Drive Your Franchise To Success, Part II

[This is the second in a three-part series that debunks the long-held view that a franchisee's success is depends on the franchisor. You can drive your franchise into double-digits, illustrating how franchisees can earn success by doing more than their franchisor requires. Part III will appear next week.]

Personality Traits
Managing people is a lot less scientific than managing knowledge. Green says it involves making some judgements about who you can trust, "who you can look in the eye." That starts with the hiring process. Bring in people who care about themselves, says Scanlon. Those are the people who generally take pride in their work and who will treat your customers well.

Once those people come on board, give them performance standards and a sense of ownership in the business. That will give them something to strive for. How you do that depends on the business and the marketplace. Remember that what works in a large city may not work in a rural area. So, test your market to determine what will entice your employees to work hard. Financial incentives often work, as do "employee-of-the-month" awards and other forms of recognition.

Some organizations, such as fast-food franchises, have training programs that help employees start out as cashiers or cooks, and work their way up to manager or area supervisor. "That silent contract says 'you take care of me and I'll take care of you,'" says Scanlon. "You have to give more than you get back."

Service With A Smile
Employee relations can have a profound effect on customer service, another key business driver that affects virtually every industry. Scanlon says that many entrepreneurs focus on customer service, but expend little energy on their employees.

"Most people put customer service first and dump on their employees to get it. It really doesn't work that way," he says. "They need to have a sense of ownership and participation and pride. Out of that will come customer service."

Sarian Bouma, a former cleaning-service franchisee and current owner of Capitol Hill Building Maintenance in Hyattsville, Md., refers to her employees as ambassadors. She knows their names - all 200 of them - and tells them everything, from the cost of supplies to the money brought in by each contract. That's why they work so well for her, and why her clients know they can depend on her company to provide quality janitorial and construction clean-up services.

"They know when they call and say, 'you didn't leave any toilet paper,' we're not going to say, 'what do you mean?'" says Bouma. "We're going to say, 'We're sorry; we'll bring it right over.'"

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