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5 Components to Consider with Franchise Operations Software

By Nabiha Balala

Running your business is already full of tough decisions – hiring the right employees, partnering with the best vendors, finding the best location and much more. 

It’s even more challenging to run a franchise business without proper franchise operations software in place. The goal of a franchise operations software solution is to balance integrity across the organization, functioning as the ‘one source of truth’ to manage the needs and growth of your brand. 

Below you will learn what a growing franchise brand should look for in an operations software provider and why each component is crucial.

  1. Mobile Accessibility

When growing a franchise business, you need to be able to depend on your operations platform at all times. Whether you are working from your office or remotely from your mobile phone, is important for you to have a user-friendly flow that is “on-the-go.”

Among SMBs using tablets for business: “97% say anytime, anywhere access to data and applications makes employees more effective. Also, 83% indicated business applications and data available on smartphones has a mid-to-high level of impact to the business.” This goes to show that mobile accessibility is not an “add-on” perk, but instead a vital part of the business experience.

  1. Scalability

Scalability is a common buzzword but it’s something a business owner needs to pay close attention to in order to ensure growth doesn’t become a liability. If a business owner doesn’t account for scale, when growth occurs, services provided to customers could be negatively impacted as well which in turn can negatively impact the bottom line. When looking for a solution, understand your growth trajectory and make sure that the solution you are evaluating can handle that growth. It’s important that this does not get confused with finding a solution that will answer all your needs. There is a fine line and you want to make sure you identify your most important needs otherwise your selection process will be drawn out. 

  1. Partnerships

When choosing the best software supplier, consider if you want a provider or a true partner. A provider will cover the basics you’ve paid for and will function as an operations tool. Whereas, a true partner will be able to help you grow. This could include anything from providing you with consulting and expertise on how to fine-tune your current processes for a greater return or by suggesting additional solutions that could help streamline your growth.

According to Edelman Trust Barometer, “84% of B2B decision makers start the buying process with a referral.”

Noticeably, leveraging your partner’s community can be a rewarding strategy when expanding your presence. Based on your partner’s experience, they can guide you in the direction most suitable to your goals. If your partner is not an expert in the area you are seeking advice in, then a well-connected partner can still direct you towards someone who is.

Focus on a partner over just a provider because you will want someone who is more than a vendor, someone who is a true partner, that looks out for you and can help you towards your goals.

  1. Franchisee Engagement

Increasing franchisee engagement is key for positive relationships throughout your organization. A franchisor should look to answer problems that a franchisee could be facing and look for methods that make the franchisees daily lives easier. Make sure you have relevant information that will entice the franchisee to naturally use your company’s preferred platform for daily communications, real-time chat and more.

The more you have your franchisees follow your processes the better the ROI for both the franchisor and franchisee. We have seen that higher engagement by franchisees have improved their onboarding efforts by up to 70% faster.

  1. One Source of Truth

There is an overabundance of applications available in our ecosystem today. The less time one spends on finding an answer means more time to work on other items, being more productive.

As an example of scattered apps, a recent study by Netskope Cloud Report shared, “Enterprises have an average of 977 cloud apps in use.” Learning this, one can identify that a franchise owner would usually prefer one robust platform over an innumerable amount of separate applications.

With an average of 977 apps currently downloaded or used by enterprise companies, it’s important that you are able to integrate various solutions into your one platform that can be used daily to provide a dashboard view of key KPI’s. Your company’s solution should be flexible, so you can do integrations and have a true “one source of truth.”

This way, you can have a better ROI of your solution while providing more efficient uses of time for a business owner.

Allow seamless growth, with less distractions and more efficiency by considering these five areas when choosing franchise operations software for your business.

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Tags: Franchise Software, Franchise Technology, Franchise Operations Management