You’ve invested time, money, and considerable effort into building The Hub for your network. You know the information is there. You know it would make everyone’s lives easier. And yet, franchisees keep calling, keep emailing, and keep asking questions that are already answered on the platform you built for them. 

You’re not alone. This is one of the most common frustrations franchisors face — and the good news is that it’s solvable. The key is understanding that behavior change takes more than a great platform. It takes a deliberate strategy. 

Here’s where to focus your energy. 

• Make It the Only Place with Answers to Questions Live

You can’t force franchisees to use The Hub, but you can make it the path of least resistance. As long as a quick call to head office gets the same result as logging in, many franchisees will take that shortcut — not out of stubbornness, but simply because it’s what they know. 

The shift happens when you stop answering the question directly and instead direct franchisees to where the answer already lives. Point them to the exact page, the specific document, the precise section of The Hub that has what they need. It takes discipline from your support team, but the message it sends is powerful: The Hub is where answers are. Do that consistently, and franchisees will start going there before they pick up the phone. 

• Solve Their Most Painful Problems First

It’s tempting to populate The Hub with what’s easiest to publish. Resist that urge. The fastest way to build the habit of using The Hub is to make sure that the first time a franchisee turns to it in a moment of need, they find exactly what they’re looking for. 

Once you know what your franchisees need most, make those resources impossible to miss by organizing them into Categories. A well-structured set of Categories means franchisees can navigate straight to what they need without hunting around. If you haven’t seen Categories in action, ask your Customer Success Manager for a walk-through. It’s a game-changer. 

• Communicate the Value, Not Just the Existence

Launching The Hub was a significant milestone, but a single announcement at launch will only carry you so far. Ongoing, evidence-based communication is what sustains momentum. 

When you can point to concrete outcomes — time saved, problems resolved, ideas that came from the network — share them. Franchisees respond to proof, not promises. Making the value visible and tangible gives those who haven’t yet fully engaged a genuine reason to reconsider, and it reinforces the habits of those who already have. 

Build It for Them, Not for You 

You built The Hub because you want your franchisees to succeed. The challenge is helping them see it the same way. With the right approach — making it indispensable, relevant, and rewarding to use — you can shift The Hub from something franchisees are expected to use to something they genuinely value. 

That shift is worth every bit of the effort it takes to get there.