system when we are proactive in our
relationships than when we are “fixing”
issues. We listen to our franchise partners and work very diligently to create
a relationship that allows us all to speak
frankly about what’s working and what’s
not working. This open dialogue allows
us to focus on the future and continuous
improvement all around.
How is your operational support
strategy helping to create satisfied franchisees? Our field operations
team spends their time in the stores every
day, allowing them to truly appreciate
what’s happening at the store level. Our
operational support strategy focuses on
giving our franchise partners the tools
they need to be their best. Each is at a
different place in their Auntie Anne’s
journey. Our field team is trained to
recognize this and appreciate that while
one might want some additional operational training, another might want
additional guidance on managing their
cost of goods or labor rates, while still
another might be seeking ways to better
reach their target audience through local marketing. Our field team each has
a set of stores, and each store is visited
about five times a year with additional
standard communications occurring
between visits.
Do you require your franchisees
to participate in local level marketing? How does this help with
franchisee satisfaction? We provide
several different tools to aid our franchise partners with their local marketing
efforts. We do request that each spend
1 percent of their annual sales on local marketing efforts. To assist them in
this effort, we provide a team of local
marketing specialists who are available
to help them create tactics that meet
their defined strategies. We also have
an “Idea Generator” resource binder
each possesses and is encouraged to use
that offers a plethora of tactical ideas for
ways to increase sales at the store level.
We also offer an online local marketing
toolbox that gives them the opportunity
to customize elements of our POP to
meet their local needs. All these tools,
as well as the collaborative nature we
demonstrate with our leadership franchise partner group on constructing
multi-layered marketing campaigns,
help to drive franchisee satisfaction.
gives us a solid snapshot of how they
are feeling in terms of satisfaction with
us as the franchisor.
What role does your franchise advisory council play in franchisee satisfaction? Auntie Anne’s has a unique
We focus on continuous improvement.
Our processes are by no means perfect
and are constantly evolving to meet the
needs of a growing and diverse franchise
organization. By being open to evolution,
we are able to maintain satisfaction from
our franchise partners, which leads to
happy customers. We are accessible to
our franchise partners and they know
they can reach out to any individual on
the corporate team if they have concerns
or a question. We pride ourselves on providing the same level of care that Auntie
Anne herself first demonstrated when she
began the organization in 1988.
approach to the role of our franchise
advisory council. We engage with our
council on every facet of our business.
Weekly conference calls and email dialogues are supplemented by quarterly
in-person meetings where the two-day
agenda is jam-packed to discuss every
topic, from equipment and distribution
concerns to cost of goods and marketing
efforts. Our level of engagement with
our franchise partners, we believe, has
had a direct impact on their satisfaction.
How does having satisfied franchisees affect your referral program? Our formal referral program is
just getting started this year. In the past,
however, many have joined our system
as the result of a more informal referral
from someone already involved with the
brand. Across the system, many of our
strongest franchise partners nurture and
develop strong managers to eventually
become franchise partners. In addition,
we have several families who have all
become active franchise partners.
How do you measure, determine,
or monitor franchisee satisfaction
over time? As I described earlier, we
have found it beneficial to partner with
an independent franchise research firm
to conduct confidential surveys with
our franchise community on an annual
basis. We are able to secure a report
of the cumulative experiences of our
current franchisees. This information
helps determine the areas where we
need to focus our attention and/or
have additional open dialogue with
our franchise partners on specific topics. Taking this approach consistently
Happy customers and satisfied
franchisees result from a healthy
and successful brand. What are you
doing to create and maintain this?
What is you