What is the role of a franchisee support representative?

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When you decide to franchise your business and start selling franchises to new franchisees, you need to provide training, management consultation and support services to those franchisees. Unless you're superhuman, you'll need help in that area. That is the job of the Franchisee Support Representative - to train new franchisees and help them develop their business skills and abilities so that they can be successful. That makes for a win-win situation for both the franchisee and the franchisor.

7 Areas of Responsibility

A franchisee support representative must be able to encompass and handle all of the following duties and responsibilities:

1. Credibility/Trust: Build and maintain a consistently high level of trust and credibility with franchisees.
2. Relationship: Develop and nurture a positive relationship with the franchisees.
3. Retention: Attain high levels of franchisee retention.
4. Service: Render quality service levels to the franchisees.
5. Availability: Be available and accessible to the franchisees at all times.
6. Results: Develop an atmosphere in which franchisees can attain results of increased revenues and profitability.
7. Legal: Be aware of the legalities involved in servicing franchisees and constantly monitor and observe those legal requirements.

The 4-Pronged Approach

In order to deliver on those duties and ensure that franchisees are provided with all the tools they need to succeed, the franchisee support representative should follow a four-pronged approach:

1. Consult: Consult with the franchisee on an ongoing basis - whether in person, over the phone or via email.
2. Train: Conduct training courses and workshops for the franchisees and their employees as needed.
3. Communicate: Establish and maintain solid lines of communication with the franchisees. Keep the franchisor informed of the status of each franchisee by completing the necessary documentation in a timely manner.
4. Acquire: Acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively accomplish all of his/her responsibilities.

5 Key Areas Which Should See Positive Results

If your franchisee support representative is doing his/her job effectively, the business should see significant positive results in the following key areas:

1. Revenue and profitability
2. Operational efficiency
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Employee productivity
5. Management effectiveness

5 Basic Principles for Support Representatives

To build constructive relationships with franchisees and others in the organization, certain basic principles need to be followed by the franchisee support representatives. These principles are the foundation on which all other consulting skills are built:

1. Help build the self-confidence and self-esteem of others.
2. Always focus on the situation or behavior, never the person.
3. Realize that to be effective, relationships with franchisees require ongoing attention.
4. Constantly seek to make things better.
5. Set a good example.

In upcoming posts we will discuss the operational support you should provide to franchisees and how to do this effectively.