If you want your franchise to be a success, you need to build a service-oriented business. Research backs this up. Retaining existing customers is cheaper than recruiting new ones, and businesses that provide good customer service have more loyal customers, get more customer referrals, and make more money. So how do you do it?
Service businesses vs. service-oriented businesses
Start by learning the difference between a service business and a service-oriented business. A service business is one that sells a service, instead of a physical product. Service-based franchises are very popular among franchisees and cover anything from automotive repair to pool cleaning, tutoring, and medical transportation. A service-oriented business can sell either a product or service.
In a service-oriented business, the person making the purchase matters more than the purchase itself. In other words, the business prioritizes people over profits. Creating a positive customer experience comes first, and good sales and revenue numbers naturally follow.
Choose the right product or service
Building a service-oriented business starts before you even open your doors. To set yourself up for success, look for a franchisor that sells a good-quality product or service and has a customer-centric culture. To find one:
- Try the franchisor’s product or service for yourself, preferably anonymously, to make sure the quality is good.
- Review the franchise business system for customer-centric policies. E.g., is the return policy reasonable, and does the pricing seem fair?
- Review the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) and check with franchisees in the company’s network for red flags like lots of customer complaints, high turnover among franchisees, or lots of court cases involving the franchisor.
- Pay attention to how the franchisor treats you during the awarding process. If the company has a service-oriented culture, employees (even–in fact, especially–the leadership) will be helpful and friendly and treat you with respect.
Start with yourself
Recognize that your franchise’s culture and priorities start with you. If you want to build a service-oriented business, you need to have a service-oriented mindset. Be authentic with your employees and customers to show that you value integrity. Never exhibit or encourage dishonest behavior, such as lying to customers about product features or pricing. Treat your employees and customers with kindness and respect, and make things right if a customer has a negative experience.
Hire the right people
After you, your managers set the tone for your business. So make sure you choose managers who prize integrity, respect, and kindness. Hire employees who are level-headed, good at problem-solving, sympathetic, and detail-oriented: these are all qualities that make for good customer service. And don’t hold onto toxic employees just because their sales numbers are good. Their attitude will cost you more than they’re worth because they’ll eventually drive away customers, other employees, or both.
Train your employees
Customers love competent employees. On the other hand, incompetent employees will ruin the customer experience faster than you can say “bad service.” Lay a solid foundation for the customer experience by making sure your employees get all the training they need to do their jobs well. Start with your franchisor’s business system. Most include training materials, and some even include a full in-person employee training program. But don’t stop there. If you have employees with potential who are eager to learn, arrange for them to get the mentoring or training they need to go from good to top-performing. Finally, take the extra step of empowering your employees to do what’s right. If you hire the right people and train them well, you should be able to trust them to strike the right balance of protecting the business while going the extra mile for customers.
Appreciate your employees
Happy employees create happy experiences for customers. Show your employees that you appreciate them, and they’ll do the same for your customers. There are many ways to create a culture of appreciation:
- Maintain a healthy workplace culture (see “Start with yourself” and “Hire the right people,” above).
- Pay your employees competitive wages, with benefits if possible.
- Provide ways for employees to earn rewards, such as cash bonuses or time off, for stellar performance.
- Give full-time employees a reasonable amount of time off each year and support them in using it.
- At least a few times each year, do something special for your team. If your budget doesn’t allow for an elaborate event, do something simple like sub sandwiches in the office or a family park day with ice cream and balloons.
Listen to feedback
Finally, don’t just operate based on your own assumptions. Make a habit of soliciting feedback from your customers, reading it, and implementing changes as needed. Do this in whatever way makes the most sense for your business. Suggestion boxes, email surveys, and in-person interviews are all good options. If your franchisor provides you with operational or marketing software, the program may have customer feedback capability built in. If you’re trying to fine-tune the details of your business (e.g., store layout, pricing, or the quality of work), you’ll probably get the most relevant data from feedback captured soon after someone transacts with you. But qualitative interviews, particularly with long-time customers, can also be useful, especially if you want broader feedback on the customer experience as a whole.
Looking for just the right franchise and want to make sure you build a service-oriented business from the start? I can help you on both counts. We can get started with just a 20-minute phone call, and my services are completely free! Book some time on my calendar today to learn how it works.
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