting trust.
Community is different for everyone, and in our classes, it doesn’t stop when the class ends. Some parents connect through conversation, while others prefer quiet reassurance. By creating multiple touch-points from classes to optional communication groups and informal events like coffee mornings, relationships are able to grow naturally over time. Parents can engage in ways that feel right for them in a community that feels supportive rather than overwhelming. Our franchisees create an environment for trust to grow, which feels effortless to parents.
Gentle, calming and nurturing sessions give families the opportunity to start slowly, build confidence and form connections at their own pace. During the parenting journey from pregnancy to pre-school, the shared experiences lay the foundation for friendships that continue well beyond your classes. Those early bonds shape how parents remember - and return to - your classes long after those first few months. In fact, they no longer consider Basking Babies as a business, it becomes an essential part of their pregnancy and their baby’s formative development.
At Basking Babies, building customer loyalty starts with genuine connection. When parents feel supported and understood, they naturally become advocates, recommending you to friends and continuing their journey with you as their family grows. That’s the power of building a community - when relationships are nurtured, loyalty grows into something much more.
I think that’s one of the reasons we have several franchisees who were originally our customers!