This is a very common problem, and one all franchisors face at some point. You’ve been doing everything right, and seen fantastic growth over a number of years, but you can’t help feeling you’re franchise is not reaching its true potential.

There are many challenges that crop up at a certain point of a franchise’s growth. For example:

• A number of franchisees aren’t following the system, or are consistently underperforming for no good reason
• Some are becoming consistent problem makers and you never seem to make any progress with them
• You don’t always hear about problems franchisees are facing in time to help them
• You simply don’t have the time of resources to support everyone as your network gets bigger
• Your franchisees are not paying enough attention to essential comms and improvements, despite being in their best interest
• Have great recruitment leads, but having trouble getting them over the line and are not sure why

This is just a short summary, but do any of these sound familiar? I’m sure you recognise these as symptoms of something not going as well as it should, but it can be very hard to pin down the root causes, especially when you’re so busy doing what you do best: running and growing your business. It can be very frustrating!

So, how can you identify the causes and what can be done about them? Same thing you might do if you weren’t feeling 100% yourself:

Book your franchise in for a health check

Bringing in a third party expert from our Franchise Relationship Management and Support Service (FRM) to take the pulse of your franchise can reveal a lot. This needn’t be an expensive option, either. We’re happy to run a full head-to-toe audit for you, if you want, but we can also just focus on specific issues.

We can look at your support and comms systems, legal framework or just speak to 1 or 2 certain franchisees about what is and isn’t working. With a network of experienced consultants covering the country, we can even mystery-shop some of your branches, just to see if they really are doing what they say they’re doing!

Despite your best intentions, communication is usually the first thing to slip when a network gets to a certain size. It can be even worse if there are certain people in the network you dread hearing from – believe me when I say you’re not the only one if that is the case! However, our experience has shown that even the most challenging of franchisees tend to open up when someone from the outside comes in, and just the act of giving them a platform can cultivate a more positive working relationship.

So, how can you identify the causes and what can be

You might even be suffering from the opposite issue – too much communication of the wrong kind, where it can be difficult to sort the real issues from the noise.

Either way, we can help cut to the heart of the matter.

What happens after the health check

Whether it’s a full audit, or just a spot check, we’ll follow up by giving you a detailed analysis and a breakdown of actionable points. What you decide to do with them is up to you. You can address them yourself, or you can ask one or more of our team to step in and help on a regular or ad hoc basis.

All of our FRM consultants have run their own networks before, and worked with many different franchises, so know exactly the kind of issues franchisors face and how to overcome them in a way which promotes growth and improved performance.

So, why don’t we have a chat about how a health check might work for you? An initial consultation is absolutely free, and you’ll be under no obligation, of course. You’ll just have a chance to learn how you, and your franchise, could benefit.