How to Use Custom Values in Enrollio

What are Custom Values?

Custom values are personalized data placeholders that let you store and reuse important information across your Enrollio platform. Think of them as smart shortcuts that automatically fill in details like your center's name, address, director's contact info, or age-specific tuition rates.

By setting up custom values once, you can use them everywhere — in text messages, emails, enrollment pages, and automations. This saves time and ensures consistency across all your family communications.

Why Custom Values Matter for Your Center

Personalization: Store unique information for each family — names, preferred tour times, child ages, or enrollment status. Use this data to make every message feel personal and relevant.

Save Time: Enter information once, use it everywhere. No more copying and pasting your center's address into every email template or updating tour confirmation messages one by one.

Automation Power: Custom values automatically populate fields in your messages and enrollment pages. Address parents by name, reference their child's age group, or include specific classroom details without manual typing.

Stay Consistent: Keep details like your center hours, policies, or staff contact information standardized across all communications. Update once, and it changes everywhere.

Easy Updates: Changed your phone number or updated your tuition rates? Modify the custom value once, and it automatically updates in every message, email, and page where you've used it.

Better Segmentation: Use custom values to categorize families by enrollment status, age group interest, or tour preferences, making your communications more targeted and effective.

💡 Pro Tip: Enrollio comes with built-in custom values for common childcare needs. You can also create your own to match your center's unique operations.

How to Create, Edit, and Delete Custom Values

Managing custom values keeps your communications consistent and saves you from repetitive data entry. Here's how to work with them:

Getting to Custom Values

1. Click Settings in the left navigation menu
2. Select Custom Values from the settings options

Creating a New Custom Value

1. Click the blue + Add Custom Value button
2. Enter a descriptive name (like "Center_Phone" or "Infant_Tuition_Rate")
3. Enter the value you want it to display (like your phone number or tuition amount)
4. Choose a folder to organize it (optional but recommended)
5. Click Save

Editing or Deleting a Custom Value

1. Find the custom value in your list
2. Click the three dots (⋮) next to it
3. Select Edit Custom Value to update it, or Delete Custom Value to remove it

Real Examples from Childcare Centers

Example 1: Personalizing Tour Follow-Ups

You're following up with families who toured your center. Each family has different needs — some want infant care, others are looking for preschool, and each toured different classrooms with different staff members.

Create custom values for:

• Parent's first name
• Child's name and age
• Classroom toured (Infant Room, Toddler Room, etc.)
• Tour guide name
• Age group tuition rate

How it works:

Instead of manually typing each follow-up email, you create one template that automatically fills in these details. Your email might read:

"Hi {{parent_first_name}}, it was wonderful meeting you and {{child_name}} yesterday! {{tour_guide_name}} mentioned that {{child_name}} seemed excited about our {{classroom_name}}. Our current tuition for this age group is {{tuition_rate}} per month. Would you like to schedule an enrollment meeting?"

Each family gets a personalized message, but you only wrote the template once.

Example 2: Seasonal Re-Enrollment Campaign

You're running a summer enrollment campaign and want to reach families based on their child's current age group and enrollment status.

Collecting Data:

• Family A: Parent: Maria, Child: Emma (age 2), Current Room: Toddler Room, Last Contact: March 15
• Family B: Parent: Jason, Child: Tyler (age 4), Current Room: Preschool, Last Contact: March 10

Storing Custom Values:

In Enrollio, you create custom value fields for parent name, child name, age, current classroom, and last contact date. Each family's profile stores their specific information.

Using the Data:

Personalized Emails: Send Maria an email that says, "Hi Maria, Emma has grown so much in our Toddler Room! Let's talk about transitioning to our Preschool program for fall."

Targeted Texts: Send Jason a message: "Hi Jason! Tyler is ready for our Pre-K program. Reserve his spot for next year — spaces are filling fast!"

Custom Landing Pages: When families click through to your enrollment page, they see a welcome message: "Welcome back, Maria! Let's continue Emma's enrollment for Preschool."

The Result:

Your communications feel personal and relevant to each family's situation. This increases response rates and helps you fill enrollment spots faster.

💡 Pro Tip: Create custom values for your most common family scenarios — infant care, toddler programs, preschool, before/after school care. This makes it easy to personalize messages for different age groups.

How to Organize Custom Values into Folders

As you create more custom values, organizing them into folders keeps everything manageable. Here are some folder ideas for childcare centers:

• Center Information: name, address, phone, hours, director name
• Tuition & Rates: infant tuition, toddler tuition, preschool tuition, registration fees
• Classroom Details: teacher names, room capacity, age ranges
• Policies: drop-off times, pickup procedures, sick policy highlights
• Family Information: parent names, child names, ages, emergency contacts

To move a custom value into a folder, edit the custom value and select the appropriate folder from the dropdown.

Where to Use Custom Values

Once you've created custom values, you can use them throughout Enrollio:

• Text Messages: Send personalized tour confirmations, enrollment reminders, or re-engagement messages
• Email Templates: Create welcome sequences, waitlist updates, or seasonal campaigns
• Enrollment Pages: Display personalized content based on the family viewing the page
• Automations: Trigger personalized messages based on family actions or enrollment status
• Forms: Pre-populate information to save families time during enrollment

To insert a custom value, look for the merge tag picker (usually a small icon or dropdown) in your message editor. Select the custom value you want, and it will appear as {{custom_value_name}}. When the message sends, Enrollio automatically replaces this with the actual data.

Common Custom Values Every Center Should Have

Here are some essential custom values to set up right away:

• {{center_name}}
• {{center_phone}}
• {{center_email}}
• {{center_address}}
• {{director_name}}
• {{center_hours}}
• {{enrollment_coordinator_name}}
• {{tour_scheduling_link}}

For family-specific communications:

• {{parent_first_name}}
• {{child_first_name}}
• {{child_age}}
• {{requested_age_group}}
• {{tour_date}}
• {{enrollment_status}}

💡 Pro Tip: Use clear, descriptive names for your custom values. "infant_room_tuition" is much easier to find later than "rate1" or "price_a".

Need Help?

Custom values are one of the most powerful features in Enrollio for creating personalized, efficient communications with families. Start with a few essential values and add more as you discover new ways to streamline your enrollment process.