The success or failure of individual franchisees who don’t perform within a franchise network can be influenced by various factors. Here we discuss three very common reasons why some franchisees excel while others may not perform as well. Concentrating on thesae three areas will ultimately make a difference in wider and greater success across a franchise network:
Management and Leadership:
The skills and leadership qualities of the franchisee play a crucial role. Effective management, decision-making, and the ability to adapt to changing market conditions can contribute to success. Franchisees who don’t perform tend not to be able to navigate business challenges effectively.
Ensuring that franchisees possess the necessary skills and leadership qualities is crucial for the overall success of a franchise network. Franchisors can take several proactive measures to support and enhance the capabilities of their franchisees:
- Develop and implement comprehensive training programs that cover essential aspects of business management, including operations, marketing, customer service, financial management, decision making and strategic thinking.
- Offer leadership development programs to help franchisees enhance their management and decision-making skills.
- Provide access to external resources, workshops, and seminars focused on leadership and business management.
- Offer ongoing training sessions to keep franchisees updated on industry trends, new technologies, and changes in the market.
- Provide mentorship programs where new franchisees can learn from experienced and successful franchise owners.
- Assign business coaches or mentors to guide franchisees in areas such as decision-making, problem-solving, and strategic planning. These are specific skillsets and are often best outsourced to specialists rather than relying on internal generalist support team members
Marketing:
The effectiveness of marketing efforts can vary among franchisees. Those who effectively promote their businesses and engage with the local community, where that is part of the business model success formula, generally attract far more customers and significantly higher revenues. A consistent and well-executed marketing strategy is crucial for success. very often franchisees who don’t perform sre not carrying out sufficient marketing activity.
However, one of the key challenges franchisors face is a lack of understanding around the subject of marketing and all its elements. To ensure that the majority of franchisees execute a successful marketing here are some guidelines:
- Provide thorough training on the theory of marketing (the ‘why’), the importance of marketing and the specific marketing strategies outlined in the franchise system.
- Ensure, as a franchisor, you have data to back up your reasoning behind each marketing activity. ‘If you do that, this will happen’
- Develop comprehensive marketing guidelines that clearly outline the approved marketing strategies, branding elements, and messaging.
- Have in place strong control mechanisms to ensure all marketing collateral comply with brand guidelines
- Track each franchisees marketing activity and results. Provide feedback in the form of data compared to best in class within the network. Provide regular reports and feedback to franchisees on the impact of their marketing efforts, helping them understand the correlation between marketing and business outcomes.
- Offer ongoing education and training sessions on new marketing trends, technologies, and best practices to keep franchisees informed and engaged.
Quality of Service:
The quality of the products or services offered by the franchise can significantly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty. Franchisees who consistently deliver high-quality offerings are more likely to build a strong customer base. In order to ensure consistent quality across the network Franchiosors can consider the following strategies :
- Customer service is a very subjective subject. The majority of individuals in business do believe that they are delivering quality service. Training is key, for all franchisees to understand exactly what behaviours customers look for when considering if the quality of the service and the customer care they are receiving is the level of expectation. Again this is training in the theory of service – the ‘why’
- Implement a quality assurance program to regularly assess and monitor the quality of services provided by franchisees. Conduct periodic inspections or audits to ensure compliance with established quality standards.
- Use mystery shopping programs to evaluate the customer experience anonymously. This can help identify areas for improvement and maintain consistent service quality. Share feedback with franchisees and use it as a tool for training and improvement.
- Facilitate benchmarking initiatives where successful franchisees can share their best practices related to service quality. Encourage collaboration among franchisees to adopt proven strategies for enhancing customer satisfaction.
- Put in place a robust customer NPS programme, automated from the Customer CRM system.
By implementing these strategies, franchisors can create a framework that supports consistent and effective marketing execution, operational efficiencies and quality service across their franchise network. This not only helps maintain brand integrity but also contributes to the overall success and growth of the entire franchise system.
Tim Morris, who has more than 30 years experience managing and supporting franchise operations around the world. He has a success record of driving sales and profits, managing multi-site units, as well as positively influencing individual franchise owners in franchise B2B and B2C environments.Tim has seen particular success supporting groups of high performing franchisees in a peer group setting. He has managed teams developing and implementing sales and marketing strategies. With senior leadership experience, he has achieved 80% growth in net profit through motivation and development of teams.From assisting with the expansion of an international franchise brand to heading up the support functions of both national and international franchise systems, he has been instrumental in the growth of hundreds of franchisees.His proven success record comes with a passion for ‘360 business development’ and his unique perspective empowers franchisors and franchisees alike to get the very best from their partnership.