How Can Franchisors Help Franchisees?

There are many great benefits to acquiring a franchise. One of them is that it gives you access and membership to a network of fellow franchisees who are doing exactly what you do every day but with more experience, time, and knowledge of what it takes to be successful at managing that particular brand. 

Another advantage of being part of a franchise organization is having the support of your franchisor to face common challenges and guidance on business matters like how to increase sales or maximize profitability. But, you have to be aware that there are some things they cannot help you with. 

In this blog post, we'll review five areas in which your franchisor can help you get by when you are in need, and where they cannot assist you, mainly because of law issues.

1. Do a brand audit

If you're having a sales issue in your organization, you can reach out to your business consultant –the person who represents the franchisor and is there to support you in your journey– to do a brand audit.

• This will help you identify if you and your team are following the brand's standards, or systems and processes that have proven the model to be successful. 

Because you might think you are doing everything you can but may be missing crucial steps that are preventing you from maximizing your sales and customer experience. 

Having the external help of that franchise-based consultant (FBC), looking into the operations as a third party, will give you an objective analysis and feedback to better understand the real reasons behind your sales issues. 

Don’t miss: These are the top 3 elements for franchisee success

2. Analyze customer feedback from surveys

Your franchisor, or the franchise-based consultant, can also look at the feedback provided by your customers. A lot of brands encourage their customers to answer surveys to share how was their customer experience. 

These reports, which by the way are incredibly valuable, can give you first-hand information not only to better know your customers but also to discover what is preventing them from coming back over and over again. 

The FBC can help you analyze this report to identify opportunities so you can design an action plan to attack the problems, improve the customer’s experience, and therefore, increase your revenue. 

Watch this Minitip: How to be customer-experience strong

3. Connect you with other franchisees

As mentioned before, belonging to a franchise network is very powerful. Ask the FBC to connect you with fellow franchisees in your area who are exceeding with their franchise. 

Speaking to someone who also acquired the same brand you are in, who is just like you, and who is going through the same things you are is very valuable for your franchise journey. This successful franchisee can use their experience and knowledge to help you identify potential issues in your units.

This guide will minimize your learning curve so you can become a top-performing franchisee. So it is very wise to take advantage of being in a network of amazing men and women you can reach out to, to learn from them.

4. Provide local store marketing guidance and assets

If you pay a marketing fee, in addition to the royalties, that means that your franchisor uses those funds to do regional or national marketing. 

• However, they may also have additional local store marketing guidance that can help you!

They can share some tactics and channels they know are successful for their brand, as well as the assets they have created and designed that have worked for them in the past. 

Giving you that key information based on their experience and the materials you can use in your community would be a tremendous help! But they're not going to execute the strategy on your behalf; implementing these resources is your responsibility.

#Minitip: How to implement effective marketing tactics

5. Compare your units against the system

If your issue is in the profitability area, our franchisor can give you feedback as long as you submit your monthly profit and loss statement to them. This constant monthly record helps them monitor the health of the franchises. 

There are some limitations as to how far they can help you in terms of profitability. But if you share your financials with them, the franchise owners can share the averages of the network so you can compare where your numbers are versus other franchisees in your area, your region, or even against the whole country. 

That will help you identify where you can do better so you can spend your time and effort in those areas to cause a positive change in your organization. 

• In over the 10 years I spent working in the headquarters of many franchise brands, I was able to ascertain that franchisors want you to be successful.

We were always asking ourselves: how can we help franchisees be more successful? How can we improve their profitability? How can we increase their sales?

But franchisors need to know when you need help. If you find yourself with challenges, whether it's sales or profitability, raise your hand and ask for their help because they're going to do whatever they can to help you be successful. 

Keep learning: Should you share your P&Ls with leaders?

What franchisors can’t do

You have to understand that there are some things that franchisors cannot do around employees, business coaching, and profitability, even though you may need them. They want to, but they can’t.

• The reason for that is a law called joint employee liability that prevents them from going into any level of detail when it comes to people management.

That means they are not able to train your people because that could be considered a joint employer challenge. That’s why they only focus on giving you tools around the brand, product, service, image, and national and regional marketing.

If you are having issues regarding people or profit, you can find solutions by:

1. Following the franchisor model. Franchises are designed around systems and processes that should be profitable, assuming the model is being run properly. 
2. Reaching out to fellow franchisees. They have a lot of experience so you can learn how they're handling those issues. 
3. Asking family and friends who are in business. Especially if they are small business owners because they’ll understand what you're going through.
4. Access online programs. These are designed to help business owners develop the business acumen they need to be successful. 

The American Franchise Academy has several programs designed specifically to help franchisees like yourself acquire the leadership and management skills they need to succeed. 

We pick up right where the franchisor ends and provide you with the knowledge and resources you need to manage your people, revenue, profits, and ability to scale your organization. We have three programs: 

• The Command Program, for multi-unit franchisees and franchisees that are growing.
• The Multi-unit Leadership Certification Program, for district managers who are overseeing multiple units in a district.
• The Manage Program, where we teach unit managers how to be great leaders, produce profits and increase sales year over year.

Learn more about what we have to offer here!

Let us help you in your journey to becoming a successful and profitable franchisee! Follow us on all social platforms, including our YouTube channel and podcast.

Reflections:

• Are you truly taking advantage of the franchise network you belong to?
• Have you considered doing an external audit of your operations to discover hidden problems?
• Can you identify your customer’s experience pain points and how to address them?
• Are you leveraging your franchisor as much as you can?

WATCH THIS VBLOG on YouTube HERE.