Bringing More Bounce to Your Franchising Culture

FRI's Founder, Greg Nathan, gave away three hopper balls (courtesy of Franchise New Zealand Media) to Samantha Pollock, Amber Manning and Darryl King for their contributions to his interactive keynote at the recent Franchise Association of New Zealand (FANZ) Conference. The session was filled with practical tips for creating a positive, high-performance culture, including these five strategies.

#1: Help franchisees to maintain a sense of achievement

Remind them of the progress that has been made while acknowledging relevant challenges and difficulties. Also, maintain clarity on the group's goals and direction, and show what you are doing to help protect franchisee profit margins.

#2: Help them manage their stress and achieve a balanced lifestyle Stress and hard work are inevitable when building a business. However, franchisors can support franchisees with staffing issues and help them to work more ON their businesses through delegation and the creation of good systems. Also, round tables that enable them to discuss how to cope with the pressures of the business are useful.

#3: Instill confidence in your leadership

Be fair and trustworthy in your dealings (see section above for what to avoid), and communicate you care about them and their success. Also, seek their feedback, demonstrate you are listening by giving them feedback on their feedback, and make sound, evidence-based decisions.

#4: Connect franchisees with the brand and culture

Instil pride by reminding everyone of the positive difference your products and services make to customers and the community. Also, educate franchisees constantly about what you want your brand reputation to be, and provide opportunities for them to connect with each other.

#5: Ensure they feel appreciated, informed and respected

Coordinate communication from Support Office so it is brief and clear, and conduct short interactive bi-monthly CEO updates. Also ensure mature franchisees are receiving adequate recognition, and maximise the number of franchisee awards that reinforce what's important to your culture.

By the way, we can assist you to measure and improve in these and other important areas through our ACE Franchisee Satisfaction Survey, widely regarded as the gold standard in franchisee satisfaction surveys.