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Find news, blogs and resources and learn more about how operations can use and benefit from digital signage within the business with ScreenCloud.

Resources for Operations and Digital Signage | ScreenCloud

In this guide we’ll share some advice on how franchisors and franchisees can maintain a positive, mutually beneficial relationship. And as with any relationship, it (mainly) comes down to one thing: communication. 

In order to understand this relationship – and how to better it – we must first understand what we mean by a ‘franchise’.Franchising is one of the most powerful business models for scaling a brand. But behind every successful franchise network is a strong relationship built on trust, clarity, and ongoing support between the franchisor and the franchisee.

In this guide, we’ll break down what that relationship looks like: who does what, how the system works, and what makes the partnership succeed. Whether you're curious about the dynamics or considering a franchise opportunity yourself, understanding the roles and responsibilities on both sides is key.

Let’s start with the basics: what exactly is a franchise?

A franchise is a business model where one party (the franchisor) grants another party (the franchisee) the right to operate a business using its brand, products, services, and operating systems.

As part of the deal, both franchisors and franchisees have contractual obligations towards each other to help set both parties up for success.

Franchising your business is popular with entrepreneurs because it’s a low-risk way of expanding, since you’re using other people’s investments to grow. Almost any kind of business can be turned into a franchise, and there are several different types of franchises.

When people refer to franchising, they're usually talking about this: the franchisee uses the franchisor’s trademark and is contractually obliged to follow a very specific business plan and processes.

Examples of Business format franchises are gyms, fast food restaurants, and retail outlets. 

In fact, the oldest food and hospitality franchises, like Howard Johnson restaurants, were business format franchises.

In a product distribution franchise, the franchisor only supplies the trademark and product. This leaves the franchisee with a lot more freedom than in the business format franchise. 

Examples of product distribution franchises include Coca-Cola and Ford.

Domestic cleaning, a coffee van, or pool maintenance are examples of single operator franchises. They require fairly little investment up front and are suitable for individuals who want to run a small business under an established trademark. 

This requires a large financial investment up front and the franchisee, usually a corporate investor, tends to take an advisory role and let the franchisor, or an executive team, run the actual business. 

Examples of this include department stores or hotels, such as Hilton Hotels and the Waldorf Astoria.  

As the original business owner or parent company, the franchisor’s main role is to protect the brand and help franchisees succeed as they maintain consistency across all locations. This is why franchise owners may turn away potential franchisees, if they aren't confident the brand's integrity can be maintained.

There are other responsibilities, too, like:

Providing a business plan and practical rules on implementation in an operations manual. 

Offering an initial training program to help franchisees put the operations manual into practice. They also provide guidance as the new franchisees operate.

Establishing solid marketing strategies that will help promote the brand while protecting the trademark and giving franchisees access to marketing materials and advertising campaign plans

Keeping up with and adapting to new trends, product and service development, and innovation. This includes identifying new territories suitable for franchise expansion in order to strengthen the brand as a whole.

The franchisee is responsible for executing it on the ground, running the day-to-day business, hiring staff, and delivering a consistent customer experience. They essentially take the blueprint provided by the franchisor, and run with it.

Some of the responsibilities of a franchisee include:

Protecting the brand by operating by the rules set out in the franchisor’s operations manual and training.

Building a loyal customer base through consistent customer service

Being able to cover all initial costs of setting up a franchise, including the initial franchising fee, lease, equipment cost and so on. 

Hiring staff, setting up an employee pay structure, training staff properly and keeping them motivated.

Keeping the franchisor informed of any concerns or problems in order to work out a solution together.

What is the relationship between franchisor and franchisee?

The relationship between franchisor and franchisee is a mutually beneficial business partnership, and is built on a legal agreement. Both parties have something to gain from the arrangement, and share a goal of maintaining and growing the brand.

Even though they are independent, they also need each other to be successful. Let’s examine the different aspects of this business relationship:

The partnership is contractual and regulated

The foundation of the franchisor–franchisee relationship is a formal, legally binding contract. In fact, this is the basis for a successful franchise system. 

In the franchise agreement, each party’s obligations, rights, and limits (usually everything from how the established brand can be used to how fees are paid and disputes handled) is clearly defined. Sometimes, these agreements may also regulate the nitty gritty, from font size for the digital menu display, to strict staff uniforms.

