Franchising is a very attractive way to grow without completely bearing the full risk of brand expansion. However, how many franchised brands have thrived after the initial glow of a new relationship with their franchisees? Most brand owners have been conditioned to think all they need for franchising is to develop a Franchise strategy, a Standard operations manual to offer their franchisees, a training program and set up to get the franchisees going, recruit franchisees who would pay the franchise fees and wait for the royalties inflow.
The reality of franchising is that it is a full-time commitment by the brand owner to develop their franchise business and manage their franchise operations daily. It is about strengthening their business’s key drivers and ongoing improvement on the quality of operations to keep their franchisees fit and profitable. It is a combination of strategy and quality operational efficiency. But, mostly, it is about the systematic building and sustaining of business fundamentals and quality Operations.
When franchisees enter a Franchise system, they enter the system fully expecting the franchisors to share with them the Business Unit Excellence as well as the operational processes that will help them arrive at profitability within a shorter period than starting a business from scratch.
Most franchisees seek brands that have a proven track record and assurance that the franchisor is committed to building a strong franchise system. For consistent and sustainable replicability, franchisors who are serious about the success of their franchisees need to invest time and effort in building their Franchise system. A franchise System often involves the development of a robust Standard Operations Procedure, A Training Plan and an audit plan. Suppose you have a franchise system but have not developed a detailed franchise Management program. In that case, it is advisable to contact Franchise Consultants to provide expert advice on developing effective SOPs, Training and Audit Plans.
Ultimately, the excellent execution of these franchise management fundamentals is the real key to franchise growth success. To achieve this, Franchisors leverage franchise management software to help them reduce repeated and laborious manual work. Franchise Management systems that depend on analogue processes like PDFed SOPs, Physical Training and Audit programs are essential in their content and intent. Still, they are not so easy to implement as we approach the scale and speed of growing franchise networks. A Franchise Management system based on Excel spreadsheets, manual inserting of Pictures for audits, and synchronous physical training work perfectly well up to about 6 – 8 units. Once the brand starts to scale, this will mean placing a workforce to manage quality behind every 6-8 stores. Each Manager’s role will be not only to ensure Correct SOPs are being implemented, new employees receive the correct suite of training, and each out executes its necessary Audits, but the Manager is also the one who is required to manage the audit reports manually. Whilst seemingly easy to hire a new headcount with ever growth, it is also not the most productive use of resources, costs, time and efficiency.
Franchise software systems can help franchisors manage and maintain the quality operations of their franchisees by
- Making SOPs modular and easy to update and disseminate.
- Allow training by departments to be uploaded and assessments tracked by business units and individuals.
- Scheduling, planning and executing timed Audits across different key success areas of the business from a quality operations perspective.
- Developing Role-Specific Onboarding Processes
- Manage Franchise Unit Excellence by integrating financial and non-financial performance results on one Dashboard
Franchise Management Software Solution like TreeAMS offers the ability for Franchise owners to assign different rights to their franchise Managers according to their work roles. They can also assign rights to Franchisees according to whether they are Master, Area or single unit franchisees and, within each level, allow their franchisees in employee management within their franchise systems. With these key features it also helps them in inventory management. From this perspective, franchisees can quickly be onboarded about how they will learn the best practices of the franchise and how to maintain them. Franchise Managers will be able to focus on Franchisee engagement instead of focusing on managing compliance reports for management, and Franchise Management will be able to receive prompt organization performance of both corporate and franchisee performance reports on one single dashboard.
Effectively managing the various critical drivers of a business is key to building strong and sustainable Franchise growth. Access to real-time information across key functions of each Franchisee and their business units across territories can help franchisors respond faster to franchisee needs rather than react to complaints. Being able to respond to the needs of the franchisees instead of constantly fighting fire will firmly put the franchisor in a position of leadership, better able to gear the franchisee towards success.
