5 Best Practices to Achieve Consistency in a Multi-Unit Enterprise
Jun 27, 2023
When we talk about franchise operations and franchising, we mention how the brand is a proven brand that provides consistency among its units. But usually, we say this from the customer experience’s perspective.
- The reality is that the employee experience is just as important for you and your franchise organization to have long-term success.
These are five specific best practices that multi-unit franchisees can implement to achieve consistency in operations and also among management procedures so that the customer and the employee experience are both positive.
When you do that, not only do you get the loyalty of your customers, but also of your team members, something critical for the success of any business, especially nowadays.
Best practice #1
Establish clear standards for the brand and your business processes. The good news is that if you are a franchisee, your franchisor will provide those brand guidelines, as well as the training, materials, operations manual, and all the tools you need to train your people and duplicate that brand, product, service, image, and marketing.
But you also need to create the processes and procedures for your management systems. This won’t be provided by the franchisor; you need to define and then transmit them to team members across all your units.
- It is also up to you to create the same level of consistency for your management systems as you do for the brand systems.
Best practice #2
Having those guidelines is not enough. You need to develop a training program to drive those processes and procedures across your organization.
Consider that part of that might only go to managers and leaders, but other types of training may need to reach every single employee in your units.
Either way, you have to create the same discipline management training process as the brand has done and given you for the brand side of the business.
That’s why it is crucial to have checklists, a management manual, and the procedures you want them to implement daily to manage your business. Sharing this information through a training program will help you drive those procedures throughout your organization.
Best practice #3
Once you have the finest policies and procedures, as well as a great training program for your team, you need to conduct a quality and compliance audit process for your organization.
The franchisor does a really good job at that. They come to your unit maybe once a quarter or every six months, to make an extensive audit and assessment of how you are implementing the policies and procedures that they expect you to do to match the brand standards.
That’s exactly what you have to carry out for your management systems, so you can do a follow-up on the standards you have established and make sure they are consistently executed day in and day out, across all your units.
If you do this weekly, you’ll be able to catch right away if any issues are happening and redirect the team members into doing the right thing, the right way.
To do that, you’ll have to create that audit and assessment process. If you have a multi-unit organization, your district manager will be executing it. If you're not big enough to have this type of leader, then you as a multi-unit franchisee will have to take over this responsibility.
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Best practice #4
Technology is your friend when it comes to multi-unit operations, so utilize it for your support. Nowadays, you can have access to all kinds of software platforms to bring a lot of information together and help you have a consistent execution of processes and procedures.
But you have to carefully select which technology is better for you to have a centralized system or at least enough consistency so your employees, and especially your leaders, can execute and implement these systems across the organization.
Having technology will not only be useful to supervise and oversee the implementation of these standards; it will also help you:
- Identify areas of opportunity.
- Save time.
- Be more efficient.
- Allow your team to be more effective.
It is said that the best way to ensure execution is through simplicity, and here's where technology can help you!
Remember: the more simple the process or the procedure through technology, the easiest it will be, and the highest the probability of execution.
Create policies, processes, and procedures for your business #minitip
Best practice #5
Inspire your team members and foster a culture of ownership and empowerment.
Don't miss this particular best practice! If they feel included and that they have a say in your organization, as well as the opportunity to contribute to you and your operations, they will take ownership of your business.
Not only will this give them a sense of loyalty, commitment, and inclusion, but they'll also drive and prioritize the business results for you.
Another positive effect this will have is that your employees will enjoy what they do every day. And your customers will also feel that enjoyment.
If you make sure that the employee experience is a positive one and they build this sense of ownership of the unit they're running, this will resonate with the customer experience because they'll take care of your clients better than you can.
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I hope that this gives you an idea of how you can ensure consistency to achieve that consistency across your multiple units. I know these five steps are not easy. Each one of them is tremendously big and also critically important.
If you need help implementing these steps, The American Franchise Academy is here for you!
Learn about our best-in-class programs designed to help multi-unit franchisees and business owners achieve growth, scale, and success in this information link: https://americanfranchiseacademy.mykajabi.com/programs
Follow us on our YouTube channel, subscribe to our podcast, and find us across social media to get more knowledge, resources, tips, and information for you to be successful.
Reflections:
- Have you defined the processes and procedures for your management systems?
- How often do you look into your units to supervise how the job is being done?
- Are you taking advantage of technology to facilitate the operation of your business?
- How are you empowering your employees?
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