A franchisor seeks out franchisees to increase market share. A franchisee wants to participate in the economic growth and learn from industry leaders. The two work harmoniously together to achieve a mutual goal of generating revenue. Match made in heaven!
Seems simple enough, right? Wrong. The relationship between the two is far more complex and must be continually nurtured to ensure both parties gain from working together. Franchisors and franchisees must understand and appreciate the other’s role in the partnership, acknowledge codependency, and strike a balance between independence and synergistic cooperation. Easier said than done.
To create a stronger, more sustainable relationship, franchisors and franchisees should continually ask themselves What have I done for them lately? and ask each other What have you done for me lately? Once processes and solutions are in place to provide answers to these questions, the two parties can start to meet each other’s expectations quickly and efficiently. Here are some tips on creating sweet franchise music together:
Track Everything
When the franchisor wants to improve operations at one or several locations, he or she must collect appropriate data at the national and local levels to determine what marketing strategies work and which fail. When launching a new campaign, there should be tracking processes in place to monitor lead generation and accurately source new business to specific marketing tactics and dollars spent.When marketing automation and analytics solutions such as call tracking are adopted, franchisors can measure the impact and efficacy of national and local marketing at a variety of levels. This data will provide key insight to help optimize the campaigns and increase the value of marketing dollars spent.
With tracking technologies, franchisors enjoy more profitable marketing efforts that increase the value of the franchise as a whole, while managing multiple channels simultaneously. Franchisees benefit locally from national marketing best practices and dollars that are properly allocated. The data supports both parties by enabling clearer, more effective campaigns at national and local levels.
Geolocation
Franchisors and franchisees both understand the importance of engaging a local market. Franchisors must make sure all franchisees are performing well, and make adjustments for locations with low revenues. Marketing solutions should be adopted to effectively collect new leads and direct them to appropriate franchisees based on location.
Furthermore, lead generation and other conversion metrics should be monitored per location to identify where marketing strategies need adjustments.Technologies that enable phone or other leads to locate a franchise location nearby accelerate a prospect’s journey through the sales cycle. Marketing technologies like a store locator can direct a phone call, for example, to the closest franchise location to the caller while providing alternative locales to empower the customer and increase convenience. A franchisor can ensure leads are funneled to the right franchise while franchisees benefit from stronger, higher-quality prospects.
Lead Management
Sending a phone call to the right franchise is only one component of effective lead delivery. Franchisors should also have a virtual call center in place that gathers all leads coming in at the national level, scores the quality of the lead, and checks in on franchisee customer service performance. All from the same platform? You bet!Utilizing multi-criteria measurement and reporting technologies, franchisors can collect information from each lead and determine how best to service questions or concerns. The more information gathered on the lead, the easier it is for franchisees to provide satisfactory service and close a sale. Low quality leads can be easily filtered out of the system, allowing for franchisees to spend time and resources on customers with the highest potential for purchase.
In addition, technologies that help franchisors monitor franchisee activity and conversion performance will help heighten standards and expectations nationally and locally. If the franchisor starts monitoring calls, for example, the customer service practices of franchisees can be tested.
Franchisors can record calls for training or quality assurance, and implement changes when performance starts to slip at specific locations. Franchisees can benefit from more accurate training tools to accelerate the launch process. When a franchisee is found to be outperform the rest, franchisors can reward them as well!
Robust Reporting
The leads have been tracked, campaigns have been monitored, management has been optimized now what? The data collected throughout the sales cycle and marketing campaigns offers a plethora of key insights for current and future initiatives. When marketing data is integrated with other technologies, such as CRMs or Google Analytics, information can be compared, trends can be identified, and data-driven strategies can be implemented in real-time.
When managing multiple locations, franchisors must have accurate, timely calculations on return on marketing investment and sales conversions. With multi-criteria measurement, reporting, and integration tools, franchisors can determine the value of advertisements and initiatives. They can manage marketing more effectively moving forward to increase revenue while reducing spend. Franchisees also benefit from optimized local marketing and sales efforts derived from statistical analysis. When national campaigns prove strong and profitable, franchisees can implement the tactics to scale at the local level.
With the adoption of marketing strategies and solutions, franchisors and franchisees can create more effective relationships as well as expand operations and attract other franchisees. Marketing automation and analytics technologies simplify the measurement, management, and reporting processes that support data-driven strategies and accurate ROI findings. Translating the numbers into actionable insight at the national and local levels enhance franchise performance while strengthening franchisor and franchisee relationships. What more could you ask for?
To get more insight into voice-based marketing automation solutions that help close ROI gaps, check out our Tracking Phone Leads: The Missing Piece of Marketing Automation white paper.