The Ops Portal

Louise Harris, The Ops Portal

When I was a franchisee, I was upset (and a little shocked) to learn that a fellow franchisee was not simply not following the franchise model, but also breaking the law. And it took a little time to find this out.

Luckily, the franchisor had an audit system in place that picked this up in a relatively timely fashion.

It is disappointing when a franchisor spends time developing a model, recruiting franchisees, training them and then letting them run the business, but does nothing to follow this up.

It is often due to a lack of resources, but it’s also an activity that may feel uncomfortable. We create good relationships with our franchisees, and visiting to check they’re compliant feels uncomfortable. We’d rather have discussions around new business and growth.

Yet an audit will identify whether your training covers what is needed, establish whether your systems are delivering what’s required, and pick up on some great innovation – as well as any lack of compliance.

In my time as a franchisor, one of our franchisees had bought some ‘off-plan’ equipment. Technically, this was not ‘allowed.’ But looking at what it was and how he used it during an audit session, we were able to share a good piece of innovation with the rest of the franchisee network.

He hadn’t thought to tell us he was doing it – not through fear of being told he couldn’t, but because he simply hadn’t thought to. That’s a great benefit of auditing. It might sound simple, but it changed some of the behaviours and efficiency of the team for the better.

During a recent audit that Franchise Partners (my other business) ran for a customer, it was clear that they were all guided to use one piece of software for accounting. It was mandated.

On closer examination, the franchisees were not using it correctly or reaping its benefits. The client would never have known this was a problem without the audit.

We arranged a training session to show the ‘how to’ but also, more importantly, the benefits of using the whole software functionality. And we designed some training to implement for franchisees at induction so the problem doesn’t keep coming back.

And finally, we updated the operations manual to reflect the requirements – making sure it was well explained, not only as a ‘how to’ guide but with an explanation of the importance.

Setting aside the use of resources for a franchise, the fear of getting and receiving feedback has always contributed to holding back from audit compliance visits. But that fear is largely unfounded! All parties benefit and can grow from the experience.

Of course, being kind is paramount. As is being tough (but fair) when a franchisee has knowingly gone against your expected standards.

With an up-to-date manual, you have a simple mechanism for enforcement of identified standards.