7 Risks of Not Using Franchise Management Software

08/23/2018

You’ve established a market need and built up a successful business, carefully documenting processes along the way. You’ve decided to franchise and think you’ve got all your bases covered…until you start to grow. Now, the cracks are starting to emerge. If you don’t fill the gaps in your operations quickly, they could turn into huge voids that swallow your franchise completely. The good news is, the right franchise management software can help.

If you’re not using the right franchise management system, here are 7 ways you are putting your franchise at risk.

 

1. Brand Misalignment

Without a central way of communicating and managing your brand guidelines—and how to implement them—franchisees won’t know when they go off brand (and neither will you). From DIY designs to inappropriate , franchisees get creative without your guidance. A lack of consistency can harm the carefully-thought-out brand experience you’ve worked hard to create. After all, if your brand is at the core of your franchise value, you need to make sure you protect it.

How to fix it: Make sure your franchise management software includes a brand management tool to keep everyone on the same page.

 

2. Unmet Expectations

Things get complicated when you’re growing a franchise. You not only need a way to onboard new franchisees and document changing best practices, but also a way to communicate and collaborate with each and every franchisee so they appreciate the value you offer. If you can’t keep track of what your franchisees are referencing, they could be running their businesses with missing or incorrect information and not getting the expected results. And the worst part is, you won’t know it until their growth starts to sputter.

How to fix it: Keep your franchisees up to date and manage your relationships with a franchise collaboration tool.

 

3. Late or Incorrect Payments

An increasing number of franchisees means more paperwork and accounting tasks. Can you keep up? You’ll need to provide the metrics your franchisees need to succeed. You’ll also need to make sure revenue isn’t leaking from your system, or even worse, purposely not bring reported. If you’re not efficiently tracking the numbers, revenue could be lost and royalties won’t be collected. This confusion inevitably leads to franchisor/franchisee friction and a negative impact on your bottom line.

How to fix it: Choose a franchise management tool with strong royalty management features—like automatic royalty calculation and invoicing through to payment collecting.

 

4. Inaccurate Financial Data

Inaccurately recording financial data can be costly. Not only in the time and effort it takes to correct the data—but in potential financial or legal consequences. For example, if your franchisees submit inaccurate revenue and expense information with their taxes and you subsequently get audited. To manage and accurately measure the growth of your franchise system, you need consistent accounting practices across all your franchisees. It also helps to have accounting practices that are easy for Zees to use or else they may not be followed.

How to fix it: Standardize your Chart of Accounts and integrate QuickBooks Online into your franchise management software.

 

5. Losing Track of Franchisee Sales Leads

Growing your franchise requires constantly recruiting new franchisees through franchise development activities. To do this, you’re probably initiating marketing campaigns and managing leads via email and phone calls. But do you know where prospects are on their path to purchase? If you’re not completely organized, you could be missing opportunities that result in lost partnerships. Poorly managed and missed opportunities can put your franchise growth at risk.

How to fix it: Adopt a franchise management system with an integrated Franchise Sales Customer Relationship Management so you can efficiently manage your leads and call backs, and track each prospect throughout your sales pipeline.

 

6. Delayed Customer Service

As a field service franchise, you need to be able to connect field service reps with ever-changing, and potentially urgent, customer needs. If you can’t respond in a timely manner, you lose the ‘wow’ factor and your customer reviews suffer. Imagine a leaking pipe or broken heater in the winter. Without an immediate response your customer could end up with much bigger problems. In the age of smartphones and instant messaging, customers expect faster service delivery than ever before. Is your field service team ready to respond on a moment’s notice?

How to fix it: Integrate mobile tools into your franchise management system so that your field service team can respond quickly whether they are in the office or on the go.

 

7. Missed Job Booking Opportunities

Time is money. If your franchisees are not efficiently planning their service delivery routes, they are missing growth opportunities in lost jobs and unnecessary travel time.  For example, your franchisees might end up hiring additional field service teams when, if better managed, they would still have the capacity for additional work with their existing resources. What would your Zees do if they could squeeze in an extra job or two each day? Without some logistical support, it may be too cumbersome to figure out.

How to fix it: Use route planning and mapping tools to help optimize and distribute routes to your team (and minimize travel times).

 

Is your franchise starting to crack?

Waterstreet’s Franchise Management Software for Field Service Companies consolidates franchising best practices into a solution that helps you grow, empower franchisees and royalize success. To find out how your franchise can benefit, request a demo today.