While customer service is a mainstay within any business - and especially franchising - so is communications. And like customer service, excelling at communications is often nothing more than getting back to the basics. Learn six basic tips for ensuring effective franchisee communications that lead to stronger franchisee relationships.
We're surveying EVERYONE that works in the franchise industry to find out what they think of their job, team, and company. Share your experience with us and help us identify the best places to work in franchising!
We’ve pulled together this list of the top 5 must-have resources for emerging brands, full of the best practices we’ve collected over a decade from franchisors who are growing their brands strategically while maintaining a system of highly satisfied (and profitable) franchisees.
There’s so much to know and learn as a new franchisee – and so much ‘paper work’ coming down from HQ, that franchisees often get lost in a barrage of paper, rather than focusing on the big picture. That can lead to your franchisees unknowingly sabotaging your brand and their customer satisfaction. Nancy Friedman, President of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training, outlines five common phrases that can sabotage a business and how to mitigate them.
We see so many brands that grow quickly but don’t have the operations support in place to sustain it. Join us in Tampa on September 12 for the IFA's Operations Seminar, where top ranking brands in franchisee satisfaction will share techniques and insight on how to achieve grow your brand strategically through operational best practices.
Franchise culture NEEDS to be an operational priority - starting with leadership, but really for everyone in your organization. The challenge is knowing where to start. Join FBR at the IFA Operations Seminar in Tampa this fall to learn the secrets of creating a winning culture from leading franchisors.
We often hear that the data we provide has helped our clients identify key issues among their franchisees, but it can sometimes be difficult to put an operational value on tracking franchisee attitudes. In this webinar, we speak with three franchisors about how moving the needle on satisfaction has also helped them grow their brand, both in same-store sales and new development.
A system with 500 franchisees handles communications very differently than one with 25, but regardless of size, franchisees demand that their voices be heard and respected -- and rightfully so. Still, finding the optimal strategy to solicit feedback, make decisions, and roll out changes while making sure everyone feels represented can be extremely difficult for any brand. Our panelists discuss how a brand of any size can create efficient, open communication channels to keep both franchisor and franchisees happy.
We've often discussed the importance of collecting and analyzing unit-level data to help franchisees improve their profitability and grow their bottom line. This time, we focus specifically on WHY it's important not just to collect the data, but to share it with the entire system. Our panelists discuss what they share, how they overcome franchisee pushback, and what benefits they've seen by making this data available system-wide.
If every franchise brand had a fully integrated, customized, easy to use, modular, cost-effective technology platform for their franchisees, operations would run very smoothly. Unfortunately, the perfect tech options seem too expensive for the brands that need them most and the questions involved with moving from one platform to another can quickly halt a much-needed upgrade. In this webinar, we speak with panelists who can clarify how to make the choice in platforms, when to make the investment, and the most seamless ways to roll out a new system.
Franchisees are motivated by the potential to realize their dreams. Unfortunately, it can become very easy to lose sight of the long-term goals while dealing with the short-term challenges within the business. Working with franchisees to put their vision in writing can help them to stick to it and track their own progress, and helps YOU to make sure their vision stays aligned with the brand's so that both parties are working toward common goals.
More than ever, savvy franchise buyers are honing in on your FDD’s Item 19. After all, it’s the closest they can get to answering the burning question, “How much money can I expect to make?” FBR's President & COO Michelle Rowan shares three need-to-know tips to make your Item 19 accurate and engaging.
Looking at franchisee satisfaction data spanning a recent 18-month period, franchisees of Emerging brands showed a more positive sentiment in several key areas compared to all franchise owners Franchise Business Review surveyed.
Franchise Business Review's data shows that brands with high franchisee satisfaction drastically outperform brands with low satisfaction on every key performance metric. This graphic illustrates the gap between brands in the top quartile of satisfaction and brands in the bottom quartile in annual unit growth, royalty revenue, franchisee turnover, and franchisee income.
