Young Franchise Brands: Your Franchisees Want Better Tech

In a first-of-its-kind study conducted last year with our friends at Zoracle Profiles, we discovered that franchisees of brands in their earlier stages of growth have a higher unmet demand for technology than those in brands that have been around for decades. If your brand is still working to hit its stride, chances are your franchisees could benefit greatly from some updated, modern systems.

To put it simply, because newer, smaller brands typically don’t have a ton of capital, 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 brands are often faced with a conundrum: Do they invest beyond their means to streamline unit-level and brand growth, or do they stick with inefficient systems until there’s enough capital to spend on better technology?

It’s not an easy question to answer and there might be an inclination to go the more conservative route, but while each individual brand’s finances and needs differ, there is almost always a middle ground: a scalable solution with a low upfront investment that gives current franchisees the automation and integration they need to run their businesses more effectively.

One area where the right technology can be a driving force in franchise profitability is customer satisfaction. By introducing the right platform, you immediately realize several benefits:

• Your entire system now works with the same program, making it easier for you to support them with instruction, best practices, and system-wide benchmarking.
• The franchisees who previously tracked customer satisfaction manually, involving hours of effort and non-standardized results, now get it done faster and smarter, giving them more time for working on the rest of their business while ensuring customer loyalty.
• The franchisees who previously didn’t even attempt to track customer satisfaction because they didn’t see a benefit — and there usually are a few — now have an easy way to understand what their customers are saying and how they compare to other franchisees.
• Your customers now have an opportunity to literally share their feedback directly with you BEFORE it winds up elsewhere on the internet.

When searching for a platform that fits your growing system best, be sure to avoid those that require massive up-front costs, have a steep learning curve, or lack the ability to easily scale as you add franchise owners. Remember: Your franchisees want better technology, but not at the cost of sacrificing other valuable support resources. Find a solution that gives you the affordable, easy insights you need to promote great customer relationships.