The 5 F's of Franchising | Fantastic Reputation

'It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently' Warren Buffett

Like every other business, a franchise heavily relies on sales and generating new customers. In modern times a buying decision is influenced by a number of factors, one of which, and possibly the most important, being reputation. Studies show that potential buyers are happy to pay a premium price if they know that the service/ product they are buying is of high value and quality. Furthermore, under equal conditions such as cost and availability, often their decision for purchase is swayed by the reputation of the brand, or in other words, what customers say about you. It is highly unrealistic to expect your franchise to grow in revenue and locations if its reputation is poor.

It is a common misconception in business that if it delivers a good service its reputation will be good too, even if it is not paid attention to. While this is partially correct, leaving your quality score in the hands of your clients or franchisees, without at least monitoring it, is not a great idea. For the sake of the example, think about the last time you ran a Google search on your brand and checked what customer reviews you find about your business. When was that? Think platforms like Feefo, Trustpilot, Facebook, Google My Business and so forth. Do you see any patterns? Are some franchisees performing better than others? What is your average rating, how many stars? If the answer is under 4.5 then you should definitely reconsider the reputation management strategy adopted by your franchise.

Studies show that a client is 10 times more likely to complain and leave a negative review for your business than a client who is happy with your service. The same studies suggest that 1 negative review can cost you as many as 20 potential leads, in other words, that means that 20 people that looked you up and were to contact you will not do so because of seeing the negative review. Looking at it in this way really puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? Why would you be spending money on marketing only for people to see negative online reputation and never convert into leads or inquiries? Ensuring your franchise has an impeccable online reputation is only the first step in the process, but it is a fundamental one for achieving franchise success.

You are now probably panicking and wondering what to do with a number of negative reviews that your franchisees have generated throughout the web? Improving your franchise online reputation will take time, positive change does not happen overnight. The good news is that you can influence that process heavily- there are ways to encourage clients to review your franchisees and leave positive comments that will eventually increase the overall reputation score of the business. This can be done through sending automated emails requesting customers to review your services and encouraging them to do so through organising raffles and give-aways. Another way is to ask your franchisees to leave a flyer or a business cards with the client asking for a review, or even potentially hiring an agency to manage your online reputation, if that is too much of a burden. The options are limitless but delaying it is equal to letting your boat float without steering it's and somehow hoping it will reach the desired destination.

'Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning' Bill Gates

Another thing to consider is perhaps listening to your customers and what they are saying, as Bill Gates has put it ‘Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning'. Perhaps you can spot some repetitive complaints or suggestions and those should be your points of action. Positive outcome can be achieved by making incremental changes to the business and its operations over time. This reminds me of the times when I used to own as many as 12 oven cleaning franchise units. Business was going incredibly well but occasionally we’d get a negative review or two that a technician has not cleaned after themselves or left grease marks on the kitchen floor or that clients were not completely satisfied with the level of cleanliness of their appliance, and because of that they’d rate us with 3 or 4 stars rather than the maximum. This was simply not good enough as our overall quality score was being impacted and all I wanted to do is deliver a 5-star service without exceptions. It took me a while to solve this one, as I kept wondering what we can do better. I took some time to read all the reviews we had online, I even visited a few of the jobs with the technicians to observe the process, and then the idea was born! It was so simple! All we had to do was to introduce special protective sheets that the technicians would lay in front of the oven to protect the floor while working. Not only that, but we came up with Customer Inspection Forms that we printed out, and later on even integrated in our CRM system. Every technician would ask the client to inspect their work at the end of the service and sign the form confirming they are satisfied. We would then ask them to review us by following a link in an email that they would receive as a follow-up. That dramatically reduced not only our complaint rate, but also increased the number of 5-star reviews we received, as well as our overall rating. The technicians were also very happy as they’d get tipped for the great customer service, it was an absolute win-win!

It really is not as hard as it sounds like! Spending some thinking time and building a process or two is all it takes, and you do this once but the business benefits continuously. Your franchisees should also be sold on the idea, the better their reputation is, the higher their conversion and revenue! And it does not cost much to organize, apart from a couple of automated emails and someone in charge of responding to reviews online. If you want to go one step further, you could introduce a Fantastic Reputation Award and have a franchisee win the award every quarter to further stimulate them to perform well.

Prioritising your franchise reputation will add value to your entire network- increase conversion and revenue, decrease marketing spend, franchisees will thrive and so will you, and most importantly, reassure potential franchise buyers to invest in your business.

Not sure where to start or where you stand? Contact Local Fame today for a no-obligation chat. We will be more than happy to evaluate your current reviews score and draw up a custom plan on how to improve it. You could also take advantage of our dedicated online reputation management service.