Building 90% Franchisee Trust With Feedback-Driven Events: Lessons From Caring Senior Service
Caring Senior Service implemented a unique ‘road show’ event to leverage their FBR survey feedback, which led to improved FSI scores every year.
Franchise Business Review’s (FBR) Franchisee Satisfaction Surveys provide the opportunity for franchise brands, like the Caring Senior Service Franchise, to gather third-party data and franchisee feedback and measure results against an overall industry benchmark.
The way that brands use that feedback and the results? That varies across systems.
But the franchise brands standing out and continuing to improve their scores each year are the ones finding creative ways to leverage the feedback and data to create more alignment, solve problems, and communicate transparently.
We spoke with Ian Klaes, Vice President of Caring Senior Service, to learn more about the unique ‘road show’ event that the company has created to leverage their feedback, dive deeper into challenges, and align their company.
Meet the Brand: Caring Senior Service
Started in 1991, Caring Senior Service Franchise is bringing exceptional home care service to a $97 billion industry in the U.S.
After witnessing firsthand just how big a gap existed in the senior care industry, founder Jeff Salter developed the signature Caring Senior Service model that allows more seniors to remain independent and in their homes longer.
The team partnered with FBR to conduct surveys because gathering feedback from franchisees has always been a part of the company culture, and the idea of third-party feedback measured against a benchmark just made sense for finding ways to improve and grow.
“We knew we would benefit from third-party surveys, and that all the information we would gather would benefit the entire system. That has always been the priority,” says Klaes.
The Challenge: Further Improve Franchisee Communication
Although Caring Senior Service has a great company culture that saw some impressive FBR survey results right away, they knew there was an opportunity to improve even further with a creative approach to one of their quarterly events.
How the Franchise ‘Road Show’ Idea Was Born
“We’d been hosting quarterly conferences for our franchise owners for a while, and at one point, we decided to substitute one of those events for a ‘road show,’ where we could focus on gathering even more feedback the month or so after receiving our FBR survey results,” explains Klaes.
The road show event is hosted in two destination locations to allow for more owners to fit the travel into their busy schedules.
“Right from the start, franchisees were excited to participate,” says Klaes. “Not everyone can attend, of course, but overall system attendance has been really strong so far.”
The Caring Senior Service Road Show Structure
The event starts with an in-depth review of the FBR survey results to dig deeper into the feedback. It’s a roundtable structure, so everyone has the chance to be heard and share feedback, even those who aren’t generally as talkative.
One of the most fascinating parts of this event? The focus is on identifying the issues and opportunities instead of jumping into problem-solving.
“We specifically DON’T problem-solve during these events,” shares Klaes, who explains that dedicating the day to an in-depth understanding of the feedback, challenges, and opportunities allows for a really important result: alignment.
Instead of jumping into problem-solving, the road show is designed to get all the franchisees and the leadership team on the same page, with lots of time for follow-up questions and clarifications.
The latter half of the day is spent with a whiteboard, collaborating to rank the top three challenges, pain points, or opportunities for improvement. Klaes shared that often, the same core issues will come up at both event locations, and they can narrow down the top three together.
The final step of the day is to ask, “If you were CEO, what would be YOUR priority for this coming year?” This final question creates a strong sense of ownership for the franchisees and often encourages personal problem-solving or initiative when they return to their business.
Franchisee Satisfaction: How Franchisor Trust Hit 90%
Seeing franchise brands create new, innovative ways to leverage their franchisee feedback to help improve communication and franchisee satisfaction even further is a very special thing.
Ever since implementing this ‘road show’ event, the Caring Senior Service survey results and Franchisee Satisfaction Index (FSI) scores have consistently improved year over year.
Notably, the score for the “Trust the Franchisor” category hit 90% positive responses, which is 19% higher than the overall benchmark. That trust is no doubt built by a wonderful leadership team that continues to create opportunities to align and communicate with the franchise owners.
When asked if Caring Senior Service had any advice for how to leverage franchisee feedback for improved relationships, Klaes says:
“It is vital that the completion of the survey is not the end of your feedback loop. Follow up on that feedback! Give them a call. Send emails. Have conversations in regular meetings and be sure to discuss the feedback at company conferences.”
See the FBR Survey Results
Caring Senior Service continues to rise above the overall industry benchmarks with its impressive FSI scores and franchisee feedback onto the FBR surveys each year. We’re thrilled to see their improvement and even more excited to see how their brand continues to grow and thrive!
Franchisee Satisfaction Results:
- 97% of franchisees enjoy being part of Caring Senior Service.
- 98% are likely to recommend the brand (16% higher than overall benchmark).
- 89% agree there is a strong team culture (20% higher than overall benchmark).
- 90% trust the franchisor (19% higher than the overall benchmark).
- The majority of franchisees agree that senior management involves the franchisees—a 9% YoY increase.
- Franchisees feeling supportive of the brand increased 7% YoY.
- 100% say My fellow franchisees are supportive of each other (10% higher than benchmark).
Interested in getting results like these for your own system? Franchise Business Review helps franchise brands at all phases of growth understand franchisee satisfaction and identify areas to improve. Schedule a free demo today to get started!
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