The document protects both parties and ensures they are on the same page (pun unintended) from day one. Straying from the agreement, or failing to understand it can lead to franchise disasters.

Franchisors are the brand owners. They’ve built a proven business model, developed systems that work, and crafted a recognizable identity. They did this so well that franchisees want in. So, it’s their job to maintain the integrity of that brand by setting clear operational and branding standards. 

Franchisors also provide the tools franchisees need to succeed: training, marketing materials, access to approved suppliers, etc. By defining the system, they make it possible for franchisees to replicate success, even if they’re new to the industry.

The franchisee is the one on the ground, running the day-to-day operations. They’ve made a financial investment and are responsible for hiring staff, managing inventory, and other business activities. 

It’s true they might not have full creative freedom like an independent business owner, but they do have the benefit of operating under a brand that customers already trust. 

Collaboration and communication are critical

The franchisor-franchisee relationship works best when both parties communicate regularly and transparently. Franchisees need support and feedback and franchisors need insight from what’s happening in the field. 

Open communication here can build trust and help prevent small issues from becoming major problems for both the franchisor and the franchisee. It also creates room for improvement on both sides .

Read more: How to create better corporate communications.

Interdependence is the basis of a successful franchisor-franchisee relationship. While franchisees are independent business owners, they’re still part of a larger brand system. They operate their own legal entities, hire their own teams, and are responsible for their own financial results.

But, they must do all of that within the framework provided by the franchisor. This essentially provides a structure of entrepreneurship with a safety net. It’s a balance: the franchisee controls their business, but the brand’s consistency depends on their alignment with the franchise system. 

Build a consistent franchise with digital signage

There are so many ways to handle messaging in your franchise. And there are lots of different tools to help streamline the work and sometimes even automate it.

One of the easiest ways to handle this is digital signage for QSR chains. ScreenCloud makes it simple and cost-effective to create nicely designed promotions, menu boards, notices and more for your franchise business.

This is great because you can effortlessly create content for one business and simply share those as blueprints for everyone in your franchise. Create  templates, set permissions and keep overall control of the content that is shown on screen. 

You can set up our digital signage software  for your franchise really easily. Plus, we have a built-in Remote Device Management capabilities, which  means you can manage dozens of screens across several locations without bouncing from site to site. From your central dashboard, you can ensure the  content is consistently on brand, always fresh and hyper-relevant to each branch. 

Start a free trial or book a demo to learn more about how ScreenCloud can streamline your franchise’s messaging and communication.

How does franchising help provide a successful future?

Franchising offers a proven business model, brand recognition, and ongoing support, giving franchisees a head start and reducing the risks of starting from scratch.

What does the franchisor–franchisee relationship look like?

It’s a business partnership where the franchisor provides the brand and systems, and the franchisee runs the day-to-day operations while following set standards.

How is the franchisor-franchisee relationship maintained?

Regular communication, adherence to brand standards, mutual respect, and collaborative problem-solving are key to a healthy franchisor-franchisee relationship.

What is the franchisor franchisee relationship? How do you build a good relationship for business success? Explore practical advice for roles, relationships, and brand alignment.

Franchisor and Franchisee: The Guide to a Successful Relationship

What's New from ScreenCloud

This new app allows you to connect your screens directly with your mass alerts platform of choice. When an emergency alert comes through via the Common Alert Protocol (CAP), you can be sure that everyone gets the message and knows what to do and how to keep safe – campus wide, or site wide. We currently support Singlewire, Omnilert, and Rave. Get in touch if you’d like us to integrate with any other platform!

Screens Manager is designed for anyone who manages a large network of screens across multiple spaces. Enjoy an overview of all your screens in one place, and make bulk edits and updates across one or many screens across one or many locations; quickly and easily. Watch this space over the next few months as we’re going to be adding more network insights and the ability to download the screen data.

Our Microsoft Teams integration means you can now publish ‘screen-ready’ Teams content directly to your digital signage network. The ScreenCloud Microsoft Teams app allows you to reach your workforce with branded engagements, personalized interactions, and key data points.