Using the data Franchise Business Review has collected from over 1,100 franchise brands, we've identified four warning signs that indicate that your franchisees are unhappy or disengaged - which means your system is at risk. FBR's Michael Kupfer talks about what you need to watch out for.
Nobody likes to waste money, but time and again, we see franchisors making simple mistakes that are costing them. In under three minutes, FBR's President & COO Michelle Rowan shares three ways you could be losing money - without even knowing it. Watch now to find out if your system is at risk and learn how to fix it.
FBR’s CEO, Eric Stites, recently talked with Crunch’s CEO and Founding Partner, Ben Midgeley, about fanchisee-franchisor relationships, being “unamazonable”, and creating a culture of listening.
Nike made a mistake that cost them billions when they lost their endorsement contract with Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry to Under Armour. Don't make the same mistake Nike did when it comes to your franchisees.
Franchisee satisfaction can have a direct impact on your bottom line - but it doesn’t have to cost you a lot. FBR's President and COO, Michelle Rowan, shares five easy tips that don't require a budget to help you boost the growth of your franchise system.
Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp Resorts was named one of Franchise Business Review’s top 200 franchises of 2018. We recently sat down to chat with Jim Westover, VP of Operations, to talk about the franchise’s growth over the past 50 years and how their focus on brand differentiation and franchisee education has been a critical factor in becoming a top choice for franchise buyers.
Dave Mattson, CEO of Sandler Training, explains why Sandler surveys with Franchise Business Review, and shares his thoughts on why franchisees find it valuable as well as how Sandler uses their feedback to make continuous improvements and grow the brand.
Business intelligence is all about using data to make informed decisions for your organization. It applies data analysis to glean actionable insights, identify risks and opportunities, and guide strategic plans. If you’re not collecting franchisee satisfaction data, you’re missing a critical piece of business intelligence. And that means you’re putting your entire system at risk.
It's no secret that franchise owners' performance plateaus over the years. So how do you keep them engaged? FBR's CEO, Eric Stites, shares the most common challenges facing franchisors and tips for re-engaging senior franchisees in this short 5-minute video.
Want to learn how to start building better relationships with your franchisees? In under five minutes, FBR President Michelle Rowan shares two things you can do RIGHT NOW to build trust and start winning over your franchisees.
Successful franchisors make growing their franchise brand look easy, but it rarely is. How do they do it? For a little inspiration, read advice shared by franchisors at leading brands.
The energy behind small, but growing franchise brands is often fueled by the passion, culture, and core values of its founders, staff, and franchisees. As a brand grows, those things tend to get diluted or take a back seat to other priorities. Pulse surveys can help you keep your franchise on track and keep franchisees and corporate staff from disengaging.
Learn how the Golden Corral franchise system more than doubled its franchisee satisfaction survey participation - and lived up to its commitment to giving its operators a voice - by partnering with Franchise Business Review.
Franchise executives from leading brands share how they have successfully incorporated video into their communications with franchisees to boost participation in their annual franchisee satisfaction surveys.
Franchise Business Review asked the franchise industry to nominate the women leading the way in franchising through exceptional leadership, knowledge, and creativity. This special report highlights some of the nominations we received, along with franchisee satisfaction data around women franchisees, resources, and advice from franchisors on building a more profitable system.
When was the last time you did a communications audit? Probably too long ago. Strategic communication is a critical component in your organization's ability to reach and exceed business objectives. And just as you would with other key areas of your organization like operations, marketing, and finance, communication must be reviewed, directed, adjusted, and monitored to ensure the best possible outcomes.
Whether the thought of analyzing data fills you with dread, or you just don’t know where to start, this 30-minute webinar will help even the most data-phobic franchisor understand how to use your data to drive your strategic efforts and start outperforming your competitors.
If you can commit to focusing on one area to work on each month and embedding it into your corporate culture, you may find that a step-by-step approach to change can end up making a big difference. This eBook lay out 12 best practices you can implement over the course of a year to increase satisfaction and improve productivity.
