Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2015 | Page 46

BY KERRY PIPES

The Mystery Persists
Our annual mystery shopping survey
shows some improvement, with much room for more

F

ranchise recruiting is serious business. Incredibly, year after year,
franchise brands continue to fumble
the fundamentals. They are not executing
the X’s and O’s. They are failing to meet
prospects where they are (mobile devices
anyone?), providing flat-out wrong information, responding too slowly to prospect
inquiries, and worse, not getting back to
them at all. These are just some of the
key findings of Franchise Update Media’s
2015 annual mystery shopping survey.
Every brand that registered by August
15 to attend this year’s Franchise Leadership & Development Conference was
mystery shopped by a “qualified, perfect
candidate,” said Gary Gardner, chair
of Franchise Update Media, during his
presentation of the survey results at the
conference in mid-October. The brands
were evaluated by telephone query, website response, website best practices, social
media, and franchisee satisfaction.
Gardner noted a few eyebrow-raising
statistics during his presentation. “Of the
137 brands that were shopped this year,
34 percent never returned a call from
the initial contact from the prospect,” he
noted. And 14 percent simply referred
them to their website. “To me that’s inexcusable,” he said. “Some people are doing
some great things, and some people have
some work to do.”
Response to Inquiries

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But there is good news. The needed
improvements can be made, and the strategies and tactics for doing so are simple
to implement. Brands and their development teams just need the discipline
to do it. We asked each of the mystery
shopping researchers who participated
in this year’s study—Franchise Business
Review, Landmark Interactive, and FranConnect—to discuss and interpret their
findings and provide their thoughts on
how brands can make positive changes
(see Best Practices sidebar).
Franchisee satisfaction
Franchise Business Review (FBR) measured franchisee satisfaction and performance at 44 franchise companies representing more than 19,000 business units.
Survey responses from 5,775 franchisees
were compared with FBR’s benchmark
data from more than 21,000 franchisees
representing franchise brands across all
industry segments.
Eric Stites, FBR’s CEO, said franchisees
completed an independent survey consisting of more than 50 questions related to
their business performance, satisfaction
with their brand, and general business
demographics; 33 of the 50 questions
were rated on a 100-point scale called
the Franchisee Satisfaction Index (FSI).
Satisfaction was measured across eight

key areas: Training & Support, Franchise
System, Leadership, Financial Opportunity, Core Values, Franchisee Community,
Self-Evaluation (franchisee performance),
and General Overall Satisfaction. Individual question ratings ranged from the
low 80s down to the mid 50s, with an
average overall FSI score of 70.
FU: Describe the key findings and
results of your research.
Stites: Overall, the Franchise Update
test group FSI score (70) was nearly identical to FBR’s franchise sector benchmark
(70.7), which represents more than 350
leading franchise brands. The 1 percent
overall variation is not statistically significant and is within the research margin
error. That being said, several key areas
did show a statistically significant negative
variation from the benchmark, specifically in the area of Financial Opportunity.
FU: What were some of the key
strengths identified by the benchmark satisfaction questions?
Stites: There were four strong areas.
1) Franchisee Self-Assessment: “I enjoy
being part of this organization” (82.0
FSI); “I enjoy operating this business”
(81.8 FSI); 2) Core Values: “I respect my
franchisor” (80.3 FSI); “My franchisor acts
with a high level of honesty and integrity”
(78.9 FSI); 3) Community Engagement:
“My fellow franchisees are supportive
of the brand” (77.0 FSI); and 4) General
Satisfaction: “I would recommend my
franchise to others” (77.8 FSI).
FU: What challenges were identified by the benchmark satisfaction
questions?
Stites: 1) Financial Opportunity:
“Current financial