Two Men and a Truck franchisee
Published September 26, 2019

TWO MEN AND A TRUCK: Making Moves that Delight Customers and Franchisees

CASE STUDY

TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® has become the fastest-growing franchised moving company in the country. With a mission of “Moving People Forward®,” they tailor moving services to meet customers’ needs. But with such impressive growth, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK did not want to lose sight of the key ingredient to the company’s success: its franchisees.


Challenge: Streamline operations, open lines of communication with franchisees, provide top-notch support


In order to attract, onboard, and support franchisees at its 300+ locations throughout the country, the company needed to understand how they could best support franchisees to ensure their individual success, and in turn, best support their customers.

Cheryl Ackley, franchise development specialist for TWO MEN AND A TRUCK, said the company places a premium on feedback it gets directly from its franchisees. They partner with FBR to survey franchisees annually and use the data to streamline operations and communications. Ackley said the survey results enable TWO MEN AND A TRUCK to keep a pulse on what matters most to its franchisees and benchmark progress year after year.

“The fact that the franchisees took the time to do it and that it’s from them—with no middleman—we appreciate their truth coming directly to us,” Ackley said. “It’s something everyone looks forward to, to see where we’re at.”

Putting Results into Action

Using FBR survey data that revealed franchisees felt inundated with emails from different parts of the corporate office, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK recently developed a centralized consulting team model to efficiently boost franchisee support. Each centralized consulting team is made up seven or eight corporate team members representing functional areas such as Human Resources and Marketing, for example. Now, franchisees receive fewer emails and can rely on a cohesive team that works together to ensure their success.

“Rather than receive 12 different emails from different departments, the centralized consulting team looks at their numbers continuously. The business consultant that oversees that group becomes the main voice between the team and the franchisee,” Ackley said. “If they are struggling in an area like web conversion or marketing, then the specialist from that team works one-on-one with them. We find this works really well – and it was one of the things that came out of the FBR survey.”

Chris Willems, a franchisee who bought his first TWO MEN AND A TRUCK franchise in Phoenix three years ago and acquired a second one in the same market last year, expects to make a combined $2.5 million this year. In the first month of 2016, he made $15,000, he said.

When he was looking to invest in franchises after he sold a van rental business in 2014, it was important for him to not only talk directly to franchisees, but also to gather research from a third-party that could provide unbiased information. Willems said Franchise Business Review was able to validate feedback he received from both the franchisor and franchisees.

Franchise Business Review plays a significant role in trying to assure people looking for an investment that they can look to them as a source or indicator for what kind of satisfaction they might have if they do things right. 

– Chris Willems, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK franchisee, Phoenix, AZ

 

It was important for him to invest in a franchise that scored high in overall satisfaction, enjoyed strong brand recognition, and rated highly in home-office training and support. He was also interested in franchises that had access to benchmarking data that could show him where he could improve and how he was performing in relation to fellow franchisees.

“Franchise Business Review plays a significant role in trying to assure people looking for an investment that they can look to them as a source or indicator for what kind of satisfaction they might have if they do things right,” Willems said.

So far, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK is moving Willems in the right direction. He’s welcomed the improvements the new centralized consulting team has brought to the franchise and sees a lot of opportunity for organic growth in his existing franchises–but has an appetite to expand if the opportunity should present itself.

“When I step back a bit, it’s been a good experience, fun, and mostly what I had anticipated,” he said. “Overall, it’s been quite nice, and I expect a great future.”

 


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