How to be the franchisor your franchisees need

Franchising your business is a big step, and when it works well, it allows you to grow, expand your reach, enter new markets and raise your profile. However, for franchising to work well, you need a team of committed and well-trained franchisees to sell your message, your brand, and your products and services.

Franchisees cannot replicate your success and deliver your business objectives unless you are supporting them in the right way. Do you know how to be the franchisor that your franchisees need? Here is a look at the key areas that are fundamental to franchise success.

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Leadership

Good leaders inspire others to work hard and remain loyal to the brand. They do this by setting clear and achievable goals and objectives, listening to their franchisees, addressing their concerns, and putting mechanisms in place that enable them to achieve success. They lead by example, hold themselves accountable for their actions, and expect the same of others.

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Ongoing training

Franchisors must train and support their franchisees, teaching them their business operations and ensuring that they are familiar with the system, products or service they are selling. Franchises must be consistent, and customers must enjoy the same experience every time they visit a different branch of the franchise. To achieve this consistency, regular refresher training should be held and franchisors should operate an "open-door policy" to enable their franchisees to bring any troubles or concerns to them outside of these training sessions.

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Periodic performance reviews

When a franchisee is operating in a consistent manner, differences in performance outcomes (based on the KPIs measured by the individual franchise) will stand out. Periodic progress reviews allow a franchisor to identify anomalies in the performance of any of their franchisees and make a targeted intervention to identify the cause of the performance issues and help their franchisee address them.

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Routine feedback

Honesty is essential in franchising, so franchisors must make every effort to provide feedback to their franchisees. This may be advice on improving their performance or recognition and reward for outstanding effort. It could even just be a check-in to congratulate them on achieving their KPIs or for reaching a particular milestone in their franchising career. When franchisees are communicated with openly and honestly, it fosters a collaborative environment that benefits the business as a whole.

By creating an environment in which franchisees feel supported, the franchisor will benefit from their loyalty and commitment and be better positioned to achieve their business growth plans.

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