First annual report analyzes more than 165,000 Franchise Business Consultant interactions, revealing critical insights into franchise field operations during the pandemic.
HERNDON, Virginia — May 27, 2021 — FranConnect, a provider of franchise management solutions for franchise sales, operations, and marketing, released its first annual Franchise Operations Index Report, a comprehensive analysis of the evolving role of Franchise Business Consultants.
In the 2021 report, FranConnect analyzed more than 165,000 Franchise Business Consultant interactions between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020 to help franchisors understand the impact of COVID-19 on operations teams and benchmark their strategy against the broader industry.
The 2021 Franchise Operations Index Report represents data from more than 600 FranConnect customers, from micro-emerging brands with 10 locations or fewer to enterprise concepts with 300+ locations, across industries including quick-service restaurants, retail, automotive, personal services, and commercial and residential services.
Key Findings
- Franchisor-driven evaluations increased 9.4% in 2020 as brands shifted to more frequent, virtual interactions focused on helping franchisees weather the disruption rather than relying only on traditional compliance audits.
- The number of self-assessments more than tripled in 2020 as franchisors relied on them more heavily as the pandemic continued.
- Unscored audits increased by 29% in 2020, continuing a trend that had already begun before the pandemic.
- Evaluation strategies shifted, with many brands using a combination of scored audits, unscored audits, and self-assessments.
- The pandemic increased Franchise Business Consultants’ span of control by more than 21%, with each consultant coaching an average of 34 units in 2020. This was driven by downsizing and furloughs, as well as the ability to support more units when travel was reduced.
“In the current environment, operating a franchise business is more important than ever — elevating the need for franchisors to have a sound strategy to drive performance that can withstand good times and bad,” said Jason Kealey, Vice President of Strategy at FranConnect. “FranConnect is deeply focused on supporting our customers’ operational needs. We not only want to provide solutions that help them see their own performance, but also be able to leverage our collective data to see how they are performing against the broader industry. Our Operations Index Report is the only strategic analysis of its kind and is positioned to become the gold standard for how our industry tracks and evaluates the activities of franchise business consultants.”
