Conflict is not pleasant, but it seems to be part of all relationships at one point or another. In franchising, if conflict is left unchecked it can escalate to the legal arena where communication no longer can heal the differences. Therefore, like it or not, we must deal with conflict and seek ways to resolve it.

• Prevent differences from escalating to conflict.

The answer to dealing with conflict is not to avoid it, instead it is to prevent it. Avoiding conflict can paralyze a person and a company; and, it may also lead to secrecy and lack of communication.

When we avoid conflict we generally create a much bigger mess. Take for example the franchisor who refuses to move ahead with a needed change in the organization because the franchisees may get upset. His or her lack of action is sure to ignite the discontent of proactive franchisees who desire the change. And, the franchisor who keeps information from franchisees to avoid conflict is bound to face a higher level of discontent. We all know that secrets do not stay secret for very long and that franchisees will find out and resent the lack of trust and honesty.

Preventing conflict is about communication. Keeping franchisees informed of what you are doing and the reasons behind your actions and inaction is the only way to keep differences from escalating to larger issues.

• Catch it before it goes to the written form.

If you can’t prevent conflict, at least catch it before it soars. If you allow differences of opinion with your franchisees to go to the point of being discussed in a written format you have let it go too far. When franchisees begin to write down their grievances you may be just a few step away from legal action. And, those franchisors who tend to answer any and all complaints with references to the franchise agreement invite such move. The key is to resolve the differences while you are still talking with each other and the only way to do this is to proactively check the morale of your franchisees consistently and often.

• Seek common ground.

Conflict can only exist when you and your franchisees are pulling in different directions. When dealing with conflict, find the common ground between you and your franchisees. Start the conversation by talking about those things that you agree upon and let these shared values, needs, interests and beliefs be the starting point of your discussion.

• Actively seek a solution.

Franchisors seeking to resolve conflict must contemplate the fact that they may not have the best answer. To be actively seeking a solution means that you are willing to ask your franchisees and to listen openly to their positions and to their proposed solutions. It requires that you give these proposals an honest chance, at the very least in your mind.

• Listen.

Conflict can never be resolved if we don’t listen. If franchisors or franchisees keep thinking about their own needs while the other shares theirs, no listening can take place; and thus, no room for conflict resolution exists. When discussing different opinions we must rescind our need to convince our franchisees that we have the answer, at least long enough to hear them out.

To find common ground and find solutions we must be able to sincerely elicit input from franchisees and truly understand their points of view. We need to put ourselves in their positions. We will never be able to do this if we do not listen. Remember, hearing the words is not listening for the latter requires our full attention AND our embracing the possibility that we may not be right or may not have the best answer.

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Whether or not we should, whenever we enter a relationship we have expectations; and, your franchisees are not any different. Franchisees are individuals, and as such, they will have somewhat different types of expectations, yet there are some common ones to which you should pay attention. In fact, one of the most important steps you can take to ensure a positive relationship with your franchisees is to know and respond to their expectations.

1.  Franchisees want to be treated as professionals and as people, not just as a store number or franchise location.

Franchisees want to know you care about them. They want you to solicit and respect their input and to create an environment where they can share. They want to be recognized for their accomplishments whether they are in their businesses or in their lives. They expect you to remember their names and their personal lives. They expect you to care.

2.  Franchisees want to trust you and you to trust them.

Lack of trust is a major factor in poor franchise relations. Your franchisees want and expect open, frequent, and honest communication from you, both formal and informal. Franchisees want you to trust them and to believe in them; and they want to place the same level of belief in you. Lack of, or simply poor quality communication erodes trust.

3.   Franchisees want you to take care of innovation and to be ahead of the competition.

Franchisees want to take care of today which involves operating their business. They expect you to take care of tomorrow through innovation and research. They want you to help them be ahead of their competition through technological, product, and process improvements as well as tools that can increase their efficiency, productivity, and bottom line. They expect you to earn the royalties they pay you every month by providing value to them.

There are many other types of expectations which vary from individual to individual but all franchisees want you:

• To care about them,
• To communicate with them frequently and honestly, and
• To provide value to them.

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Franchisees go through 4 distinct developmental phases: infancy, adolescence, adulthood, and seniority. When franchisees first join your system they are like infants requiring a lot of support and training. During this early stage, they need to learn the rules of the game; and in franchising, these boundaries are the franchisor policies and procedures. They also learn the consequences to their choices. For example, if they don’t follow the system, they most likely won’t get the financial rewards they seek from their businesses; they may not get the customers they need or may lose the ones they got.

