Guiding a franchise into success can take you to your wits’ end. Yes, for a franchise owner, no matter how elaborate their means of communications are, managing a franchise can be a vicious cycle. So, the best possible strategy to imply is franchise operations software. But, the question here is, is your current franchise management software right for your business?
Is Your Franchise Management Software Right For Your Franchise?
Categorizing a Franchise
To know the answer to the above asked question, we first need to learn about the category your franchise falls into. Going by the book, it can be simply divided into 3 types:
Note: There are various schools of thought on the types of Franchise. But at the core, they have been zeroed in on the below three.
- A Business Franchise
- Manufacturing Franchise
- A Product Franchise
The Right Franchise Management Software
Now that we have successfully categorized a franchise, let’s look at some properties of the right FMS for each category.
A Business Franchise
After years of burning the candle from both ends, your franchise has expanded to various territories in your country. You also own an FMS, but does it integrate these properties?
- CRM – At the top is CRM (customer relationship management). Your FMS should be able to automatically create marketing strategies. Through the franchise software, these strategies should also be promoted to various franchisees.
- Networking – This is another important factor. From day-to-day operations to weekly updates and workflow status, your FMS should be able to collect, broadcast, and store these details.
- Bifurcated data – Your FRM should also be able to provide you with segregated data and real-time information about individual franchisees.
- Managing Contacts – Hundreds of clients, numerous suppliers, and vendors, each as important to the business as the other. Managing them manually is sometimes an impossible task.
Along with the other common features, if your FMS is equipped with these, your franchise is going to prosper. But, if it doesn’t, you should start thinking about shifting to a new module of FMS.
A Manufacturing Franchise
If your franchise has grown into a multi-territory manufacturing business, nothing can stop you from being a success. That being said, a simple fallback in your FMS cannot lead you to a damaging business rather it can slow down the progress of your franchise. This kind of franchise heavily relies on the synergy between the supplier, inventory, and employees.
- Tracking finance – With your business expanding to various arenas tracking your franchisees can be tacky. Hence, your FMS should have a mechanism to operate and trace the finances of the various franchise across regions, all in one place.
- Operate from anywhere – Your FMS should be able to process data 24*7 no matter where you are. Additionally, being able to access your franchise reports from any device is also a plus.
- The facility to track employee workflow and progress should also be incorporated in the FMS. This way an owner will be able to facilitate the right amount of manpower.
With these FMS features in hand running a franchise globally cannot get more smooth.
A Product Franchise
Coca-Cola can be a good example of a product franchise. For an owner of a product franchise keeping a tap on each distribution of its product is important. Thus, here are some additional features of FMS that a product franchise should try to incorporate.
- Sales Reports – Your CRM should be able to help you with a detailed narrative of each sale of your product.
- Forecasting – Whether its sales or manufacturing, being able to look into the future and determine upcoming demands and results is largely an important factor.
So, do you have the right franchise management software? Hope you have found the answer through this article. Not only to established franchise owners but individuals who are starting up, the right FMS can boost your franchise into success faster than usual.
