Quick summary: Irish nurseries, crèches, and childcare settings face a specific communications challenge — high call volume from parents during drop-off and collection, GDPR obligations around children’s data, after-hours enquiries about places and waiting lists, and staff who can’t always step away from children to answer a phone. Dromlik, a cloud phone system for Irish businesses, is used by childcare providers across Ireland to manage parent calls professionally, handle waiting list enquiries outside opening hours, and send automated WhatsApp reminders for fees and upcoming closures. Plans start from €12/user/month (annual billing). An AI receptionist is available from €100/month system-wide — answering parent calls 24/7 without pulling staff away from children.
Why Childcare Settings Have Unique Communication Needs
Running a nursery or crèche in Ireland means managing a high volume of parent calls across a narrow window — morning drop-off, afternoon collection, and the hours in between when parents call to check on their child, ask about a session, or query an invoice. Staff who are responsible for children can’t always step away to answer a call. And in a sector where trust is everything, a call that rings out or goes to an unhelpful voicemail reflects badly on the setting.
Ireland’s early childhood sector includes over 3,800 providers supporting more than 120,000 children nationwide, employing over 25,000 people. Most of these settings are small — fewer than 20 children — run by owner-managers who are also responsible for day-to-day childcare. There’s no dedicated receptionist. There’s no admin team. The person answering the phone is often the same person reading a story, preparing lunch, or supervising outdoor play.
A professional phone system designed for this reality — one that handles routine parent queries, captures enrolment enquiries outside opening hours, and sends automated reminders without adding to the workload — is exactly what most Irish childcare settings are missing.
Over 3,800 childcare providers. 120,000 children supported. 25,000 employees. Most settings have fewer than 20 children and are run by small teams where every member of staff has childcare responsibilities. Source: Early Childhood Ireland.
Why Irish Nurseries and Crèches Choose Dromlik
One professional number for the setting. A dedicated Irish local number for your crèche or nursery — a Dublin 01, Cork 021, or whichever code matches your area. Parents call one number. Staff answer on the app on their existing mobile, without giving out personal numbers.
Calls answered even when staff are with children. When staff can’t pick up — because they’re with a child, in nap time, or during a session — Niamh, Dromlik’s AI receptionist, answers immediately. She captures the parent’s query, takes enrolment enquiries, answers common questions about hours and fees, and sends a WhatsApp follow-up automatically.
Waiting list enquiries captured 24/7. Parents researching childcare don’t do it during nursery hours. They call in the evening, at the weekend, or during their lunch break. Without an AI receptionist, these calls hit voicemail — and many parents don’t leave one. With Niamh, every enquiry is captured, structured, and waiting for you in the morning.
WhatsApp reminders for fees, closures, and events. Automated WhatsApp messages sent to parents for upcoming closure dates, fee payment reminders, and session updates — reducing the number of “did you get my message?” calls that eat into the working day.
GDPR-compliant by default. Calls involving children’s information — health queries, collection arrangements, session notes — are recorded and stored within the EU. No US-hosted infrastructure, no data transfer concerns.
Managed setup, no IT required. Dromlik configures the system for your setting — call routing, greetings, AI receptionist responses, and WhatsApp reminders — as part of onboarding. A childcare manager doesn’t need to be a technology expert to run a professional phone system.
How Dromlik Compares for Childcare Settings
| Personal mobile | Basic landline | Dromlik | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional setting number | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Works when staff are with children | ✓ (personal) | ✗ | ✓ (AI answers) |
| After-hours enquiry capture | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ (AI receptionist) |
| Waiting list call capture | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| WhatsApp reminders to parents | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Call recording (EU-hosted) | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| GDPR compliant | ✗ | Depends | ✓ |
| Managed setup | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Cost | €0 (hidden costs) | €30–€60/month | From €12/user/month |
Getting Started
Most Irish childcare settings are live on Dromlik within a week — including number setup, routing configuration, AI receptionist onboarding, and WhatsApp reminder setup. A 7-day free trial is available with no setup fees.
Book a demo or call 01 686 6414 to speak to the team.
The Specific Challenges Dromlik Solves
Morning Drop-Off: The Busiest Call Window
Between 7:30am and 9:30am, Irish crèches and nurseries are at their most operationally demanding. Staff are welcoming children, doing handovers, managing settling-in, and preparing the room for the day’s programme. It’s also the window when parents call most frequently — to report an absence, ask about a late collection, or query a session.
Dromlik’s call routing handles this without requiring a dedicated staff member to sit by a phone:
- Simultaneous ring — calls ring all available team members at once; whoever’s free picks up
- Voicemail to email — if nobody can answer, the voicemail is emailed immediately to the manager rather than sitting unheard in a handset
- AI receptionist as fallback — Niamh answers unanswered calls, takes the parent’s name and query, and sends a summary to the manager’s phone
Enrolment and Waiting List Enquiries
A parent searching for a crèche place for a September start doesn’t always call during your opening hours. They call when they have a moment — often evenings or weekends. Without after-hours handling, these enquiries ring out.