This is a difficult stage for franchisees because they are totally out of their comfort zone. They not only require knowledge and information; they need franchisors to understand and address their emotional states of mind and how these interfere with their learning and ability to implement. One of the most important elements that forms during this stage is TRUST. During this stage franchisees need consistency of message, they have a hard time dealing with paradoxes and concepts must be broken down into small pieces. During the early days, franchisees are usually more open to learn and appear to be more grateful and appreciative of what the franchisor offers.

After the first year, and in some cases just a few months, franchisees enter the adolescence stage. They get some of the basics of the business down, and begin to believe they know better than the franchisor. They thus start challenging the system in a behavior similar to that of teenagers. In my opinion this is the most difficult and most critical stage franchisees have to go through. They have mastered some parts of the business and fool themselves into thinking they know it all; they cheat themselves from learning all the intricacies of the franchise methodology. This is dangerous because it is at this point when franchisees start deviating from the proven system of the franchisor; deviation that often results in failure. Many franchisors focus most of their training and support effort during the infancy stage relaxing their standards after a few months. However, I believe that it is at the adolescence stage when coaching and training need to intensify. Franchisees must be helped to see that they really do not know everything; but yet, they must also be recognized for what they have mastered. It is a tricky balance. Open and honest communications is the only way to continue to build trust.

As franchisees carry on learning the business after a couple of years they reach their adulthood stage. Now they know how to communicate with the franchisor and how to be part of the team. They also have learned the business basics and have comprehended all the layers of understanding needed for the business to produce results. They also know the value the franchisor contributes to their success. During this stage franchisees seek recognition and inclusion. Franchisors who don’t attend to these needs fail to engage these franchisees and miss out on the contributions they can make to the franchise system. Moreover, if these needs are not met, franchisees may start to disengage from the team.

As time goes on, franchisees become senior members of the team ready and willing to contribute at all times. During this phase franchisees are not only important “validators” of the franchise opportunity, they have valuable experience to offer to the team. Yet, franchisees only get to be contributing and engaged senior members when the franchisor has in place the right communication and support systems to address the needs of franchisees at each of their developmental stages.

The success of the franchise relation is not all about the business concept and the information transferred to the franchisee. Instead, it calls for understanding and addressing the needs of franchisees at each of the different developmental stages.

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Most franchise companies are built by entrepreneurs who had very little, if any, experience in big corporations where emailing is part of the culture and where one “hopefully” learns proper email etiquette. Being entrepreneurs, many franchisors wear way too many hats and are very busy. With too many emails to read and answer and too little time to do so, emails can become a nuisance and an overwhelmed person will answer accordingly or, in the worst case, ignore the message.

The 5 most common email sins are:

Email Sin #1: Emails not responded to or acknowledged.

This is one of the worst sins anyone can commit when communicating via email. Every email deserves a response even if it’s a simple: “Got it, thank you” or “Got it. I’ll get back with you ASAP.”

Unanswered and unacknowledged emails mean that the person receiving the messages doesn’t consider them  important enough to warrant a response. People who use email answer them when they considered them important; if we are honest with ourselves we know this is true. So, when franchisors ignore a message from a franchisee, their silence sends a message that deters communications and franchisee relations.

Email Sin #2: Answering every email that comes from a prospect, but the moment that the prospect becomes a franchisee, the franchisor simply ignores future emails or simply forwards to another person without the proper transition.

This is perhaps the worst sin yet. In my book, this is simply unacceptable, but unfortunately it happens. If prospective franchisees have been talking with the CEO and/or founder while evaluating the franchise opportunity, they will have the tendency to want to continue the direct communication. While the CEO and/or founder has a demanding position and the support of franchisees is handled by other staff members, a explicit transition needs to take place in a way that the new franchisee fully understands who will be answering his or her questions once he or she joins the system. A short message from the CEO is called for to thank the now new franchisee and to alert him or her that the message will be handled by someone else. A prompt response from the person assigned to handle the inquiry is a must.

Email Sin #3: Using inappropriate tone or language and hitting “Send” before re-reading the entire email.

Tone doesn’t convey well via email. If we’re rushed, and most franchisors and their staff are, we can come across as rude. I learned this lesson the hard way.