If you can commit to focusing on one area to work on each month and embedding it into your corporate culture, you may find that a step-by-step approach to change can end up making a big difference. This eBook lay out 12 best practices you can implement over the course of a year to increase satisfaction and improve productivity.
Have questions about franchisee satisfaction or how to measure it? Watch these short videos to get answers to the most frequently asked questions about Franchise Business Review’s research.
This 30-minute webinar will show you how to turn poor franchisee satisfaction into an opportunity to positively impact your bottom line and get franchisees excited about their future with the brand.
There is an art to properly running a Franchise Advisory Council. Download this whitepaper from Ingage Consulting to learn how you can maximize the effectiveness of your council.
Learn where the most common franchisee performance gaps exist and five tips for building a network of engaged, highly successful franchisees.
This whitepaper from Ingage Consulting outlines best practices for maximizing franchisee surveys to develop and nurture a highly engaged franchisee organization.
Hear franchise experts share best practices in using surveys.
Grow your brand the right way. Learn what top emerging brands are doing to grow their brands and cash in on franchisee satisfaction--and how you can, too.
Make sure you’re getting the most for your research investment. Ask research firms the right questions and compare them equally to find the best one for your franchise system. This handy checklist will help you track the services offered.
Learn how Donatos partnered with Franchise Business Review to see how how they stacked up against their competitors and make a measurable impact on system performance.
Marco’s Pizza opened 113 stores in 2015, with revenue growth of 23.5% over the previous year. President and Chief Operating Officer, Bryon Stephens, shares some of the strategic revenue boosting approaches the brand has taken.
Effective coaching is a crucial tool for boosting performance. If you want your franchise “team” to take their performance to the next level, these four tips can help you show them how to get there.
When planned and executed properly, these visits can be a valuable link between the corporate office and your franchisees. Learn 10 things your franchise field reps should be doing to make sure everyone involved--franchisees, field reps, and franchise leadership--are getting the most value from field visits.
Franchisors that lead their sectors proactively seek feedback from franchisees, customers, employees and/or candidates because they understand doing so positively impacts their bottom line. Read on to learn a few ways to leverage survey data that you may not have considered.
Listen in to this Boefly webinar to hear FBR President and COO Michelle Rowan and other franchise executives share best practices in franchise surveys.
Franchise brands with strong cultures have extremely high satisfaction and engagement among their franchisees. But cognitive culture is only half the story. Research cited by Harvard Business Review article points out that emotions are central to building the right culture.
We talk with franchise executives day in and day out about how to improve franchisee satisfaction, and the most common [...]
How does Franchise Business Reviews’ staff stays inspired and motivated? Check out our latest list of great reads. CEO Eric Stites recommends Making Idea Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality. According to productivity expert Scott Belsky, no one is born with the ability to drive creative projects to completion. Execution is a skill that must be developed by building your organizational habits and harnessing the support of your colleagues. Read on for more inspiring titles.
Newer, smaller franchise brands typically don’t have a ton of capital, so investment in powerful software platforms can be extremely difficult to finance. At the same time, steady, sustainable growth of the brand depends on franchisees being successful and validating well for interested candidates. So do you invest beyond your means to streamline unit-level and brand growth, or do you stick with inefficient systems until there’s enough capital to spend on better technology?
As a franchisor, it can be especially difficult to maintain the highest level of customer service at all your locations since your franchisees have a great deal of autonomy. Here are five key things you can do to protect your brand.
Depending on a particular brand’s needs, “free” can actually carry a much, much larger cost than one of the price-tagged alternatives.
As local business owners, your franchisees are often buried in the day-to-day details of running their businesses—hiring, payroll, sales, customer service—meaning they typically have time to pay attention to customer satisfaction. Make it easy for them by providing them with customer satisfaction data that relates specifically to their location.
http://vimeo.com/135080066 The data provided by Franchise Business Review gives franchisors a wealth of insights that help them grow their [...]