Niamh answers these calls at any hour, in natural Irish English:
“Hi, thanks for calling [Crèche Name]. I’m Niamh — how can I help you today?”
The parent asks about availability for a 12-month-old from September. Niamh captures their child’s name, age, the session type they need, their contact details, and the best time to call back. A structured summary goes to the manager first thing in the morning — a warm lead with everything needed to follow up confidently, rather than a missed call with no information.
Parents researching crèche and nursery places often do so in the evening or at weekends — outside the hours when childcare settings are staffed to answer calls. An AI receptionist captures these enquiries automatically, with no staff involvement required.
GDPR and Children’s Data
Irish childcare settings handle personal data about children — a special category under GDPR. Call recordings of conversations with parents about their child’s health, collection arrangements, or behavioural observations are subject to strict data handling requirements.
Dromlik’s infrastructure is EU-hosted as standard. Call recordings are stored within the EU, accessible to authorised staff, with configurable retention periods. For Tusla-registered settings operating under the Child Care Act and associated regulations, this provides a GDPR-compliant foundation for phone-based communications without additional data transfer agreements.
Staff Safety — Separating Personal and Professional Numbers
A common and underappreciated risk in small childcare settings: staff giving parents their personal mobile number. When that staff member leaves, parents continue contacting them directly — creating confusion, potential safeguarding concerns, and data protection issues.
With Dromlik, every staff member uses the setting’s number through the app on their existing mobile. Parents always call the setting, never a personal number. When a staff member leaves, their access is revoked immediately — parents continue reaching the setting through the same number.
Fee Reminders and Closure Notifications
The administrative overhead of chasing fee payments and notifying parents of closure dates is a recurring time cost for Irish childcare managers. WhatsApp reminders sent automatically through Dromlik’s platform — 48 hours before a fee is due, a week before a closure — reduce the number of follow-up calls and messages that take managers away from their primary role.
Parents receive a professional WhatsApp message from the setting’s number. No personal phone involved, full record of every message sent, consistent communication regardless of which staff member is on duty.
What Niamh Handles for Childcare Settings
Niamh can be configured specifically for your crèche or nursery. Common queries she handles:
- Opening hours and session times — answered accurately based on your setup information
- Fees and payment queries — general information; complex queries directed to the manager
- Availability and waiting list — capturing enquiry details for follow-up
- Absence reporting — taking a parent’s name, child’s name, and the reason for absence, with a summary sent immediately to staff
- Emergency collection changes — captured and forwarded immediately to the relevant staff member with an urgent flag
- ECCE and NCS scheme queries — general information about the free preschool year and National Childcare Scheme
For any call that requires immediate human attention — a child welfare concern, a safeguarding matter, or a medical emergency — Niamh routes the call immediately to the manager or duty staff member.
Any call involving a child safety concern, a medical emergency, or a welfare matter is routed immediately to a human. Niamh handles administrative and logistical queries — judgment calls that affect a child’s safety or wellbeing are always escalated to your team.
Dromlik for Multi-Site Childcare Groups
For childcare groups operating multiple settings — whether two crèches in the same town or a group of ten nurseries across a county — Dromlik manages all locations from one platform:
- Each setting has its own local Irish number and its own routing rules
- A group manager has visibility across all sites from one dashboard
- Call recording is centralised — accessible without logging in to each site separately
- Niamh can be configured differently for each setting, reflecting different hours, sessions, and team structures
- WhatsApp reminders are sent per-setting, from each setting’s number
For growing childcare groups managing multiple Tusla registrations and multiple parent communities, this reduces communication overhead significantly.
Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | What’s Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nucleus | €15/user/month | €12/user/month | Calling, IVR, routing, call recording (EU-hosted), voicemail to email, mobile and desktop apps |
| Orbit | €27/user/month | €22/user/month | Everything in Nucleus plus WhatsApp messaging, omnichannel inbox, CRM integrations, AI transcription |
| AI Receptionist (Niamh) | +€100/month system-wide | +€100/month system-wide | 24/7 AI call answering, enrolment enquiry capture, absence reporting, 200 minutes included |
Irish local numbers from €5/month. Free number porting. No setup fees. 7-day free trial.
For a single-site crèche on Nucleus with Niamh: €15/month (1 user) + €100/month (Niamh) + €5/month (number) = €120/month total.
See the full pricing breakdown.
Give your crèche or nursery a phone system that works
Talk to the Dromlik team about your setting’s specific requirements — call volume, after-hours handling, WhatsApp reminders, and AI receptionist configuration. Free 7-day trial, no setup fees.
