Franchise management software aims at making franchise operations streamlined. Before we get into the main software concept it’s important to know about the definition of a franchise and its two fundamental elements namely franchisor and franchisee.

Franchise

A franchise is a form of business in which the operation, combined with products, services, knowledge, and branding is licensed by the owner in exchange for a fee called the licensing fee.

Franchisor

A franchisor is the one in charge of trading the right with a small business owner to launch stores and begin selling products and/or services using its expertise, intellectual property, and branding. The business selling its right to capitalize on its brand name and idea may be a new or an already existing one.

Franchisee

A franchisee is an autonomous small business owner who is responsible for running the franchise. In a franchise, the franchisee is granted access to proprietary business processes, knowledge, and trademarks of the franchisor. In doing so, the franchisee is empowered to sell products and/or services under the business name of the franchisor. The franchisee is obligated to pay an initial fee for starting up the business and a yearly licensing fee to the franchisor.

Franchise management software

Franchise management software works on cloud computing technology. The software platform comprises a modular architecture that offers tools and features to manage operations, employee training, the generation and closure of sale deals with prospective customers (leads), marketing, and many more. Beyond the bounds of franchising, it’s commonly referred to as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

Franchise Management Software

All-inclusive franchise management software incorporates a number of modules that combine and interact with one another. The modules extract data from commonly shared databases or reserves to cut down redundancies, improve the quality of analysis, and strengthen operations. Franchise management software consists of the following modules.

• Franchise development

• Franchise performance

• Field service management

• Marketing

• Employee management

• Customer management

• Franchise management

• Franchise Support

• Intranet

• Franchisee onboarding

• Training

• Finance

• Surveys

• Franchise development

In recent times, franchising is considered as one of the quickest and simplest ways for businesses to make inroads into new as well as already existing markets. In keeping with this fact, franchise development is put on top priority by established and new franchisors alike.

The development module of franchise management software comes up with an innovative, technology-driven platform that gives you ample opportunities to be a leader in your specific franchising industry. The franchise development module comes to your aid by pulling out more time to contact leads and focusing less on repetitive, low-value administrative tasks.

The franchise development module offers the following features.

• Sales processes that can be customized to serve your unique needs

• Automatically generated sales pipeline reports that encompass details of all the typical stages of the sales cycles

• Automatic dispatch of sales reports containing key performance metrics through email

• Intelligent and tailor-made reporting dashboards, giving you accurate, detailed information of key performance metrics at a glance

• Smooth integration with all types of lead portals

• Seamless and automatic entry of lead specific information into the database

• Systematic and effortless communication with leads or brokers

• Alerts and notifications to expedite the process of contacting new leads

• Streamlined and proper movement of leads through all stages of the sales cycle

• Visually appealing customizable templates to make the outcomes of email marketing campaigns better

• Sharing of standardized information that will be received by leads via sharp-witted email marketing campaigns

• The consolidation of hiring and production activities in a single platform thereby removing the need to bring add-ons or third-party software together

The job of the performance module of franchise management software is simple. Basically, it provides assistance to capture, measure, analyze, and improve the performance of the franchise. It goes without saying, a better return on investment for a franchisee automatically results in the same for a franchisor as well.

• Franchise performance

The franchise performance module comprises the following features

• Simple means to process royalties and several other fees

• The integration of Automatic Clearing House (ACH) to process royalties

• Appropriate adherence to the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD)

• Effortless handling of the areas and territories governed by the franchise

• Timely collection of profit and loss data

• Intelligent reporting dashboards to keep track of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and analyze them

• Dynamic, real-time reporting for analyzing the financial growth of the system your franchise supports

• Field service management

The field service management module of the franchise management software helps you to keep an eye on leads. This in turn facilitates the speedy conversion of leads into paying customers and a quick and easy increase in sales. The powerful capability of the field service management module allows you to plan and schedule jobs at every level – franchisor, franchisee, and field service professionals, commonly called field reps.

The field service management module renders the following features:

• Scheduling

The feature helps in the creation of jobs and their subsequent assignment to field reps irrespective of the device, time, and location. The scheduling feature is meant for sending prompt notifications in relation to job schedules to employees, franchisees, field reps, and customers in the form of emails or text messages. Field reps make use of franchise management software mobile app, compatible with Android or iOS, for receiving and confirming assigned jobs.

• Field reps reporting and management

The feature enables you to detect the current geographical location of field reps utilizing a centrally operated dashboard while receiving job orders. It enables easy monitoring of the availability of field reps via calendar view. It allows you to get jobs assigned or reassigned on the basis of the availability of field reps and customers. It provides reports on the revenue generated by and customer satisfaction rating for each field rep.

• Assignment of jobs to the generation of invoices

The field service management module helps in the assignment of jobs to field reps by making use of a centrally located call center or via franchisees. It lets field reps upload before and after photos once the job is completed. It enables them to get the completion sign-off from the customer, generate invoices right there at the customer premise, and do the on-spot collection of payments. Alternatively, an invoice can be generated by the franchise office following which payment can be processed and collected online.

