How Communication and Feedback Can Help your Franchise

As with any type of successful business or professional relationship in general, communication is the make or break factor for any franchise becoming profitable and sustainable for years to come.

How Does Communication and Feedback Affect Business

Feedback is one of the most essential aspects for a franchise business to succeed. The franchisee is basically the person who has direct contact with the customer, someone who also runs the day to day operations and makes the whole franchise collectively successful.

According to Yourpie speaking about their own franchisees, “They’re on the ground floor of the brand day in and day out, and they can offer a unique perspective that we might not otherwise experience. ”

A franchise company is different than an individual company as it is a brand that is united together and its success or failure is dependent on many small webs of contributors rather than one sole independent entity.

This web of many people working together with one or many products allows for many trial and error situations to see what could or will work financially. Every franchise will be different and this is when feedback and open communication come into play.

If there is optimal communication, then the knowledge of when something works or not can be distributed throughout the whole web of companies.

Types of Communication Within the Franchise Business

There are many types of communication and hierarchical situations, but broadly the main two types of communication are between each franchise and then each franchisee to corporate management.

Both of these communication channels, including support and feedback, are very important for the success or failure of a new franchise.

A critical aspect of the franchisee to the franchisee communication channel is the concept of not being alone out there, being part of a team and also having support from many people who are in the same situation but maybe in a different city or area.

Being included and a part of a team is often overlooked and undervalued in a business situation because of our egos. However, it is an integral part of this type of trouble not only for individual success but for the brand as a whole as well.

The communication channel of the franchisee to franchisor and vice versa is of the utmost importance as well. According to the restaurant franchise website: Your Pie, “The secret to success often lies in the opinions of its franchisees. After all, they’re the ones engrained in the local communities, experiencing firsthand what works—and what doesn’t work—when it comes to Your Pie’s daily operations.”

With direct communication to the top, this keeps the new franchisee owner more confident and also allows for the franchisor to understand how the customers are doing, discuss new ideas, and understand positive or negative feedback that can help on the corporate level.

Having a healthy channel of communication from the franchisees and franchisor is essential for long term growth and improving the business.

How to Establish Channels of Communication

There are many ways of communicating nowadays with some type of tech advancing every day. The type of communication and the way it is channeled is going to be different for every business.

Whatever the communication gateway that is put in place, it is good to have a moderator in charge and have a set schedule.

Some businesses or restaurant franchises have weekly meetings or a set email communication each week. Others have relied on online forums, to allow for franchisees to communicate with others to discuss new ideas, problems, or overall feedback.

With technology, it has revolutionized communication and allowed for companies to distribute information across the globe and manage remotely with efficiency.