According to McKinsey and Company, the three most important factors for customer satisfaction are consistency, consistency, and consistency. It’s not about the products or services, it’s not about the brand, and it’s not about the company’s value proposition. What keeps customers coming back is knowing they are going to have a consistently pleasant experience every time they visit.
In a franchise organization, however, consistency can be problematic. Imagine this:
Your customer heads to one of your flagship locations on Main Street to pick up a few last-minute items for dinner after work. She quickly finds what she needs because she knows the store layout, and she gets courteous service from the cashier. She feels like a distinguished guest when she leaves.
The next day on her way to work, she stops by an express location to grab a few things for the office with the coupon she received in the mail. There, everything looks different – the planogram is confusing, and the merchandising seems out of date. The frontline employee can’t help her redeem the coupon because he’s not sure how the new POS system works yet. She leaves feeling annoyed and unvalued.
She decides to try the flagship location again because she remembers she had a good experience there last time, but it turns out the customer associate she has to deal with hasn’t been properly trained on how to accept coupons. In fact, this employee didn’t even know this promotion was happening. The customer leaves feeling that she can no longer trust this franchise.
Will she be back? Likely not
Improve communication for consistency’s sake
Inconsistent experiences leave customers’ feeling like their time has been wasted because their expectations have been let down. When they see a familiar franchise, customers want to get the same exceptional treatment they are used to and deserve.
In a franchise model, however, communication is a key issue. The corporate office often has little to no contact with frontline employees. They are not able to talk to them directly, share company-wide messages, or ensure corporate compliance.
Communication isn’t just about sharing messages. It’s the lifeblood of a successful organization. The simplest and most efficient way to improve communication across the franchise organization is with a digital workplace. Employees already use their phones to manage every part of their lives. With a digital workplace, their phones now connect them to their employer — they have everything they need at their fingertips.
Franchise organizations need to improve communication from corporate to all levels of the organization so they can empower their employees to:
- Deliver reliable customer service: With the right corporate training delivered on time, and tracked for completion, organizations can ensure their employees are ready to take on whatever the day throws at them.
- Improve operational efficiency: It shouldn’t take your franchise three months to roll out a promotion. Corporate needs a way to ensure every level of the organization is up to date on upcoming campaigns and merchandising within a short amount of time.
- Be engaged and committed: Turnover is increasing in retail, and franchise organizations often have employees who feel disconnected from the brand. With streamlined communication, employees can control their schedule, earn rewards and recognition, and solidify their place in the organization.
All this and more is possible with the WorkJam Digital Workplace.
Adoption doesn’t need to be a problem
For many franchise organizations, implementing a new solution is only half the battle. The other half is getting people to use it. Experienced in working with franchise models, WorkJam can be configured to meet the unique needs of your organization – so everyone benefits.
Whether your franchise organization is a direct model or involves wholesalers and licensors, WorkJam makes it easy to tailor the solution so you can provide customized and targeted access to the tools your employees need to succeed.
With WorkJam, each level of the organization can see productivity improvements in their day-to-day tasks, and the entire organization benefits from improved employee engagement and a consistent customer experience.
WorkJam helps franchise organizations optimize their people, so their customers have a dependable and noteworthy experience every time – that keeps them coming back. Learn more in the white paper Utilizing a Digital Workplace in a Franchise Model and see how your organization can transform operations with WorkJam.