Behind every piece of content you share to a screen, there’s always an outcome you want to achieve. However, it’s difficult to track how successful your content strategy is, and how many employees are engaged with it. The new QR code generator within Canvas enables you to track which QR codes are being scanned, how many times, and from which screens – giving you insight into what’s resonating with your people.

Have a custom app idea, or just want to play around to see what you can do with ScreenCloud? Use our in-built code editor to create your own apps to display content on screen. If you’re unsure of what to build, we have just introduced a new Canva template that makes it super easy to get your unique Canva designs onto the big screen. GIFs, videos, and more will bring your content to life.

A wrap up of the top 5 recent releases, some great enhancements and a sneak peak at what’s coming soon

Try ScreenCloud digital signage free for 14-days. No credit cards required. Or get a product demonstration.

Ready to get started with digital signage?

Why engaging hard-to-reach employees is critical to business success, and how digital signage can help.

eBook: Employee Engagement & the Deskless Workforce - ScreenCloud

Driving employee engagement by building a modern, connected workplace

Improving recall of your most important information

Increasing employee retention by celebrating achievements and building culture

Discover how and why digital signage is an appropriate and effective strategy for:

Employee Engagement & the Deskless Workforce

This eBook explores how content across various devices and display sizes is received by your eyes, and how your brain processes and remembers the things you see.

eBook: The Neuroscience of Visual Media - ScreenCloud

This eBook explores how content across various devices and display sizes is received by your eyes, and how your brain processes and remembers the things you see. We'll discuss:

Why use Digital Signage to display emergency alerts?

In conjunction with other warning systems such as text messages and email, you can also use the Emergency Alerts app to broadcast information and instructions via your screens. With emergency alerts, your screens become another part of your multi-channel alert output, helping ensure critical information gets to those impacted – quickly.

Reach all corners of your deskless workforce - Make sure everyone gets the message and knows what to do. Screens are particularly useful for targeting ‘digitally detached’ individuals. 

Automation you can rely on - There’s no requirement to manually access ScreenCloud and cast alerts – these are automatically triggered by a third party alerts platform. 

Get the right message to the right people - Organize your alerts by spaces to ensure only individuals in affected areas are notified.

Emergency Alerts is an app within ScreenCloud that acts as an extension of an existing Mass Alert Platform such as Singlewire, RAVE and Omnilert. When an event is triggered, we receive a message via common alert protocol (CAP) and override what is displayed on the screens. It will remain on screen until you decide to remove it.

When an emergency alert instance has been set up there is no need to schedule this within a playlist or channel. The instance will simply sit in the background listening for an alert and when triggered will automatically cast to all screens within that space.

The Emergency Alerts feature is available on our Pro and Enterprise plans and is included for all of our education and non-profit customers. If you can't see it in your account, please reach out to your account manager or support and we’ll get you sorted.

We would love to hear how you have been using the Emergency Alerts app. If you have any feedback for the team or just need help getting started, chat with us.

Alternatively, if you’re not yet with ScreenCloud, talk to Sales here to get up and running: https://screencloud.com/contact

When an unexpected event occurs, it's critical to take prompt action to ensure the safety of your employees, students or customers. ScreenCloud’s ‘Emergency Alerts’ feature complements and amplifies your existing safety protocols and processes; while keeping your people well-informed and up-to-date  before, during and after these events.

ScreenCloud’s ‘Emergency Alerts’ feature complements and amplifies your existing safety protocols and processes; while keeping your people well-informed and up-to-date  before, during and after these events.

Speed, Automation, and Reliability Matter When an Event Occurs | Emergency Alerts App in Studio

How secure data-sharing inspires employees and helps companies grow.

White Paper: Unleashing the Hidden Dashboard - ScreenCloud

Employee engagement: What are we missing?

Deskless workers are the unsung heroes of the modern world. They keep the wheels of most industries turning, including production, manufacturing, labor, delivery, development, healthcare, education, and so on. Despite their invaluable contributions and importance, we still see a consistently high turnover rate and skills gap across industries that employ a deskless workforce. Why is this happening and can engagement methods, like workplace digital signage, make an impact on workforce engagement?

With over 80% of the global workforce consisting of deskless workers who keep essential operations running, businesses need to examine how they can improve their employee satisfaction and drive productivity through better workforce engagement. 

