In Lisbon, Portugal, a shop sells a small custard pie created in ancient times at a monastery across the street. Owners and employees have kept the recipe secret since the 19th century. And although bakeries all over the country try to replicate the little pie, theirs taste different. Franchise training is just like this!
According to Entrepreneur, franchising consists of distributing products through a network of franchisees. The franchisor owns the trademark and the way the business works.
For instance, the franchisor determines the sales method, the marketing system, and the logistics process. Then, franchisees pay for the right to operate the same way under the franchisor’s trademark.
But if you try to replicate a franchisor’s business without proper training, you’ll get yourself into a giant trap. Not only will it take you ages to set up the business and reach the desired profit level, but you’ll also risk your own hard-earned money.
Don’t want this to be you and your business? Keep reading.
Types of franchise training
Depending on where someone is on their journey to becoming a successful franchisee, training takes different flavors.
Operational training
Whether online or in-person, operational training explores the basics of operating the franchise. These are some examples of what franchisees learn during operational training:
- Franchise goals
- Brand values
- Style of customer service
- Product positioning
- Product handling
- Hiring policies
- Staff management
- Training plans
- Accounting practices
- Sales reporting procedures
- POS and other IT systems
For instance, during operational training, you can simulate sales calls or analyze real, previously recorded ones.
Hands-on training
This type of training happens in person at the franchising headquarters for a few days. Franchisees get to know the facilities and take the opportunity to observe how the business works in loco.
Our advice is to offer hands-on training after operational training. This way, the hands-on training will be more productive. Franchisees will ask more questions and apply their knowledge of your business by interacting with the actual product, real equipment, and staff. And that’s how they’ll consolidate what they learned during operational training.
On-site training
This time, the training site is the franchised store, and again, training is in person. The headquarters sends a mentor to support the franchisee with setting up and opening the new franchise location.
In the process, the franchisee uses their knowledge of the business, product, equipment, systems, and procedures. This will develop their new skills even further.
Also, on-site training consists of training staff to perform different roles. Some franchisees anticipate this step by taking the store manager with them for hands-on training.
Ongoing training
Franchise training doesn’t end with on-site training! It keeps going—online or in person—with the intent of keeping franchisees updated on:
- Fresh tips and tricks to uplift the business
- Updated franchise goals, policies, procedures, and systems
- New products under development
- Upcoming marketing campaigns
Adding workshops to ongoing training is a great idea. Franchisees actively work on particular tasks and solve specific problems together in a collaborative environment where they learn from each other.
And if you think that offering mentorship as part of ongoing training is another good idea, you’re 100% right! Long-term advice from a mentor helps franchisees and their staff face challenges that previous training couldn’t anticipate.
Experienced franchisees can establish and maintain a mentor-mentee relationship with new franchisees. Or your staff leaders may guide franchisees for as long as they need close support from the franchisor.
What franchise training includes
An effective training program is fundamental to setting up a profitable franchise. But what does such a program include?
Here are a few examples of topics to cover in franchise training:
Brand training
Do you know a store that changed owners, kept selling the same kind of product, yet lost clientele? The new owners likely created a weaker brand.
A poorly branded company is meaningless. It translates to yet another product of the same type cluttering the market. That’s why it’s so important to train franchisees on what the franchised brand is about.
Brand training involves teaching why the brand matters—or about the brand’s unique selling proposition. Your franchisees will soak the brand up, engage with it, and inspire their staff to breathe the brand too.
You see, brand training favors franchisees, store managers, store assistants, and sales reps. When bought into the brand, they tend to be prouder of belonging to your franchising business and stay longer.
At the end of the day, customers will enjoy buying from franchised stores, recommend the experience, and repeat it. In other words, brand training fertilizes the soil from which you’ll reap profit later on.
Sales training
Unless you only license your brand to top-notch sales experts, you should train franchisees to sell your product. Selling a product in a single store is one thing. It’s a totally different game to do it consistently across many locations!
You know what works best for your product. You tested your sales system and techniques in your first store and proved they bring results.
The next step is to teach your franchisees to do the same in their stores. And we recommend doing that while they go through your franchise training program. Align them with your strategy of:
- Communicating with customers
- Creating sales opportunities
- Negotiating to maximize profit margins
- Closing sales at a superior win rate
As a result, you’ll achieve an average deal size that’ll grow consistently over time for the total of franchised stores. And you’ll maximize the profit you’ll get from royalties.
Related: How to develop sales training programs
Product training
This is when the topics that franchise training includes start to entangle seriously. Both product training and sales training are about communication. And both product training and brand training are about your product.
You can easily conclude that product training means two things:
- Syncing franchisees and their staff with the features of your product and how it works
- Making them confident about communicating the product’s value to customers (from the customer point of view)
Only effective and enthusiastic communication builds trust in customers. It puts them in a comfortable place to choose your brand over others.
