Monday, January 25, 2010

Welcome to the FranchiseFacts Blog!

Having spent ten years operating a franchised business, I’ve had first hand experience dealing with the day to day challenges of working with a franchisor that has some level of control over how my local business operates.  It has been my experience that most conflicts between franchisee and franchisor can be explained by a breakdown in communication.  Both parties often speak a slightly different language, have different measures of success and conflicting priorities.

One of the businesses I most admire is JD Power.  This business was based on a single individual’s belief that customer satisfaction is THE most important criteria for success.  Understanding what motivates the customer, and then finding ways to best service them is the key to success.  He convinced one auto company to work with him to measure customer satisfaction levels and used this information to increase the overall profitability of his client (Toyota.)  This approach was then adopted by the entire auto industry and has since spread to many different industries.

The impetus for FranchiseFacts was the problem outlined in paragraph one.  The JD Power business model was utilized to develop a solution.  Franchising is unique in that the customer to a franchisor is the franchisee rather than the ultimate consumer.  This adds a level of complexity and confusion that prevented the JD Powers business model from being embraced within the franchising community.

After two years of planning, we believe we have developed a model for measuring franchisee satisfaction throughout the entire franchise industry.  This is significant if it can help both franchisees and franchisors to operate more effectively and increase overall profits through cost reduction AND revenue generation.  Given the size of the franchising industry, our goal is to help a very large number of individuals and businesses.  At over $600 B, franchising is larger than the automobile, computer, truck and airplane industries COMBINED. And it employs as many people as these industries COMBINED.  An estimated 75% of all franchises are owner operated (the remainder being corporate owned.)

Our slogan, Capturing the franchise experience, describes our purpose.  Through our surveys we have begun gathering information from franchise owners and store managers.  This information will be used to convey franchisee satisfaction levels throughout the franchise community.  More about the importance of measuring satisfaction levels will appear in my next posting.

FranchiseFacts can only succeed with your help.  We can report results to the community but we need Franchise Owners and Store Mangers to step up and participate in the surveys we post.  Only by working together can we all benefit.  So I encourage everyone to dedicate 20 minutes (at most) to participating in the survey at www.FranchiseFactsUSA.com. All survey participants will have the option of receiving survey results directly via e-mail. 

This blog will share select insights from our surveys as appropriate, with more detailed results being provided to those who have participated in the survey. 

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Next posting: What exactly is a franchise?
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Perry Shoom, FranchiseFacts
Capturing the franchise experience!

Franchisee Survey in progress at www.FranchiseFactsUSA.com
If you are a franchise owner or store manager, please participate!

e-mail: FranchiseFacts1@gmail.com