This is, of course, easier said than done. The remote nature of deskless roles means that employees spend large portions of their day in a factory, warehouse, or on the road, disengaged from what’s happening at ground level on the business. 

This makes engagement more challenging. Most companies have no formal communication methods for speaking or relaying important information to employees, relying on more social platforms like WhatsApp to communicate. 

As businesses, we need to ask ourselves: Is this really the best way to communicate with employees? How can we uplift and improve our communication methods to drive better employee engagement at work?

What Are The Benefits of a Fully Engaged Workforce?

If you look up employee engagement online you’ll find over 50 definitions floating around the internet! However, the general academic consensus is that we can define employee engagement as a psychological state experienced by employees that compels them to perform at work. 

Engaged workers tend to demonstrate three essential characteristics:

Research from Gallup has shown that employees who are engaged at their workplace are more productive, which translates into greater benefits for businesses on the front end. Engaged employees act differently compared to disengaged colleagues, consciously aiming to surpass expectations in their efforts at work, giving their business a greater competitive advantage.

Disengaged employees are 60% more likely to make costly mistakes while at work, while companies with higher employee engagement show 21% greater profitability. Keeping employees engaged and motivated over the last 20 months has, however, been tough. 

Thanks to almost two years of an ongoing pandemic and resultant stress and anxiety, global employee engagement levels are at a low of 20%. 

This means that, around the world, 80% of the global workforce feels disengaged while at work, affecting business productivity and profitability. Gallup estimates that lost productivity through low workforce engagement costs the global economy $8.1 trillion each year. 

It’s clear that we need to prioritize improving workforce engagement levels, particularly for deskless workers who generally work long hours and often spend large portions of their workday alone.

Workplace digital signage is essentially signage consisting of multiple screens distributed across a business. These screens provide a highly visible internal communication platform, acting as a singular source of truth where employees can access accurate, up-to-date company information and just-in updates. 

But workplace digital signage can do more than that. When utilized strategically, workplace digital signage can educate, entertain, motivate and inspire employees no matter where they’re located. 

How Can Workplace Digital Signage Power Workforce Engagement?

On their own, screens are nothing special. But they have latent potential that, when harnessed with intention, can amplify messaging and supercharge employee engagement at every level. The visual and auditory capabilities of screens uniquely enable them, as a communication medium, to convey ideas and messages with more impact compared to static, text-based emails and SMSes. 

Here are just a few of the ways workplace digital signage can be harnessed to power better engagement at work 

Improve training methods

A thorough training and onboarding process is crucial to ensure that employees have a solid grasp of their responsibilities and can perform effectively at work without unnecessary supervision. Workplace digital signage can help facilitate training sessions that are more interactive and engaging at a speedier rate, without employees having to be confined to a single physical room to complete their training. 


Streamline communication

Effective communication is a challenge for any company, but especially for companies that employ a deskless workforce. Relying on unofficial messaging channels and platforms runs the risk of employees missing important company communications and messages. 

It also makes it harder for employees to distinguish between work and personal time when they receive company messages on the same platform they use for communicating with family and friends, particularly if automated work messages come in after hours. Workplace digital signage keeps messages within a strictly work environment and ensures employees all have the same access to any company messaging. 


Make employees feel heard 

It’s no secret that deskless workers often feel undervalued and unappreciated by their managers and CEOs, who often don’t have the time to listen to their ideas, frustrations, and concerns. Companies should actively work harder to make their workforce heard within the workplace. Workplace digital signage can help facilitate this by sharing employee feedback, ideas, and suggestions or running employee engagement campaigns.


Develop an ideal workplace culture

The state of a company’s workplace culture can make or break an employee’s experience. Toxic workplace culture has been a driving factor in the great resignation that’s dominated 2020 and 2021. If businesses want to retain their workforce, it’s imperative that they focus their efforts on creating a positive, inclusive company culture. 

Workplace digital signage can assist in building better company culture, by sharing and celebrating employee achievements and team accomplishments, as well as company milestones and victories, all of which reinforce a sense of connection and purpose among a deskless workforce.


As we employ more remote and deskless workers in our organizations, it’s important that we continuously review how we interact with and support employees so they feel sufficiently engaged and productive when performing their roles at work. 