Plus, consistent product communication contributes to standardizing customer service across franchised stores. This means getting one step closer to offering the same customer experience regardless of location.
On the other hand, you’ll prepare sales personnel to:
- Promptly and accurately answer customer questions about your product
- Overcome customer objections on the spot
- Have more engaging conversations with customers
Marketing training
It’s highly unlikely—if not utopic—that your franchising business won’t have competitors. And modern marketing targets multiple communication channels. That’s why you can’t run away from creating a foolproof marketing methodology.
You also can’t overlook teaching your franchisees your tried-and-tested marketing process and techniques. For instance, explain to them how to plan and run social media campaigns and use PR to spread your brand awareness.
As a consequence, franchisees will market your product consistently in the various stores. And you’ll clone the competitive advantage of your first store in the entire franchise network.
All in all, adding marketing training to your franchise training program will do a lot for your business, including:
- Engaging customers
- Generating demand
- Retaining customers
- Growing loyal customers
- Reaching profit goals
Marketing training will ensure that, by the end of the franchise training program, franchisees will know:
- What your marketing plan for the brand looks like
- How they’ll be involved in implementing it
- The freedom they have to plan and execute customized actions in their franchised stores
Remember that franchisees usually better understand the local context of a region or state. They’ll notice changes in consumer habits faster and more easily than you. But with effective marketing training, you’ll equip them to communicate about your product on the best channels with the most fruitful strategy.
Soft skills training
The centerpiece of teaching soft skills to franchisees and their staff is customer experience. How can they connect with customers in a way that feels natural and trustworthy?
The answer lies in shaping their behavior and attitude, and soft skills training is priceless in that department. It teaches franchise team members to work together, communicate with customers, and solve problems.
Bottom line: you want to guarantee that the customer experience is similar in all franchised stores. Why? Because customer experience is a part of your brand. And although franchisees and their personnel aren’t your brand, they represent it.
For instance, if you’re franchising a luxury brand, your customers want to have the same high-end experience whether they’re buying in Paris or New York. They want to feel the same energy and have the same personalized customer service with fine attention to their needs and preferences.
Get your franchisees and their teams ready to listen to customers and read their social cues. That’s how they’ll understand customers’ tastes and live up to customers’ expectations.
Additionally, teach your franchisees to manage their teams and resolve conflicts that might arise. This all adds up to an outstanding, consistent customer experience.
Customer service training
The likelihood of a customer going back to a franchised store after experiencing bad customer service in another of the same brand is low, isn’t it? And because customers view same-brand franchised stores as a whole, the memory of bad customer service in one might contaminate their perception of customer service in another.
Luckily, you can include customer service training in your franchise training program and train franchise employees to provide high-quality customer service. This avoids the risk of harming the brand’s reputation and losing your clientele’s trust. After all, recovering from an injured reputation and regaining customer trust is both difficult and expensive.
Make your customers loyal by teaching all franchise employees at every store to
- Always interact with customers kindly and politely
- Manage customer inquiries and complaints swiftly and effectively
Related: Customer training untangled, Customer training program solutions
Compliance training
Franchisees trust that your franchise training program will help their business stay compliant. That’s why you must explain the industry laws and regulations they must abide by.
Make sure to cover not only the legal implications of nonconformities but also the financial and operational requirements their store must satisfy.
Related: The importance of compliance training in the workplace, Corporate compliance training
Benefits of franchise training
Your franchising business is more likely to thrive with franchise training. Find below the reasons for developing training programs for your franchisees.
Competitive advantage
Competition is fierce, as franchisees have a lot of franchising businesses to choose from. Fortunately, franchise training appeals to franchisees and sets them up to make a profit.
Franchisees look for training programs that make them feel confident about running their business. They don’t want to spend their time searching for all the information needed to operate a franchised store effectively. Instead, they want to take franchise training, speeding up the learning process and making it less error-prone.
But to appeal to prospective franchisees, you must design the best franchise training program. Including ongoing training is a good example of high-quality design. Franchisees will interpret that as your commitment to a long-term partnership with them. And in turn, you’ll attract the most committed franchisees—those who’ll do everything in their power to grow their business. In the long term, this makes the franchise system grow as a whole and delivers a higher bottom line to your company.
Reputation and trust
Reputation and trust are irreplaceable. And franchise training is their cornerstone.
It teaches franchisees to replicate the experience your customers expect from your brand. This includes customer service and the product itself, leading customers to buy from you wherever they are. In other words, it makes them brand-loyal.
Consistency
Consistency is key to franchising and builds a franchise brand’s reputation. It’s the indispensable ingredient of a thriving franchising business model. And an effective franchise training program unifies customer experience across locations.
