From Courtship to Commitment: How to Build a Lasting Franchisee-Franchisor Relationship
By Evan Hackel
I am willing to bet you have been in a meeting where someone says, “Our franchisees are frustrated, unhappy and angry.”
I want to share some good news with you . . .
Those meetings never need to happen.
Even better, I am going to share with you some specific, actionable advice on how to prevent them. So please keep this article handy.
Here is my advice to you . . .
Have Great Training
Yes, great training is important because it teaches franchisees and their employees how to do their jobs efficiently, service what you sell, sell more, and satisfy customers. But great training also demonstrates to your franchisees that you are fully invested in their success – you genuinely and completely want them to succeed, and you are willing to invest effort and money to be sure that happens. And another thing. When your franchise offers exceptional training, that fact will become known and will attract more potential new owners to you.
Offer Your Training to Potential Franchise Owners Before They Buy
I am serious about this . . . let people who are considering buying your franchise enroll in your training classes and take part. There are many reasons why this is a power strategy for increasing franchisee satisfaction. One is that they will discover the excellence of your training. (That’s obvious.) More subtle reasons are that they will see that you are investing in the success of your franchisees – and they will be excited and want to come on board. Still another reason is that while training, they will meet your current franchise owners and start to feel part of your community. As I say, this is a power strategy.
Have a Franchise Advisory Council
My advice to you is, if you want your franchise to succeed, establish a franchise advisory council as early as you can during the life of your franchise. By “as early as you can,” I mean that you should start an advisory council when you have as few as four or five owners, and you should increase membership from there.
Your council will be there to offer you real-world insights about how your franchise (and its products or services) are succeeding or not. So be sure to listen – don’t only talk at your owners.
Your council should meet about every three months – in live meetings together if franchise locations are in the same geographic area, or online otherwise. If you have online meetings, underscore that they are important by having them take place for a full half day. Consider having one of your members give a keynote address to the others, telling them stories of their success. Also encourage council members to connect with each other and establish strong relationships, even when you and members of management are not there. In other words, don’t hover; when you’re not there, your franchise council members will exchange ideas they might not bring up if you are there.
Create Sub-Councils Too
Your main advisory council will deliver a surprising range of benefits, including marketing and sales ideas, feedback on products, and solutions to problems you did not even know existed. So to extend the benefits, consider establishing additional sub-councils to focus on specific areas such as marketing, technology, branding, vendor relations, site design and more.
When Your Size Allows, Start to Hold an Annual Conference
How many franchisees should be in your system before you hold an annual conference? It depends on several factors: where are your franchises located and can they travel to one location for a conference, for example? Are they profitable enough at this point in their lives to be able to afford time away from their locations? How will they be able to pay to attend?
When you do have your conference, have a keynote speaker, offer networking opportunities, encourage attendees to stay in touch when the conference is over, give awards to franchisees who have done well and – most importantly – follow up in the days after the conference and throughout the year to be sure your attendees are making use of what they learned.
Support Franchisees Who Want to Add Additional Locations
By “supporting,” I mean giving them all the council and support you possibly can to help them make the best decisions about expanding. (I do not mean encouraging franchisees in your system to add locations if they lack the financial resources to do so or shouldn’t for other reasons.) Do they realize that owning several franchises demands different management skills than owning just one, for example? If they don’t you should be the one to tell them.
Share As Much Financial Data with Your Franchisees as You Can
Not only do your owners want to know, they should know what’s in your books. Sharing your data is a win/win proposition: if you’re doing well, your franchise owners will be thrilled; if you are going through a flat patch, they will be motivated to learn more and help.
Now, I have heard objections to this idea. People have asked me, “If I share internal data with franchisees, won’t they leak it to our competitors?” Well, they might. But in my view, the value of having highly engaged owners outweighs that risk. (And if your competitors really want to snoop on you, chances are they will find your data somewhere else.)
Communicate Regularly, Actively and Positively
I have heard franchise owners say, “The only time I hear from the parent company is when they want me to do something – usually something difficult or unpleasant.”
Don’t ever get to that point in your communications with your people! In weekly eNewsletters, profile successful franchisees and share good news. Send emails that offer solutions to problems that your owners might be encountering. Solicit feedback every time and then follow up on it energetically.
And remember, communication means more than sending out emails. You can also have a member of your sales team or home staff visit every one of your franchise locations – a minimum of one visit a month to each location. You can have a phone hotline franchisees can use to immediately reach someone in headquarters. You can set up a company intranet where owners can communicate and ask questions and learn news.
And Listen, Listen, Listen
You never want to hear franchisees say, “Nobody in headquarters is hearing what I have to say.”
That’s a terrible problem, but there is a simple solution, which is to listen to what your people are saying, and then act on it.
I’d encourage you to use some of the suggestions I have made in this article and to let me know how they are working for you. I would be most eager to know! I wish you tremendous success.
About Evan Hackel
As author, speaker and entrepreneur, Evan has been instrumental in launching more than 20 businesses and has managed a portfolio of brands with systemwide sales of more than $5 billion. He is the creator of Ingaged Leadership, is author of the book Ingaging Leadership: The Ultimate Edition and is a thought leader in the fields of leadership and success.
Evan is the CEO of Ingage Consulting, Delta Payment Systems, and an advisor to The Learning Network. Reach Evan at ehackel@ingage.net, 781-820-7609 or visit www.evanhackel.com.