ScreenCloud helps teams in 10,000+ organizations around the world communicate with those who matter most, using the screens on their walls and the content  in their systems. 

ScreenCloud’s digital signage can inform employees on corporate information like social media feeds, data visualizations, emergency alerts, and live broadcasts – or even simply the news, sports and weather. 

Sign up for a free demo and see what your organization can achieve with digital signage.

Deskless workers make up around 80% of the global workforce. Discover how businesses can use digital signage to improve workforce engagement and boost employee productivity.

Global workforce engagement is at 20% as of 2021. Businesses that employ a deskless workforce need to look at new ways to drive workforce engagement and productivity. Workplace digital signage can provide the means to inspire better workforce engagement.

4 Ways Workplace Digital Signage Can Power Your Workforce Engagement

Download best practices, tools, and insights you need to roll out a top-notch digital signage pilot program with ScreenCloud

Free Ebook: Successful Digital Signage Pilot - ScreenCloud

Everything you need to know about our trial process to get a taste of digital signage and its potential.

How to get access to best practice guides, and full support from our Professional Services team. 

How to choose the most accessible and cost-effective hardware options for your business.

Learn about opportunities to quickly build custom applications tailored to your specific needs.

How to evaluate the effectiveness of your digital signage pilot program and plan for the future.

Access to a free 14-day trial with no credit card required & full support and extended trial when needed

Learn about access to training, hardware recommendations and how to scope out custom-built apps

Help gathering feedback, measuring success & rolling out the next step of your digital signage journey

Download the tips, tools and steps you need to roll out a top-notch digital signage pilot program with ScreenCloud.

Try ScreenCloud free for 14-days. No credit cards required. Or get a product demonstration.

Ready to start creating your employee channel?

Your handbook with new world methods on engaging employees and making them love the way you work.

Guide to Employee Engagement in 2020 - ScreenCloud

You already have the data, here's how to use it to engage your employees.

How to develop public recognition to make employees feel valued.

How to raise visibility of learning materials and programs.

How to create incentives that will make employees feel great.

Everything you need to get off the ground.

Easy ways to lift data from HR systems you already use

Methods for employee reward & gamification

How to use screens to engage teams with important notices

Your handbook on new world employee engagement methods.

Employee engagement is still a big challenge for companies in 2020. Engaged employees stay put for longer and feel more empowered to perform their best work. Creating a network of communication, incentives and recognition helps employees feel more engaged. In this ebook we'll help you develop an employee engagement strategy that works.

How can you help employees fall back in love with your company?

As any franchise owner will know, managing the marketing across all of your sites can be a daunting task; while each location is unique, you still need to make it feel part of the parent company. And you can’t, of course, be in all places at once.

In this guide we’ll take you through the best practices for managing your franchise marketing, with many tips coming from customers like Nisbet Enterprises and Burn Boot Camp. 

The trick to successful franchise marketing is brand consistency. This helps build brand loyalty, which in turn helps revenue. 

Your marketing plan also needs to take prospective franchisees into consideration, increasing brand awareness at a national level. And if you’re a franchisee, your primary goal will be to understand and attract your local clientele.

Your website is often your first contact point with a potential customer. It’s your digital shop window. Make sure it works as well on mobile as it does desktop, that it loads quickly and is easy to navigate. 

Always include your franchise’s branding and logo, and clear calls to action whenever appropriate. If you’re a franchisor, it’s important to list franchisee information on the corporate website. 

If you’re a franchisee and you have permission to create an independent website, carpe diem. With your own website, you can control the kind of content you want to publish (within brand guidelines) and track visits to gain meaningful insights into your potential customers.

You also need to build a presence on the biggest social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and others depending on your demographic. These are powerful tools to interact with your audience, and for them to interact with you. 

Social media is also a fantastic way to discover and understand your local markets and trends—a crucial factor for success, especially if you’re a franchisee. Facebook offers abundant resources on how to effectively promote your local business, including courses on key elements for creating a professional, well-presented Facebook and Instagram pages to how to reach people near your store location, as well as success stories from local businesses around the world.    

