Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2013 | Page 45
reliance on using virtual brochures to deliver information.
In general, most sales reps treated the first call as more of
a fact-finding mission and less as a time to start building
rapport. This is reflected in the continued insistence that
the next step in the process be my completing an application, rather than having a second conversation. Overall,
the speed of response by franchisors was pretty good. The
same franchisors seem to be the ones doing well each year.
Recommendation: First, call your leads! Second, follow up after the first conversation. Anecdotally, I would
say fewer than 50 percent of the franchisors that I spoke
with called me again—even though we had a generally
productive first call. I think franchisors rely too much on
candidates completing an application after one phone call.
Telephone Response
Marc Kiekenapp, Kiekenapp & Associates
O
ur project was to visit the website, search for the
franchise development phone number, and call the
franchisor to request information. Most phones rang at the
front desk or went into an electronic voicemail system. If
we did not make contact on the first attempt, we left information and waited for a return call.
Almost all franchisors’ telephone systems are not set
up for user-friendly messaging or reaching the individual
who can help them. If prospects are pushed into voicemail,
quality leads are being lost. This is very similar to my past
years of mystery shopping.
I did not see any difference from last year in the lack of
rapport-building. I did notice financial qualification questions being asked more; in about half the conversations it
was very direct, rather than conversational. It seemed the
development teams and qualifiers pushed much harder on
this than in previous years. Teams should take the time to
warm up the phone call and take an interest in the candidate (most franchisors were more interested in gathering
information at the expense of a relationship).
In general, brands that had qualifiers seemed to take
more of an interest in the candidate during the initial call
than concepts without qualifiers, which were not organized
or did not have a trained person to gather information.
The teams we reached seemed to be knowledgeable
about the concept and knew how to deliver the two-minute
elevator speech and create some interest in the concept.
Recommendation: Mystery shop your franchise development teams, check phone numbers, and test your
development websites to make sure everything is working
correctly. Take the time to build rapport to get “good” information from candidates. Implement an ongoing training
program to monitor and improve systems.
Franchisee Satisfaction
Michelle Rowan, Franchise Business Review
O
ur franchisee satisfaction survey was available at no
cost to all franchisors that pre-registered for the
event. This year we surveyed 66 companies (7,598 franchisees responded), compared with 60 companies in 2012
(5,747 responses). We sent our standard survey questions
to all open and operating franchisees by email and collected
data on each brand.
Franchisees were questi