BY DEBBIE SELINSKY
LIGHTS !
HONORING THE BEST IN FRANCHISE RECRUITMENT
Each year , in the run-up to the annual Franchise Leadership & Development Conference , franchise brands that pre-register can choose to have themselves mystery shopped by a team of sales and lead generation experts . This year , the 165 franchise brands that participated were evaluated on best telephone follow-up , franchisee satisfaction , website response , their websites , and their FDDs .
The results are scored and the top performers in each category — and the overall winners — are recognized with STAR Awards at a banquet held on the final night of the conference . The dinner , sponsored by eKomi , was held at Maggiano ’ s Little Italy , just up the road from the Intercontinental Buckhead Atlanta , where the conference took place this past September 28 – 30 .
To learn more about the methodology employed by the mystery shoppers — and more important , their observations , analysis , and suggestions for improvement — see page 42 . A list of the winners and top runners-up can be found at the end of this article .
BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE
1st Place : Captain D ’ s
No one was more surprised or excited about winning the STAR Award for Best Overall Performance than Michael Arrowsmith , chief development officer for Nashvillebased Captain D ’ s . After all , Captain D ’ s started franchising again only 2½ years ago after a hiatus of more than a decade .
“ We do a lot of things well ,” says Arrowsmith . “ Responsiveness is the single most important thing we do . But there ’ s so much that we can improve on that I was happily surprised when
Michael Arrowsmith our name was announced .”
Much has been accomplished in the past couple of years at Captain D ’ s .“ When I was brought on board , there was no infrastructure , no real estate or sales department — nothing . The cool thing about that is you ’ re able to build exactly what you want based on best practices ,” he says .
“ We ’ ve been around since 1969 and continued to work with existing franchisees , but starting up again with franchising we ’ re like an emerging new brand with all our platforms and processes . We had one talented sales person and we brought two more on last January , so we tripled our sales staff . There ’ s a lot more we ’ ll be able to do over time , because we want to get better .”
Arrowsmith , who has attended the Leadership & Development Conference for more than 10 years , said he used what he learned there when building the franchise development platform and sales department .“ We educated ourselves and learned what other brands were doing successfully . We ’ ve also met some of our vendors at the conference . Last year , when we overhauled our website , we used one of the partners we met there .”
What ’ s been happening at Captain D ’ s is a testament to a lot of hard work behind the scenes and a lot of good people , he adds .“ It all comes down to people . You ’ ve
got to have the right people on your team to execute all this .”
Arrowsmith credits the brand ’ s emphasis on responsiveness for the positive reactions he ’ s been getting from franchisees and prospects alike . “ Responsiveness is really about listening , and that theme permeates our entire organization . We listen to our franchisees . We don ’ t do everything they want us to do , but the fact that we ’ ve had six consecutive years of same store sales increases speaks for itself ,” he says .
“ And when we hear from prospects , we get to them quickly and listen carefully because we know we ’ re not the only ones they ’ re contacting . You ’ ve got to be responsive and listen , not just pontificate about how great your brand is , to learn if that person is who you ’ re looking for .”
Captain D ’ s also listens to customers , including much of their feedback into the 4-year-old relaunch , complete with new look and grilled menu , he says . “ Listening , working hard , and hiring the best people is key to our success . We ’ re going to try to get better each year .”
BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE
2nd Place : Pinot ’ s Palette
Missy Erickson
Departing from the traditional channels and portals employed by many franchises has worked well for Pinot ’ s Palette , says Missy Erickson , franchise development director for the Houston-based
48 Franchiseupdate ISSUE IV , 2016