How to Deal with Difficult Franchisees

As a franchisor you will inevitably come across some difficult franchisees over the course of your business career. Having a strong relationship with your franchisee network is essential in running an effective franchise. A lot of the root causes for a franchisee to become difficult can be solved by having the right management and recruitment process in place at the beginning. If you however, already have a difficult franchisee then they’re several resolution activities you should try.

Don’t Step on Their Toes

Sometimes we hear about franchisees that are incredibly difficult, that just won’t do what you tell them to do, but is this them being difficult, or you as a franchisor over stepping your role? To answer this question, think about this, why do most franchisees want to start their own franchise? Most will answer that they want to run their own business or be their own boss. If you as a franchisor are constantly telling them what to do, this will be the exact opposite of why they chose franchising.

As a franchisor, you are there to guide, offer support and provide advice. If you are telling them how to run their business, then you are stepping into their role. It’s their job to run their business and if you try to do this, you will most definitely cause dissent. Having clearly defined roles and responsibilities will ensure each know what their responsibility is in terms of the franchisor to franchisee relationship. Then you must trust that they will run the business successfully, after all, this is why you chose them to join your franchise. The most important aspect to remember is that franchisees are not your employees, they are your business partners which also want growth and prosperity.

Inequality Amongst Franchisees

A difficult franchisee may emerge due to feeling like they have been treated unfairly. Whether it is true or not, you have a problem that you need to solve. Common topics that occur during inequality discussions among franchises are around discounts for payments, better/larger territories and personal issues causing the need for flexibility.

To solve this first identify if you have been treating or favouring some franchisees over others, if yes, whether it was intentional or not, you must stop. This won’t instantly solve the issue as the left-out franchisees might still feel like they’ve missed out. what you need to do is communicate to everyone what you are going to do to ensure it doesn’t happen again and resolve any inequality that has already happened.

If you have been treating franchisees equally, then there are one of two potential problems. One is that the franchisees haven’t been communicated to effectively. If they misunderstand why you are doing something for one over the other, it may cause them to believe it was because you favour them. This is simply a communication issue which you can solve by explaining the reason for your actions. The other potential problem is that the franchisee is being difficult because they are looking for an excuse. This often occurs when they aren’t performing as expected and are looking to shift the blame. When this happens, you should try to help with their franchise unit to get things back on track, as after all that’s the most important aspect for both parties and doing this will quickly get this kind of behaviour to stop.

Personal Touch

Some times issues can arise because the lack of personal touch in your relationship. As mentioned above, franchisees are your business partners, if you consistently miss their calls, only reply via email and never ask for their opinions, they won’t feel respected.

A personal touch can solve a lot of the issues we hear by simply connecting with them in person, listening to their issues and offering advice. More often than not, there’s a lack of communicational avenues for a franchisee to a franchisor. It’s important that a franchisor can communicate to their franchisees, but this should be a two-way communication. Make it part of your day to call any franchisee that you haven’t spoke to in a while and always try to answer your phone or at least reply with a phone call. If you do this, even though it seems way to simple, it will incite communication and feedback, creating an avenue to solve problems a franchisee has, thus resolving their difficulty.

Organisational Structure

Depending on the size of your franchise, you need to have certain structures set up to effectively manage your franchise network. If you haven’t got the organisational structures in place, you run the risk of creating difficult franchisees. Half of the work for dealing with difficult franchisees is prevention in the first place and an organisational structure is vital for this.

One such structure is your support lines, having a clear and effective support structure will mean your franchisees will get the help they need. This will either solve the issue they have, meaning they don’t resent you for not helping, or it prevents the issue entirely and it doesn’t create a performance failure which they then blame onto you.

If your franchise network is to large for you to directly answer all franchisee calls it could create dissent through you accidentally ignoring them. If you appoint a communication manager to be the direct point of contact for all franchisees it will stop the dissent. You should also implement a technology structure, so every franchisee communicates in the same way, which can be tracked. This ensures that the communication isn’t lost and if a dispute arises, you can revert to a previous communication to provide evidence to assist the dispute.

Ultimately, it’s Down to You

Even though the heading may suggest that its all the franchisors fault, this isn’t the point, what it means is that, as a franchisor you can effectively manage your network to resolve or prevent at least 95% of all difficulties. Whether or not the franchisee is right or wrong, doesn’t matter in terms of what you both want to achieve, which is the success of that franchise unit. This is the most important point to remember, the ultimate goal is to have a successful franchise, to do that you need successful franchisees and you have the ability to directly influence this.

The last and common issue we shall be covering is how to implement change. This may not sound like an issue, but change is something that is often a catalyst that drives franchisees to become difficult. Franchisees may think they are doing great and don’t want change or don’t think that the change is a good idea. Both of these points can be overcome before any difficulties arise through an effective change procedure.

Firstly, test and demonstrate that the change works as you should lead by example and if you wouldn’t do it, why should they? Secondly, you need to be effective in your communication as to why you are implementing the change. Your idea has a purpose which should directly improve every franchise unit. What you need to do is communicate this purpose to every franchisee, get them to understand and believe in your idea but also allow for honest feedback to your approach. This will either show them that you are listening to them, or it may highlight a potential problem with the change.

You should be able to follow these steps and resolve or prevent most issues that creates franchisees becoming difficult. If you implement these suggestions, trust that your franchisees are doing what you set out, verify that they are later and review each procedure, you shouldn’t have a problem. If however, you still have a problem, you’ve tried everything here plus more, then unfortunately you’re left with one option. The final solution is to terminate the agreement, this should be a last resort but if it is necessary, you need to do it as it protects your brand and the other franchisees. Being able to make tough decisions is a sign of a good leader and your franchisees will respect you if you do what must be done.

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