Case study
How Monkey Puzzle enriched their customer insight with accurate demographic data
Summary
Monkey Puzzle is the UK’s largest day nursery franchise network, with over 60 nurseries nationwide. For over thirty years, the Monkey Puzzle team has worked closely with parents, staff and Ofsted to deliver childcare of the highest quality, providing children aged three months to five years with unlimited opportunities to learn, develop and grow within a safe, secure and caring environment.
An award-winner in the 2020 Day Nurseries Top 20, Monkey Puzzle is growing strongly. It’s always looking for new franchise sites and opportunities, led by a dedicated head office team. Monkey Puzzle also operates a handful of day nurseries directly, providing a benchmark of best practice for franchisees.
Company Size
1,000
Industry
Education
Products Used
Challenge
Understanding the opportunities in franchise locations with enriched local customer insight. Sophie Hailey, Monkey Puzzle’s Franchising and Property Acquisitions Associate, explains:
“Before we engaged with CACI, when we were looking at a new site, the only demographic research we would do was competitor analysis. We would type the site postcode into the OFSTED website and look at comparable sites in a five mile radius. We would mystery shop them to find out about what they offered, the fees and waiting lists, to help us establish a suitable proposition and pricing for our potential new nursery.”
“When you visit a site, you can get a good feel for a location. This is really important, as is the competitor research, but we needed more information and evidence to back up our decisions, as our network expands. We wanted to give our franchisees confidence as well as committing to the right sites for our model. The more relevant insight we have, the better our decisions can be.”
Solution
Sophie talked to CACI about Monkey Puzzle’s franchising and the kind of information that was important in her decision-making process. Acorn and InSite reporting would give Sophie and the team access to valuable customer demographic and local market information to enrich their understanding of new and existing sites and opportunities in the local area. She explains:
“The site reports we generate help us to narrow down potential sites quickly – we look at a number of factors about the catchment that tell us whether it’s worth investigating a proposed site further. We can see how close it is to existing sites, so we can avoid cannibalisation, as well as how strong the customer demand might be in the local community and workforce.”
Results
With InSite and Acorn, Sophie and her colleagues have a clear, shared knowledge base that informs the franchise development process with consistent and up-to-date customer and location information.
As the first person in the decision process, Sophie saves not only her own time, but that of colleagues. “For some sites, it’s an obvious yes or no, but sometimes the decision is more difficult,” she shares. “A lot of properties proposed to us are undifferentiated. With decisive information upfront, I can avoid setting lots of people off to do work on a site that’s more likely to fall through.”
The maps mean Monkey Puzzle can take a more proactive approach to franchise searches. “We can identify gaps in our coverage areas and prioritise those with the most promising customer mix in the catchment,” she continues.
Working with new franchisees, Sophie can show them information about the types of household and persona that comprise most of Monkey Puzzle’s customers. It helps them understand who they’re catering for, where they live and what matters to them when the new franchisee is planning services and communication.
