How to inspire franchisees. Start off by rating and awarding them
An umpteen number of franchisors, email us, post on Social Media, question us at franchise trade shows and conferences about how could inspire franchisees. One way in which most franchisors get started is by awarding franchisees. The key to success for any franchise rating system is the defining parameters that help gauge franchisee performance.
A Good Franchise Rating / Award Must Have The Following:
1. Existing Franchisees Review/Gradation: Hire a third party research company and ask them to find out about the current franchisees and their opinions about support, marketing, brand, competitiveness etc to a large extent. Dont forget to sign a strong confidentiality agreement with the research company, you wouldnt want your competition to know more about your strengths and weaknesses.
Definitely, this wouldnt be as easy as it may seem, however this shall help gauge the competitiveness of the franchisees, their current level of involvement as well as what needs to be done to move forward. This is definitely challenging but immensely rewarding / credible analysis as well.
2. Average Return On Investment: Most franchisees get into business, to ensure that it is finally rewarding. These criteria shall help understand, whether the franchisees are able to achieve their financial goals they set, before they signed up.
Nothing excites any entrepreneurs as much as how fast the money is back in their bank.
3. How many franchisees have closed down: To evaluate how strong its network and systems are, every franchisor should try and understand why its franchisees are closing down, the reasons why they do close down shall help filter out the franchisees that are not an ideal fit for the network.
4. Mystery Shoppers: Franchisees can be evaluated ultimately on the basis of the end consumer experience. Hire a mystery shopping company and find out how well are franchisees looking after their customers.
5. Other criteria: Franchisees can also be rated on the amount of sales increase, profitable growth, new stores added by the same franchisee, new customers added.
Organise a simple but motivating event, that rewards performance, encourage franchisees to mingle amongst themselves, this shall ensure that they share best practices. Eventually when you are in your third year, you could institutionalise a system to ensure that the knowledge and idea exchange happens within it.
Happy Franchising
