{"id":279854,"date":"2021-11-17T01:07:23","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T01:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/?p=279854"},"modified":"2024-05-24T18:02:31","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T18:02:31","slug":"the-new-c-suite-position-franchisors-dont-know-they-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franconnect.com\/en_au\/the-new-c-suite-position-franchisors-dont-know-they-need\/","title":{"rendered":"The New C-Suite Position Franchisors Don\u2019t Know They Need"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Keith Gerson, CFE \u2013 Gerson Advisory Services<\/h4>\n

As a franchisor, it can feel awkward to refer to your franchisees as customers, right? But by and large \u2013 they really are. As the franchisor, you can control the things that are defined in your franchise agreement, but at the end of the day these franchisees are not your employees. Thus, influencing what they do daily and dictating how they run their business is entirely up to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Franchise Experience Conundrum<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

Most people enter franchising looking for success and a profit. But don\u2019t fall into the trap of assuming that finances are the number one thing keeping them up at night. What is the overall experience that a franchisee has? If you think about the journey of the franchisee, there is a starting point and invariably an ending point. We all would like to think that franchise relationships are forever, but if a franchisee is doing exceptionally well, their goal down the road could be to secure a buyer and exit the business with a profit. They always start out with the understanding that they are new to the business, and they need to learn more about the product, technology, and marketing. However, those notions eventually may turn into things like business valuations and succession plans. Their customer experience has everything to do with where they are at and in what phase they are in of their franchise life. What is their experience when they need help or need a question answered? Is someone ensuring that they are reading the operations manual or suggesting that they may need more training and development? <\/span><\/p>\n

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When you are a brand-new franchisee, the general thought is that at that exact moment and time, you are making the smallest contribution to your franchise organization. You have zero to limited revenues and you are getting a lot of love, support, and visitations from your franchisor. As the franchisor, your main goal is getting this unit stood up and out of the gates in their first year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other end of the spectrum, you might have other franchisees, often the highest franchise revenue contributors, that end up being the ones that are most unhappy. It\u2019s not unusual to hear a long-term, high performer lamenting the fact that they pay the most money in royalties, put the least demands on a franchise system, yet get less relevant support than new franchisees and average performers. This notion can leave a strain on the relationship they have with their franchisor. Depending on where the franchisee is in their franchise journey, it could require you to apply different tactics and attention to the various customers\/units throughout your system. <\/span><\/p>\n

Introducing the CFXO<\/span><\/h2>\n

The franchisor of the future should be introducing the role of a Chief Franchise Experience Officer (CFXO), the executive who wakes up every morning thinking about \u201chow do we continually improve and deliver a better experience for our franchisees, and why is that important?\u201d. Even Harvard Business Review<\/a><\/span> makes the case that every company should have a CXO \u2013 so why not a CFXO? <\/span><\/p>\n

For starters, the CFXO would be the person responsible for understanding why so many franchisees within a system are operating in the lower performance quadrant, especially given that franchise systems already have franchise business consultants that are (or should be) held accountable for their assigned franchisees results?\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Is it worth a franchisors time and expense? It is when you also consider that:<\/span><\/p>\n