Keeping Franchisees Happy – the Secret for a Successful Franchise Business

Every successful franchise business stands on a successful relation between the franchisor and the franchisees. This relationship is largely dependant on the way the franchisor has set their business but it is also relies on the communication between the parties involved.

Positive and constructive communication is one of the fundamentals for any business partnership. Unfortunately in many occasions franchisors and franchisees alike fail to keep a nice and fruitful communication channels. After this happens it is a matter of time when problems will start to arise. Strangely enough, a large amount of arguments and difficulties may be easily predicted and overcomes before they have even happened. All thanks to communication.

How to overcome this, at a first glance, easy challenge? The best way to overcome them is by seeking the roots of the problems. Here are some tips that may help you.

Franchise – franchisee relationship communication.

• Do not let yourself down the slippery road. Many franchise owners fail to notice problems until it is too late. And even than, they fail to recognize the real reason for the troubles they are experiencing with a certain franchisee. The first call to action is to get in touch with their legal advisor and look at the franchise agreement about ways to terminate the contract. And let’s face it – this is not a positive turn around for neither of the sides involved in the process.

• Step into your franchisees shoes. Many of the misunderstandings arising between franchisors and franchisees are actually “provoked” by franchisors themselves. A common reasons for conflicts is when the franchisee thinks the franchisor should do something but the franchisor doesn’t The actual “doing” may be just about anything – from increasing advertising to reducing the royalties on some products. Whatever the case you, as a franchisor should be proactive. Keep the communication line open, detect problems early note and real. It doesn’t mean you need to agree with everything your franchisees want, but at least you will be able to address the issues early enough and settle one way or another.

• Money troubles. Definitely the most frequent arguments between franchisees and franchisors are related to money. When a franchisee doesn’t seem to take off to start making money or when a franchisee stops to be profitable, franchisors simply pick up the phone and call their layers. Of course it would be quite unpopular decision to keep an unprofitable franchisee however you may want to look for the reasons why this is happening. Better yet, you may want to be able to detect that money problems are raising on the horizon for any of your franchisees. Saving a franchise unit, after all, means more profits for you.

• The flat line. There are cases when, whatever you do, no matter how proactive you were or how good the communication was between your franchisee and you, the business relationship has to come to an end. Make sure you are able to recognize these cases and close the unit down with minimum drama.