In June 2015, over 100 franchisors learned how to run their brand more successfully via Franchise Business Review’s 2015 Ops Webinar Series. They benefitted from the insight of 15 respected franchise industry leaders who shared their experiences, expertise, and favorite resources during five online sessions. Throughout the series, one idea kept that regardless of the session topic was...
If McDonald’s current relationship with its franchisees is not enough for you to invest in understanding what the majority of your franchisees are happy with and what they are not pleased with, consider the many system-strengthening benefits satisfied franchisees deliver.
A few years ago, our company made a decision to conduct our own in-house Franchise Partner Survey. The rationale was [...]
Having a strong culture of transparency is critical for the long-term success of your franchisees and your system as a whole. Franchisees can easily get distracted as their business grows, which will ultimately stall their growth. Being 100 percent transparent as an organization will keep you and your franchisees laser-focused on things that really matter.
Franchise Business Review founder and CEO Eric Stites offers one simple idea to get franchisees engaged, productive, and profitable.
Register now for Franchise Business Review's 2015 Franchisee Satisfaction Awards, part of a national project that looks at franchisee satisfaction among the country’s most popular franchise brands.
No matter how “good” your system is, there’s a little bit of dummy in every organization. If any of these sound like someone you know, now is the time to address it – they could be holding you back from being truly GREAT.
A common complaint from franchisees is that their franchisor doesn’t listen, the corporate office is out of touch, and they don’t feel part of the larger brand. There are a lot of big picture things you can do to change this, but there’s also one seemingly small thing that can make all the difference: A handwritten note.
There’s no doubt we’ve all worked with a complainer or two—that person who spends all his time griping about a situation rather than doing something to improve it. Complainers may hurt your brand in more ways than you know.
We hear it time and time again: Franchisees learn better from each other. So, when a franchisor has a best practice to share, an improvement to make, or a new process to implement, they get better results when the news is delivered by franchisees.
Being a runner from Boston, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I’d have done if I’d been crossing the finish line at 2:50 p.m. on 4/15/13.
The passion of Jimmy Liautuad is palpable. He’s got a big personality, and as he shared at Franchise Time’s Finance and Growth Conference in March, he’s had a great ride as CEO of Jimmy John’s Gourmet Subs—a brand he started back in 1983. But it hasn’t all been roses.
Our team spent most of last week in New Orleans at the IFA Convention, so I asked them to dig out from their beads and give me the best tip they took away from being there. Just like the conference itself, there’s something for everyone in their responses.
Local efforts can have a big impact on a franchise system as a whole, including its unit profitability, storewide sales, and overall brand growth. If you’re not already, you may want to consider what (or who) is actually driving your local efforts.
It’s no secret that the Item 19 is a hot-button issue in franchising. While the majority of experts vote in favor of it, there are still many who argue that an Item 19 is not absolutely necessary. Who's right?
The best conference tip I’ve ever gotten was from Susan Black-Beth at the IFA Leadership Luncheon in February. I always walk away from conferences with a few (soon-to-be-forgotten) great ideas, but Susan’s hit home and I’ve been thinking about it—and working on it—ever since.
If by some unlikely twist of fate, you were instantly transplanted from the home office to ownership of your own franchise unit, how would you feel about the direction of the company? What thoughts would be crossing your mind as you read the latest memo from the executives? Would you trust you?
Social media is a funny thing. In the business world – and perhaps more so in the franchising world – [...]
A few months ago, I wrote about complainers and their negative effect on a franchise brand. Since then, I’ve been [...]
Catherine Monson and Mark Jameson of FASTSIGNS discuss the benefits of surveying franchisees with a third party. Did you use [...]
MOOYAH CEO Alan Hixon discusses his franchisee satisfaction survey and the importance of treating franchisees like customers. Did you use [...]
Eric Stites (our fearless CEO) moderated a franchisee panel at the Faegre event earlier this month and it seemed to [...]
It’s no secret that good franchisee relations lead to franchisee satisfaction, which leads to generally strong businesses. Satisfied and engaged [...]
