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