Top Franchise Advice: 3 Factors You Need to Know for Success
Anyone who has been involved with the franchise industry for more than a few years can tell you the honest truth: every franchise brand has its share of failures. While many adults see the financial rewards and wealth that franchise systems can provide, the reality is that not everyone will be a success, even with the most mature and proven franchise brands.
- Customer Satisfaction: If you clients or customers wouldn’t tell their friends about a great experience with your business that’s a problem. And if those customers would never return to your business, that’s an even bigger problem that demands your constant attention.
- Employee Satisfaction: While nearly all businesses in 2023 will face challenges with hiring, training and retaining staff, true operators are constantly seeking out new talent and doing their very best to keep their best employees truly happy.
- Community Involvement: We’ve seen our fair share of franchisees who run the systems by the book, but then stand back and wait for the business to come to them. They aren’t involved with charity fundraisers, sponsoring youth sports teams, attending networking events or participating with their local chamber of commerce.
New Franchise Success: A Hard Lesson Learned
Way back in the 1990s, we determined that most of our franchisees were getting sidetracked from these few priorities by an almost daily barrage of media representatives. Back then, business owners could be solicited by local radio stations, yellow page reps, billboard companies, direct mail coupons, newspapers, etc. They would walk in, ask for the owner or manager, and then launch into a pitch about how much more money your business could be making if you were only advertising with us.
As a franchisor, our solution was a bit bold: we established an advertising placement agency just for our franchisees. No longer would our franchisees need to engage with these countless local ad reps; they could simply say, “We have an advertising services group that handles these types of buys and helps us determine the best media options for our marketing dollars.”
Persistent reps would then receive the name and contact details for this outside agency and encounter a well-trained staff that frequently knew more about local markets than the reps themselves.This new venture worked like a charm for many years, but there was a problem lurking.
The cost to run this placement agency and pay the staff that helped our franchisees advertise better than they had before was absorbed by the products our franchisees also purchased from the franchisor. Before long, franchisees were wondering why prices for our exclusive products were always higher than real market prices, which obviously didn’t include these advertising services.
The Bottom Line: Top Franchise Solutions
Ultimately, following an expensive class-action lawsuit by the franchisees, the ad placement agency was dissolved. Even though our franchisees liked the extra help and the better return on their advertising dollars, it was a big mistake to tie this service directly to the franchisor. These placement services should have been provided by a third-party vendor with marketing funds collected by the franchisor but paid by the franchisees.
What are the common business tasks that are sapping the time and energy from your franchisees? What can be done to give them more time to focus on their business priorities and more time with their family and friends? And if you see an area where all franchisees need help, can you hire an outside agency or firm to help resolve that for your entire organization?
When it comes to business bookkeeping, franchise accounting, and payroll tasks, Top 2 Bottom can provide the third-party solution your brand needs now. Contact us today to learn about our F.A.S.T. program (Franchise Accounting Systems & Training).