Small Biz Franchise Blog

Are Performance Tools Important for Franchisee Success?

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Lizette Pirtle

There are many products available in the market that claim to aid the performance of franchisees. I am constantly on the lookout for tools that can make a difference for my clients and their franchisees; and, I am always amazed at what technology is able to accomplish. Last week I went through a demo of the Open Box web-based solution Franchise Success and was literally blown away by the simplicity yet significant potential efficiencies and efficacies this software brings at franchisees’ and franchisor’s level. Although product reviews are not my normal topic of discussion in this blog, I feel compelled to share what I learned.

Open Box’s Franchise Success is a web-based software that has three distinctive and stand alone modules: Operations Manual, Marketing and Branding, and Automatic Accountability. The Operations Manual Module was the one to catch my attention when I first heard about Open Box. The thought of a world where franchisees couldn’t complain about not being able to find information in the manual was just enticing enough for me to take the next step and contact Open Box. Yet, I was not prepared to find the many benefits the modules offer. The ability to search the document is a great feature but it is almost dwarfed by the many others this product offers.  In this post, I focus on the Operations Manual Module . I will cover the other two modules in the near future.

What it does:

It’s quite a simple application. It basically reformats your Operation Manuals into a fully indexed digital version which in layman terms it means a secure online web-based document that is fully searchable.

Bells, Whistles and Benefits :

• The web-based version allows franchisees to make comments and asks questions. It’s like a blog that permits comments. Your manual is divided into sections and subsection, so each subsection will be what Open Box terms “an article” allowing franchisees to comment and ask questions. As I went through the demo I thought of the most effective ways of formatting information and how this new format provides a great opportunity for breaking down concepts and even creating short quizzes to aid understanding and retention. My head was spinning.
• As the franchisor, you can decide to share the franchisee’s comments with others in the system, moderate comments before they are shared, or simply decide whether or not modifications to the content are needed. You are also able to answer questions franchisees have in a prompt and efficient manner. These questions are now compiled in one place and can help you improve your training programs or offer additional sessions.
• I don’t know about you, but regardless of the number of times I proofed my manuals there were always typos for a new franchisee to find during initial training. I was always thankful for their input, but  many times the corrections did not get made because during class my attention was on training and not on editing the manuals. This tool allows you to engage franchisees in helping you improve your manuals and make the necessary corrections easily and quickly.
• Have you ever been afraid that someone is going to copy your manual and give it your competitor? Having a web-based manual will drastically reduce this possibility. A person that has that intention will have to print each and every section which will take time and effort.
• Do you need to get a policy change out to the field quickly? Today you are probably placing the changes in your Intranet library, if you have one; if not, you are probably emailing these changes or mailing them to your franchisees. This tool allows you to distribute the changes immediately to all your franchisees with the click of a button. It also advises them via email that a change is waiting for them to be read and it sends reminders when they have ignored the first message.
• How many franchisees are reading your policy changes? How do you know? Well, most of us don’t know. As franchisors we hope franchisees are engaged in their businesses enough that they want to read the changes we make to our processes; unfortunately this is not always the case. Yes, franchisees are supposed to read these changes but the truth is that the majority don’t. Today we don’t have a way to track who is actually reading these updates and who isn’t. However, this module does the tracking for you and provides a report you can use proactively to approach franchisees who are not reading them.
• Are your manuals out of date? I know this is a big problem of many franchisors who justify their lax behavior by saying that franchisees don’t read it, so what’s the use? Well, your Operations Manuals are extensions of your franchise agreements and it is your responsibility as a franchisor to keep them up to date. The beauty of this solution is that updates are easy to do and to distribute. There is no more room for excuses as you can track who is and who isn’t reading them; and take necessary action to engage the franchisees who aren’t. It is my belief that this product will effortlessly create the discipline required to maintain the OPS Manual as the living, breathing document it must be.
• Do you have portions of the manual that you want employees of your franchisees to read? What about a location manager? Doing this is easy as this product enables you to assign users and restrict certain portions to the appropriate users.
• Do you have pre-training or pre-opening manuals and want your new franchisee to be exposed only to certain information before they attend training? A challenge for me has always been what I need to include in these initial manuals and how much of that information I need to repeat in the OPS Manual. Open Box makes it easy with the user restrictions and permission levels which allow you to do this in a snap. Assign the user only the sections you want them to read prior to training.
• Is your franchise concept complex? Do you have a lot of information to convey to new franchisees? Well, this tool allows you to share the information bit by bit through the user restrictions; and you can create a step-by-step control training environment so you won’t overwhelm your new franchisees.
• Other obvious benefits are the saving in printing costs as well as the staff time to print and put the manuals together and in some cases, the mailing costs. I remember spending many long nights at the copying room with the 2 other staff members the weekend before training started.

Can I say more? Are performance tools important in franchising? I think so. If our Operations Manuals record our business system and processes then this is module is a critical tool for franchisee success. I am sure that if I worked with this product I could find many other benefits but for now, I think this is a no brainer. I will be recommending this product to my clients not only for all the benefits listed above, but I would love to see them start with the infrastructure of the future which will put them light years ahead of the competition.

Stay tuned for my review of the other two modules coming soon!

For more information contact:

Ambrose Merrell, Director of Business Development ambrose@openboxinc.com 604-708-0116

*Disclaimer: At this time Open Box is not a client of mine and I am not a of theirs. I have not been compensated for this review in any way.

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1. Are Your Franchise Operations Manuals up to Snuff?
2. Franchisee Success – Could it be all in the numbers?
3. 5 Tips to Creating an Effective Franchise Operations Manual
4. 7 Challenges Home Based Franchisees Face
5. Franchisors, Have You Added Social Media Policies to Your OPS Manual? Part 1