As franchises often operate in many locations spread across different countries, it’s hard to compete on search engines without highly targeted, local SEO. Include geographic keywords in your content, meta descriptions, and tags. 

For instance, if you run a burger franchise in Homer, Alaska, you’d want to use keywords like “burger Homer AK” or “restaurant in Homer AK”. This will make sure you don’t accidentally compete with the same franchise on the other side of the country.

Publish your franchise location on sites like Google Maps, Yelp, Foursquare, and TripAdvisor. This is a great way to help customers discover your business and for you to acquire backlinks (the more trusted sites that link to your website, the higher your search rankings). These sites enable customers to review and rate your business and share their experience with others. 

When users search for keywords mentioned in your reviews, this also helps boost your franchise’s ranking in search engine results pages. 

In-store marketing is just as important as online, and you need consistency between the two. Customers in your franchise store are obviously the most engaged, so how you market in-store can have a direct impact on your business' bottom line. 

Digital signage is one of the most effective ways to promote your franchise brand, engage with users, and connect the in-store and online customer experiences. 

Depending on the sector you're operating in and the nature of your franchise business, there are different ways you can leverage digital signage to supercharge your in-store marketing. For example, if you run a restaurant franchise, you probably change your menu regularly. It can be painful and time-consuming to update your menu throughout the day if you use traditional methods like printed menu cards and scribbling on a blackboard. 

With digital signage, you can easily display and update your menu boards in real-time, and include high-quality images and key information (descriptions, nutritional value, calories, etc.) about your dishes to ensure your food looks and sounds attractive to customers.         

You can also display a social wall, such as Instagram, TripAdvisor, and Yelp, sharing positive reviews and testimonials from your customers. Genuine social proof instills trust in your business.

Use digital signage to announce special offers, discounts, in-store contests, and other promotional activities to fuel excitement and entice customers to participate. Engaged customers not only spend more but also help promote your business to others.

Similar to SEO, if you’re a franchisee and haven’t included localization in your marketing plan, then you’ve inadvertently cut a hole in the net to allow the fish to escape. Targeting your local demographic market can be done in many ways:

Leaflet marketing: One idea is to establish a strong relationship with complementary businesses and collaborate with them to help distribute the leaflets. Display the leaflets where your ideal customers usually hang out (pubs, movie theaters, the town hall, country clubs). Think about the size of your leaflets—too big and people will have trouble carrying them, too small and your important message might not be conveyed properly.     

Sponsorship: Look for sponsorship opportunities that resonate with your business and culture so that you have a compelling reason to participate and get the best out of your investment.     

Community events: Giving back to the community is not only a commendable gesture, but it’s also a great way to gain media attention and improve your brand awareness. There are countless ways to do good. For instance, if you run a restaurant franchise, donate unsold food to a local homeless charity or host a free Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Or if you own a sports equipment and apparel franchise, you could give surplus supplies to a local school or youth football team. 

Best practices for managing franchise marketing  

Successful marketing is an ongoing undertaking: you need to be constantly evaluating your processes, making changes when necessary, and learning about what works best for you. 

Franchise owners especially must also understand the importance of brand consistency and the need to always be talking to and working closely with franchisees.

Good communication requires easy access to useful and relevant information. Regularly provide franchisees updated marketing materials and clear usage guidelines to help pre-empt any abnormal deviation from the core brand identity and messaging. This also keeps their communication fresh and shows that you’re investing in them.

Once franchisees feel well-informed and supported, they’re more inclined to share the knowledge gathered from their local customers and participate in the development of new marketing initiatives that can benefit the business at a higher level. Learn about successful initiatives your franchises are making, and find ways to incorporate these into your official marketing materials.

2. Use tools to help keep everyone on brand

Investing in the right tools will make your job as a franchise owner a lot easier and help you better scale your operations. Tools can help maintain a strong franchisor-franchisee relationship and communication and allow you to stay on top of what content is shown on franchise digital signage screens and social media.

Dropbox: An easy, flexible way to share files (for example, brand assets and brand guidelines) that enables seamless collaboration as contributors can comment on documents and track updates to newly added content.

AffiliateCMS: A franchise and affiliate content management system built to enable secure distribution of corporate content. 

Naranga: A suite of franchise management solutions including local marketing, video training, operations, lead management, and field auditing.