Working to support franchisees I had to learn to avoid being rushed because invariably I sent the wrong message when I didn’t take the time to calm down and answer properly. I learned to pay attention to my breath as a means to slowing my mind down. Stopping for a moment, taking a deep breath and closing my eyes before answering an email helps me be in the present and not thinking about the other 100 emails that are not getting answered or the things that are not getting done. When I remember to do this, my emails better convey my caring for the recipient and his or her query.

Moreover, most entrepreneurs have a “fire, ready, aim” type of approach. They tend to seek progress not perfection. Although I seek both, I am definitely a fire, ready, aim kind of gal and guilty of this bad habit. Even when I may take the time to read and respond to a message, too many times I still don’t take that an extra half a minute to re-read my response and invariably hit “send” with either a typo or an unfinished thought that can be misinterpreted. This isn’t the end of the world in most cases, but it does give a careless and unprofessional image to your company that can be avoided with one extra breath.

Email Sin #4: Not having an email policy for employees to follow when answering emails.

You need email guidelines for your employees. All new employees need to be trained on these policies; and, from time to time, all of your employees should be refreshed on these guidelines. Your policy should include:

• Acknowledging all emails whether or not an answer is available.
• Guidelines for the text and time frames to acknowledge emails.
• The acceptable time period for responding to emails (such as 24 hours, 36 hours etc.)
• Typical responses to commonly asked questions.
• Determining who handles what kind of issues in the company, and informing sender the person who is responsible for responding.
• Making sure spell-check is set on automatic.
• Reading emails before hitting ‘send’.
• Keeping copies in the proper franchisee files if not done through an automatic process.

Email Sin #5:  Not keeping copies of emails to and from franchisees.

Not keeping copies of the emails that go to and from franchisees is a real mistake. Franchisees should also keep copies of all communications with the franchisor. In case of a dispute, you need access to these records, but it does not have to escalate to that point for you to need these records. For example when an employee leaves you need to know what transpired between them and your franchisees so this is a crucial step to follow. Likewise franchisees need to be able to show the bases for their understanding of the franchisor’s position as expressed by the departing employee. Today’s technology allows us to save emails to file folders automatically. Make sure to get your computer experts to set up all staff’s email this way. Franchisees can also set up their email programs so that emails from different departments of the franchisor go automatically to different file folders.

Franchisees are, for the most part, not guilty of these sins. They usually come from a corporate background and understand the rules of emailing. This makes the sins of the franchisor even worse thus becoming imperative to avoid them to ensure that email communications help build and not hinder good franchise relationships.

Please add other ideas for email policies or email sins to avoid. Thank you!

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Once the relationship commences with the signature of the agreement, franchisees and franchisors become mutually responsible to each other. The agreement that binds their relationship dictates the obligations and rights of each party, but beyond these legal constraints the franchise relationship only works when both parties recognize that their own success is inter twined with the success of the other part. In other words: franchisors can’t be successful without successful franchisees and vice versa. Truly understanding this dynamic brings about a high level of respect for each other and an equal level of responsibility with both parties assuming the fact that their actions and inaction have significant repercussions for the other party.

Interdependence calls for cooperation, for a sense of community, for interconnectedness. In interdependence there is a sense of equality, a leveling of the field. On the other hand, dependence implies the subordination of one party to the other.  Franchise relationships suffer when either party believes that the other is or should be dependent on them, when they treat the other party as a subordinate. Unfortunately some franchisors fall into this trap assuming a position of power. It is true that the responsibilities of the franchisor include protecting all of the franchisees which means that a level of control over the operations is needed and expected of the franchisor. Yet, the manner in which the franchisor carries on the responsibility influences greatly the quality of the relationship with the franchisees. Franchisors have to walk a fine line.

Which kind of relationship are you forging with your franchisees?

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Franchising is a way of life. It is a relationship where two parties come with the intention to co-create something that without the other could not exist. It is an association where the success of one party depends on the success of the other… a true win-win.

The franchisees that you attract help you grow not only at the business level but also, and most importantly, at a personal and spiritual level. The challenges they present can only be surpassed by the joys of seeing the impact you have on so many lives.

Franchising is about hope; it is about dreams. It is about growth and abundance. It is about intention. Franchising is about opportunities and possibilities. It is about responsibility and caring. Franchising is about friendships and it is about love.

Franchising is a love affair.

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