Every franchisor worth their salt understands that the success of their network to a large extent depends on how dedicated and skilled their franchisees are.
It’s why they look for ways and means to ensure that they have a consistent connect with all the franchisees in their network and have their finger on the pulse of their businesses.
This helps them pick up on problems early and identify signs of trouble before they escalate and get out of hand. In addition to this, they also make every effort to ensure they generate maximum engagements from their franchises. Here are some useful insights on how to generate maximum engagement from your franchisees and create an atmosphere where your franchisees feel they are more in sync with the franchise and so perform better.
It’s necessary that you provide your franchisees all the necessary equipment that will help them run their business smoothly and efficiently. In addition to franchisee training and ongoing support, you also need to provide them effective marketing tools they can use when needed.
Franchisors generally provide comprehensive technical training on how the daily operations have to be run; but you should never overlook training in how the marketing tools should be used. You also have the option to provide training for new franchisees to confidently design & implement marketing tools that they have developed themselves.
Before kick-starting any new marketing campaign, give your franchisees the opportunity to also add their ideas and inputs into the tactics and strategies to be used. There may be franchisees in your network that are a treasure-house of frontline customer knowledge and operational experience. This can prove to be invaluable market research avenue if used appropriately.
If you have some experienced franchisees in your network, you should also consider getting them to test any new marketing campaigns you plan to introduce before extensive release; this gives the franchisees a feeling of being an important part of the franchise mechanism and they will be inclined to perform better.
It’s often noticed that marketing managers rarely ever speak in terms that the franchisees understand. It’s also why when new marketing campaigns are being launched; managers may meet with a very tepid response. The one way to keep franchisees interested in any new marketing launches you are planning is to explain to them how they benefit from it; in terms of how it can help them increase sales and up their average transaction values, which of course translates into overall profits. When your franchisees are able to clearly see the benefits, they will be more inclined to pay attention and put in the effort to implement these strategies.
The one thing to keep in view here is that you need to thoroughly test a marketing campaign and be sure of its efficacy before launching it. Franchisees won’t shy from holding marketing managers accountable in case the results of the campaign fall short of their expectations.
Make it a point to provide tangible incentives for franchisee participation such as bonus stock, co-contributions from you, reduced royalties once the turnover thresholds have been passed etc.
If you want to know more about setting up a franchise business or want some advice on franchising, feel free to get in touch with us at The Franchise Institute. You can call us on 1300 855 435 or fill in this contact us form and we’ll reply as soon as we can.
Thanks for reading,
The Franchise Institute Team
1300 855 435