Configio: A comprehensive platform that manages the entire franchise lifecycle, from lead generation and on-boarding to performance tracking and communication with franchisees.

FranchiseSoft: Another all-in-one franchise management platform for both franchisors and franchisees. 


3. Give franchisees the freedom they need

Though franchisees need to follow the franchisor’s rules and business model, deep down they are also entrepreneurs who are taking huge risks and are motivated to build great businesses. They can receive some help and guidance from the franchisor, but the ultimate fate of a local franchise lies in their hands. 

Entrepreneurs love autonomy and ownership. They’re eager to innovate and explore new ideas. As a franchise owner, you shouldn't inhibit these characteristics. 

Find a middle-ground where you can offer franchisees enough room to express their creativity and implement what works for their business locally without compromising on the brand identity and image.

It’s easy to overlook training as many franchisors and franchisees often view it as a trivial activity, or even a waste of time. It’s easy to mistakenly put 100% of your focus on sales—you are a business after all. However, if you want franchisees to triumph in replicating your franchise model in the long-term, training is a must. 

Your franchisees might be fresh-off-boat. They might have no experience, skills, or prior knowledge of the industry you’re operating in. You need to empower them with proven methods, best practices, and rigorous training so that even the least skilled new franchisees will feel fully equipped to run their venture and you can feel confident that they represent your brand standards and image properly.

A comprehensive training program doesn’t stop at handing out handbooks and manuals. Invite franchisees to the franchise headquarters to take a closer look at your daily procedures and operations. Use a variety of training formats (discussions, videos, lectures, Q&A, hands-on activities) to keep your training sessions interactive and help franchisees retain information.

It's equally important to offer on-site training at the franchisee’s location. This is a great opportunity to help the franchisee get on their feet because frankly, during the first few days and weeks of opening a new business, things can quickly turn into chaos. It’s also a chance for you to identify the franchisee’s strengths and areas for improvement—useful feedback to help you tailor your training approaches to best meet the needs of each franchisee. 

Keep in mind that training is never a one-time thing. As the business evolves, there will always be changes—new policies, regulatory standards, products, implementations, etc. An effective training program therefore involves ongoing support and refresher sessions. 

Establishing a clear, tailored approval process can save time, improve transparency and compliance, and increase efficiency within a franchise business. While there’s no one-size-fits-all way of designing an approval workflow, here are the main components of an approval process that you need to think about:

Submission: Where franchisees can submit documents (invoices, new marketing plans, purchase orders, etc.) to be approved.

Permission levels: Who has the right to edit, reject or approve the submitted documents?

Due dates: Setting deadlines is critical in ensuring things get done and preventing unwanted backlogs. 

Feedback: Providing constructive feedback to support your final decision is valuable in helping the franchisee understand why their proposal is rejected or approved, and how they can improve and make changes for the future.

Discover different ways to market your franchise location and six best practices you can apply to better manage your franchise marketing and maintain brand consistency.

Managing marketing across your franchise can be daunting work. Here, we’ll guide you with some best practices for an efficient and seamless process.

Operations

Franchisor and Franchisee: The Guide to a Successful Relationship

What's New?

Employee Engagement & the Deskless Workforce

The Neuroscience of Visual Media

Speed, Automation, and Reliability Matter When an Event Occurs | Emergency Alerts App in Studio

Unleashing the Hidden Dashboard

4 Ways Workplace Digital Signage Can Power Your Workforce Engagement

Successful Digital Signage Pilot

Guide to Employee Engagement in 2020

Best Practices for Managing Franchise Marketing

5 IoT Solutions for the Connected Restaurant

Operations

Franchisor and Franchisee: The Guide to a Successful Relationship

What's New?

Employee Engagement & the Deskless Workforce

The Neuroscience of Visual Media

Speed, Automation, and Reliability Matter When an Event Occurs | Emergency Alerts App in Studio

Unleashing the Hidden Dashboard

4 Ways Workplace Digital Signage Can Power Your Workforce Engagement

Successful Digital Signage Pilot

Guide to Employee Engagement in 2020

Best Practices for Managing Franchise Marketing

ScreenCloud and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

5 IoT Solutions for the Connected Restaurant