3 Must-Have Ingredients for Franchisee Engagement: Part 2, Expectations and Goal-Setting

Find part 1, “Communication and Creating a Community,” here.

It’s no secret that high-impact franchisee engagement is essential to a franchisor’s success. Franchisors who take the time to set clear expectations and goals for their franchisees are likely to see better results than those who do not. In part 2 of this 3-part series, we cover some tips for creating an effective engagement program by setting appropriate expectations and goals.

Setting expectations and goals is an important part of the engagement process. Franchisees must be aware of what is expected of them, as well as what they can expect in terms of franchisor support. For goals to be effective, they must be achievable and actionable. Strategic KPIs can be used to help create goal-oriented franchisees who are focused on growth and profitability. However, it’s important to note that these KPIs should be relevant only to the franchisee’s business, not the franchisor’s overall business goals. This helps keep the focus on what is important for each individual business, rather than having a one-size-fits-all approach to goal-setting.

The goal-setting process should be ongoing, with both franchisor and franchisees revisiting goals on a regular basis. This allows for course corrections to be made as needed, and ensures that everyone is always working toward the same goal. Creating a well-engaged franchisee base is key to the success of any franchising system. By setting expectations and goals appropriately, franchisors can help ensure that their franchisees are invested in the success of their businesses.

When creating goals, it’s important to make sure they are achievable and actionable. This means they must be both realistic and specific enough to be accomplished with a defined set of actions. A “Franchisee Operational Scorecard” is an innovative new way to measure and evaluate your business. It takes the dashboard one step closer toward sophistication by balancing important indicators with specific indicators that will help you succeed as a company and that will help franchisees achieve a proper return on their investment.

By using this scorecard, franchisees will now be able to track performance across all channels and have access to the data that matters most to them, taking the guesswork out of their marketing efforts. This creates more engaged franchisees who are working together with the franchisor instead of just being monitored by it!

Technology can play a big role in helping franchisors to better measure the success of their open franchisee units. There are a number of ways that technology can help franchisors to track KPIs, including:

• Tracking sales data and comparing it with the goals set for the franchisee unit
• Tracking customer satisfaction ratings and comparing them with the goals set for the franchisee unit
• Tracking employee satisfaction ratings and comparing them with the goals set for the franchisee unit
• Tracking social media engagement and comparing it with the goals set for the franchisee unit

By tracking KPIs this way, franchisors can get a better understanding of how well their franchisees are performing and make changes as needed to improve the success of each unit.

This is a valuable tool for helping to ensure that all franchisees are meeting the standards set by the franchisor, and that the brand is being properly represented. It also allows franchisors to identify which franchisees might need additional support to be more successful. In short, using technology to track KPIs can help franchisors build a more successful franchise system and, ultimately, streamline their monitoring.

Next time: Ingredient #3: Coaching franchisees to success.

This article first appeared on FranConnect’s website and is used here with permission. For more, visit their website.