Callum Floyd is a Franchising & Licensing Expert

Customer satisfaction is critical for business and franchise networks. The importance and logic could not be more clearly stated than by the late Sam Walton, founder of Walmart: There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else. …

Today technology is such a vital and important area with the power to inform, innovate, improve, power or even disrupt a business – the latter for which those previously involved in video rental, book retail and photo development businesses would attest. Consider the following technology areas as examples: Accounting, E-Commerce, POS, Analytics, CRM, Apps, Benchmarking, …

Great franchisors need to demonstrate a number of important characteristics as part of their leadership. We believe sound strategic thinking is one such critical leadership characteristic – and that franchisors should strive to provide franchisees with confidence in this area. While one could argue strategy and change (given today’s dynamic environment) have never been more …

A periodic review of a franchise system’s economic model is important – to ensure it is optimal, for both franchisor and franchisees alike, for the future. Examples of key fee areas or sources of revenue under consideration should include: Decisions on fees and how they are calculated are important as they impact franchisor and franchisee …

This best practice speaks to the importance of establishing and managing a regular performance monitoring and review cycle. Management thinker Peter Druker famously said “If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Improve It.” What he was understood to mean is that you can’t know whether or not you are successful unless success is defined and …

Franchising is a long-term business strategy, from the franchisor and franchisee perspective. Both parties are bound by a long-term contractual agreement, meaning early decisions on the nature of the franchise structure have long-term consequences. For some companies assessing franchising properly in the first place means they don’t franchise at all. For others that do franchise, …

Franchise systems are complex organisations where active action planning throughout is much needed, and for many reasons. Not least, franchisors and franchisees have obligations and performance standards relating to one another – that need to be met. Franchise systems are the perfect environment where there is a need to get a whole lot of stuff …

Franchisor staff presentations, play an important role in achieving conference and important other objectives – like respect for franchisor leadership. And the better the staff presentation skills, the more likely those objectives will be met. Using conferences as a case in point, we note the importance of franchisor staff presenting well. We have been involved …

Franchise company approaches to benchmarking varies. At the lesser end of the spectrum, franchisors may benchmark a little; for example, only high-level sales results. At the greater end, by contrast, franchisors may benchmark a lot; such as, sales and sales composition, labour, gross profit and expenses, and a wide range of productivity and/or non-financial (e.g., …

Many people think of franchise systems as marketing machines. Yet not all companies have a clear brand positioning strategy. As a consequence, some struggle to gain franchisee engagement and confidence in both brand and marketing execution. Issues often manifest in group marketing fund discussions where, to franchisees, decisions maybe questioned, planning appears short-term, and reporting …

As a franchisor you should be a member of your local franchise association, for the benefit of your franchisees, the franchising business model and, as a by-product, the long-term value and sustainability of your own business. Joining your country’s franchise association is especially important in self- regulated countries like New Zealand, where (among other functions) …