Methodology

About Our Research

Since 2005 Franchise Business Review (FBR) has researched franchisee satisfaction and performance at more than 1,200 leading franchise brands from all industry segments. Each year, we survey tens of thousands of franchisees to better understand their experience with their business.

Research Phase

  • Any U.S. or Canada-based franchise brand with at least 10 open and operating franchisees may participate in FBR’s franchisee satisfaction research at any time. Call 866 397 6680 to register to have us survey your franchisees.
  • Participation in FBR’s research is free. There is absolutely no fee for any brand to have us survey their franchisees.
  • FBR acquires a contact list of all open and operating franchise owners from participating franchise companies and contacts them via email and/or phone calls, providing a unique log-in for each franchisee’s personal survey.
    • FBR also acquires a brand’s Franchise Disclosure Document during this process to verify the franchisee list provided.
  • At completion of the survey, franchise owners have the option of remaining anonymous. They are, however, encouraged to identify themselves so that their franchisor can follow up with them for additional insight.
  • For our annual Special Reports, a deadline is specified for participation, and only brands participating in the survey before that deadline are considered for recognition. Franchisee satisfaction surveys spanning the most recent 18 month period are considered, with those within 12 months being weighed more favorably.

Analysis Phase

  • Once the survey period for a specific report is closed, we analyze the collected data from each brand using 33 benchmarking questions – these questions must be included in every brand’s survey in order for them to be considered for recognition, though additional, non-benchmarked (and unrelated to overall score) custom questions may be added by the franchisor as well.
  • Scores for each benchmark question are determined using a weighted scale – the most positive response option (such as “excellent” or “strongly agree”) having the most positive effect, and the most negative option having the most negative effect.
  • For each franchise brand, the collective scores of their franchisees are used to determine a single, overall “FSI” (Franchisee Satisfaction Index) score to determine their ranking among the other participating brands.
  • Other factors contributing to placement on the list are the size of the franchise system, the percent of franchisees that participated in the survey, and age of the survey.

Report/Publication Phase

  • From the collection of FSI scores, a benchmark is determined, and brands exceeding the benchmark are identified as “top franchises.”
  • These brands are listed in our published Special Reports. There is no charge to be named in our publications, nor can a brand pay for a listing or higher placement on a list.
    • The names of participating brands NOT exceeding our benchmark are kept completely confidential.
  • While brands do have the option of purchasing their survey results, consulting services or advertising from FBR, their decision to do so or not has no bearing whatsoever on their actual results. Only brands with high enough franchisee satisfaction ratings are recognized by FBR.
  • All franchise brands participating in an FBR franchisee survey are provided with a private “snapshot” of their survey results so they can see how they performed compared to the benchmark at no cost.

How Does Franchise Business Review Make Money?

Since participation in our franchisee satisfaction research is free and our research reports are free, you may be curious to know where our revenue comes from. It comes from the custom reporting, consulting, and other services we offer to franchisors.

As stated earlier, it is important to note that whether or not a franchise system utilizes one or more of Franchise Business Review’s services, this has no influence on whether or not it will be featured on one of our top franchises lists. Only franchises that have high enough franchisee satisfaction rankings make our lists as outlined in our Research Methodology.

How Do We Do It?

This isn’t a portal. You can’t pay to be listed and we don’t compete with larger franchise portals for generic search traffic. That means better leads and less time wasted for your development team.

  • No lead sharing
    Candidates have to go to your individual page and fill out a form to speak directly with you.
  • Less competition
    Only the 200 top ranking companies are eligible to participate in our lead program.
  • No long term commitment
    You can stop taking leads at any time.
  • High quality, not high volume
    You’ll actually connect with the person who submitted the lead form. They know why you’re calling, they ask smart questions, and they have a real interest in buying a franchise.

The Franchisee Satisfaction Index (FSI)

The Franchisee Satisfaction Index (FSI) is the industry standard by which the health of any franchise company can be measured and tracked over time. Established by Franchise Business Review in 2007, FSI is a collective assessment of the critical areas of franchisee satisfaction and engagement.

Franchise Business Review has surveyed over 1,100 franchise brands, representing tens of thousands of franchisees. This data makes our FSI benchmark an extremely powerful tool for evaluating systems, tracking operational performance, and predicting future success.

The FSI Measures Franchisee Satisfaction And Engagement In Eight Key Areas:

Understanding FSI

FSI can range from 0 to 100% and represents a weighted sum of positive responses to a specific question or a group of questions within one of the areas being measured for satisfaction. If you were to simply add up all the positive responses to a question, giving the same value to an “excellent” response that you give to a “good” or “very good” response, you would paint an overly optimistic picture. FSI provides a realistic view of favorable satisfaction ratings by weighting more positive responses and discounting lesser responses to any given question.

FSI ratings provide a reference point or benchmark to help gauge the overall level of franchisee satisfaction or satisfaction in a specific area. While an FSI of 66.2% on its own is not all that valuable, using it as a benchmark to measure against other areas, or to compare various franchise systems and industry sectors, is extremely useful.

Get Your FSI Score

Participate in our research to learn your FSI score and see how your system benchmarks against over 1,100 other franchise brands.

Let’s Get Started!

“Thank you for having such a great service that you offer us out here. For those who are bold enough to expose themselves to the anonymous feedback, and I think everybody should, it’s a great thing you guys do.”

Ben Midgely, CEO and Founding Partner, Crunch Fitness