How to Improve the Effectiveness of Your Field Visits Part 1

Field visits are expensive and extremely time consuming for franchisors and franchisees. Here is how to make every visit count.

How field visits add value

Field visits are a necessary component of most franchise systems. If implemented by skilled people with a clear purpose and supported by efficient systems, field visits deliver the following benefits to a franchise system:

• Improve franchisee productivity - One of the main concerns of an effective field visitation program should be to help franchisees measure and manage the drivers of profitability in their franchise business. Keep this focus in mind because you will be surprised to see how many forget this basic and important priority.

• Maintain customer service standards - If franchisees are not delivering excellent customer service it will adversely affect your franchise system. You will simply not have a sustainable franchise system. You need to have a discussion about customer satisfaction during the field visit otherwise it will be incomplete. Whether you are a franchisee or a franchisor, the main importance must always be customer satisfaction.

• Keep the franchisor team in touch with the coalface– one of the biggest mistakes a franchisor can make is to assume you know what is happening with customers and franchisees without checking first hand. While it may take some effort to escape the administrative demands of a head office environment, franchisor executives often report feeling enthused after being in the field and getting back in touch with the customer line.

• Take full advantage of local market share - Franchisees often underestimate the size of their local market and the amount of business they could be producing. A well-structured field visit will help the franchisee to better understand their local competition and, more importantly, make the most of local sales opportunities.

• Build franchisee commitment to your vision and brand values - It is very easy for a franchisee to lose sight of the bigger picture. They need to be regularly reminded about what is important and keep the vision and brand values always in mind. Any gaps, faults or problems should be explained via face to face communication and field visits help accomplish this.

• Enhance the franchise relationship – the relationship between the franchisor and franchisee is of utmost importance. Research has shown that franchisees who believe their franchisor genuinely cares about them are significantly more likely to recommend the franchisee system to prospective franchisees. Therefore, the relationship is essential for growing a franchise system.

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