The field service management module also takes in franchise CRM thereby filling in the system with many supplementary features such as:

• • An elaborate dashboard for analyzing leads and their referral sources

  • A comprehensive customizable dashboard for analyzing leads based on their unique preferences

  • In-depth, insightful reports for tracking and analyzing leads and studying their referral sources

  • Smooth import of the details of leads into primary franchise database

  • Simple tools for capturing information about leads

  • Robust communication tools for reaching out to leads

  • Easy and updated documentation of every communication that transpired while contacting leads

  • A tracker to store information about referral sources

  • An organized way to identify reasons for lost leads

  • A mobile app using which you can easily manage leads and their behavior while on the go

• Marketing

The marketing features of franchise management software are powerful and intuitive. The processes help get the most out of your franchise. The integrated resources help in optimizing the efforts put in to reach out to leads.

The marketing capability offers the following features.

• Static and dynamic group based marketing automation

• Bespoke marketing templates to help both franchisors and franchisees in executing their marketing endeavors

• Digital library consisting of many files and folders with special access permission

• Marketing campaigns, both email and text messaging, to broaden outreach

• Intelligent, informative reports, dashboards, and analytics to understand the impact your marketing efforts bring forth

• Employee management

Franchise management software allows you to seamlessly manage employee operations besides providing them with access to vital information.

The employee management module comes up with the below-mentioned features.

• Streamlined communication setup with employees

• Employee-related schedules for various tasks and events

• Automatic documentation of the communication histories for all employees

• Up to date calendars to know about staff availability and manage them

• Resolution of any scheduling conflict with immediate notice that may arise because of overtime or overlapping shifts

• Elimination of the possibilities of no-shows during schedules by providing employees with continuous access to schedule timings and changes in shifts if any

• The creation of conflict-free schedules

• The import of schedule-related information from different sources

• Unifrom distribution of responsibilities related to scheduling by letting employees mark their availability or exchange shifts and devote less time to personally manage schedules

• An interactive scheduling approach with visual representation to engage employees

• Updates on schedules in real-time to make sure no schedule is lost or overlooked

• Easy tracking of the performance of employees busy working in schedules from start to finish

• Generation of payroll files that can be exported to the majority of payroll processing vendors

• Real-time reporting in connection with employee operations

• Mobile app providing important information as the following about employees with a detailed view to facilitating quickly setting up their schedules:

  • Contact information

  • Work schedules

  • Number of hours worked

  • Reminders in the forms of text messages and emails that are sent to employees to help them remember about shifts and changes if any

• Customer management

This module of franchise management software helps ease communication with leads and customers.

The customer management module owns the following features.

• Smooth conversion of leads into paying customers

• Straightforward communication with customers

• The scheduling of tasks and events related to customers

• Plain, clear-cut documentation of customer-specific correspondence that can be easily accessed regardless of location, time, or device

• Intuitive generation of customer-related invoices and statements

• Processing of payments against invoices

• Seamless interfacing with various credit card payment gateways

• The processing and extraction of revenue generation reports

• The generation of comprehensive reports related to customer operations

• Mobile app providing information about customer contacts to franchisees

• Franchise support

Franchise management software comes up with an organized support solution to cater to wide-ranging customer service needs. The support module helps incorporate multiple maintenance channels, automate frequently occurring tasks, and monitor key metrics thereby lessening the time and effort needed for providing support to franchises.

The franchise support module has the following features to offer.

• Simple, and visually engaging self-service portal

• The automation of recurring tasks, for example, the assignment of tickets and their closure

• Robust ticketing mechanism

• Informative reports to track and analyze key metrics and work on efforts to make them better

• Secure, round the clock support help desk

• Training resources such as manuals, instructional videos, and step-wise procedures for integrating many processes

• Dynamic up to date FAQ section to provide guidance on frequent tasks

• Reduced training needs for employees and franchisees

• A systematic introduction to franchise best practices

• Reduction in errors and disruptions

The intuitive support module of franchise management software makes sure employees and franchisees retain the learnings they have acquired. The module is known for providing direct and instant guidance to assimilate the understanding of franchise processes for faster and better performance.

Franchise management software puts forward an interactive training tool that instructs end-users to optimally utilize the platform thereby eliminating the need to make calls asking for support.

Franchise Management Software

• Franchisee onboarding

The franchisee onboarding module of franchise management software helps expedite agreement sign-off with the finalized franchise candidates. The module has the full ability to furnish a comprehensive tasklist focusing on multiple points of consideration before and after awarding a franchise. Moreover, it keeps a record of various checklists to ensure all tasks to be performed are organized.

The franchisee onboarding module dispenses the following features.

• A display of a series of intuitive tasks related to onboarding that franchisors can assign to corporate employees and franchisees and guide them to complete

• Sequential onboarding to make certain there are no setbacks with the execution of processes

• Imparting training or assigning tasks to franchisees

Bottom line

The quickest way to boost business performance is by employing franchise management software. it helps in automatically archiving all correspondence at the workplace and of clients, keeping track of employee performance with the help of dynamic reports, putting franchise performance indicators on display by means of intuitive dashboards, besides generating automated regular reports infused with KPIs. All these pieces of information result in improved franchise performance by recognizing the strengths and weak links and then acting accordingly.