How to Motivate Your Franchisees

Keeping your franchisees motivated is critical to their success—and yours. The culture of your franchise starts with your corporate office. When you inspire and cheer on your franchisees, they do the same for their clients. Use our checklist to invigorate franchisees and ensure success for all.

Motivation begins at the start.

By picking the right people to join as franchisees, you make things a lot easier from the start.

Look for these qualities when recruiting new franchisees:

• Comfortable managing a team
• Intrinsically motivated and have a desire to make a positive impact on customers’ lives
• Driven to be successful

Tip: Consider someone who’s already a part of your franchise family. Whether it’s a current customer, a coach, a stylist, or a manager, choosing someone already committed to your franchise makes everyone’s jobs easier.

Check in with your franchisees regularly.

While you may have locations all over, it’s important your franchisees feel connected and stay up to speed. Regular events, whether in person or online, are a great way to touch base. They can also keep the customer experience at your franchise consistent across every location.

• Host regular webinars that keep your franchisees informed of best practices.
• Have regional events to give franchisees a chance to mingle in person, give feedback, and get energized.
• Hire franchise business managers who can be the main contact for your franchisees, giving them the personalized attention they need.
• Depending on the size of your franchise, schedule regular, biweekly video conferences between franchisees and corporate.
• Have members of your corporate team make weekly calls, introducing themselves to a different franchisee each month. These calls give the corporate office greater insight into franchisee needs, build rapport, and reinforce the value of the support provided by the corporate office.
• Inspire your franchisees with periodic content from corporate—whether you email an infographic about the latest industry trends, a list of recommended books, or a couple of retention tips, it’s a great chance to invigorate and provide valuable info to your franchisees.

Have a plan to get franchisees back on track.

It’s normal for franchisees to struggle initially or even plateau and start to slide backward. When they do, it’s important to have a process that can reinvigorate them.

• Ensure franchise business managers reach out. It’s important that your franchisees know that the corporate office is a resource for them.
• Create an at-risk franchisee program that provides additional support to struggling franchisees. Complete a detailed business assessment and identify issues within their location. Then, create an actionable plan, including regular corporate check-ins, to turn things around.
• Develop a wide array of accessible resources that outline common pitfalls and how to avoid them. Use these documents to onboard franchisees and to help get them back on track.
• Introduce the struggling location to one of your all-star locations.

Give your franchisees a support network and something to talk about.

The network of your franchisees is invaluable.

• Provide an online forum for your franchisees to ask each other questions, share best practices, and talk out tough issues.
• Build a dashboard that shows metrics across all locations, giving franchisees a chance to see what’s working, and what can be improved. Encourage top performers to share advice on the forum.
• When onboarding new franchisees, assign an established franchisee to mentor them and share a bit about their experience getting started.

Make the most of your annual summit.

Your annual franchise summit or conference is an undeniable opportunity for motivation. Gathering all of your franchisees and their key team members in one space leads to high energy throughout the event. Use this time to remind franchisees why they love being a part of your brand.

• Plan a program that shares updates and teases what’s coming up.
• Invite speakers who resonate with your brand who can motivate your franchisees long after they’ve returned home.
• Spend time reflecting on the franchise mission with talks from franchise leaders and founders.
• Recognize your top-performing franchisees. Offer awards for top-earning franchisees in both emerging and established markets and additional awards for the best managers and coaches, stylists, etc.
• Provide in-person support from your corporate team or any vendors. Help them before frustration builds.
• Consider breakout sessions that allow franchisees to focus on different topics and share their experiences with both the corporate team as well as other franchisees.
• Allow ample time for franchisees to enjoy the festivities and mingle, too. It’s time to toast to their successes!