It teaches all franchise employees the processes, procedures, and standards that make customers happy. And it standardizes the way all franchised stores operate.
Predictability
Predictability is attractive to customers. A consistently trained franchise network with standardized, impeccable customer service is reassuring and risk-free for customers.
It conveys that buying at one franchised store will be as good as at another. And the promise of a pleasing experience invites customers to buy from your franchisees.
Sustainability and growth
Financial sustainability drives growth. For all the reasons above, franchise training prepares franchisees to make money year after year.
Isn’t that all you want for your franchising? We bet it is! After all, you got into franchising to grow your business.
Sense of community
The best franchise training programs foster a sense of community among franchisees from different franchise locations. They attend group events like virtual or in-person get-togethers, masterclasses, or an annual training conference.
In those events, the peers share experiences, discuss ideas, and talk about best practices. And such collaboration nurtures a cohesive franchise system.
Profitability
Among the benefits of franchise training is an increase in the company’s bottom line. That’s because an effective training program prepares franchisees to operate stores optimally and generate better financial outcomes.
Profitable franchised stores attract more franchisees, allowing franchising businesses to scale. But they also bring more money to franchisees individually—and eventually to the franchisor if their fee is a percentage of the franchisees’ earnings.
7 tips for creating an effective franchise training program
Our best set of recommendations for franchise training program design looks like this:
Evaluating two of the best franchise training programs
Below, you’ll find two examples of successful training programs for franchising businesses.
The UPS Store
UPS offers a great franchise training program to new franchisees who join its store network, The UPS Store. The program is organized into four phases and combines different training methods.
- Phase 1: Online training
During this phase, new franchisees take online tutorials that lay the foundation for the following phases of the program. Those tutorials introduce them to the franchised products, the technology involved in running franchised stores, and UPS’s business practices. They also learn about store operations, turning this part of the program into operational training.
- Phase 2: In-store training I
The second phase of UPS’s franchise training program takes place in a real environment. It’s a five-day classroom course at a franchised store. The on-site training experience, delivered by a mentor, deepens the knowledge of what the new franchisees learned online in the previous phase.
- Phase 3: Interactive workshop
This phase is an eight-day group learning experience that new franchisees can take virtually and/or in person. It evolves their franchising knowledge and skills and adds marketing, sales, and finance management to the plate.
When taken in person at a franchised store, Phase 3 is a form of on-site training during which franchisees obtain experience with store equipment, software, and production procedures.
- Phase 4: In-store training II
The last phase in UPS’s franchise training program is a five-day classroom course at a franchised store. This on-site training provides franchisees with the on-the-job experience of interacting with customers under the supervision of a trainer.
Our evaluation: The UPS Store franchise training program is quite comprehensive and well-structured. It covers varied topics, from product training to marketing and sales training.
The program is delivered through training methods organized in a sequence appropriate for gradually teaching franchisees to run a UPS franchised store.
It starts with operational training—in the shape of corporate learning—which explores the basics of operating the franchise. And then the program moves to the store for on-site training delivered by field staff who help franchisees:
- Consolidate what they learned during operational training
- Apply their knowledge of the business, product, equipment, systems, and procedures
- Advance the required skills further
Gold Star Chili
Another example of a great franchise training program belongs to the restaurant chain Gold Star Chili. The program includes:
- A franchise operations manual—This document describes the mission, values, and standards the franchisor expects the franchisees to meet. It’s a critical, go-to tool for the success of franchisees in business and a starting point for further training.
- Classroom training—It takes a few weeks and happens both online and at the franchising headquarters. During this stage, franchisees learn the fundamentals of how to run a franchised Gold Star Chili restaurant and meet executives from the headquarter’s team.
- Hands-on training—At a Gold Star Chili restaurant, franchisees gain hands-on experience with the products. But they also learn HR best practices and administrative procedures and develop leadership skills.
- On-site training—This time, training occurs at the franchised restaurant before and during the grand opening. The headquarters sends a representative to train the franchisee and their staff in all things business operations, such as the menu, food prep and dish production procedures, and customer service standards.
- Ongoing training—Members of Gold Star Chili’s franchise operations team remain on-site to address any issues and answer any questions that might arise after the grand opening. This kind of training goes on until everyone at the franchised restaurant feels confident about performing their roles.
- Mobile learning platform—That’s an online training environment through which the franchisor delivers operational and compliance training to franchisees, restaurant managers, and employees anytime, anywhere. The platform also gives operational tips, making it a microlearning solution. Plus, the franchisor uses it to communicate updates to products or procedures.
Our evaluation:
Gold Star Chili’s franchise training program is more comprehensive, as it includes ongoing training and a mobile platform dedicated to it. By doing so, the franchisor addresses continuous learning, mobile learning, and microlearning in the program, which are all trends for the future of learning. Besides, with ongoing training, they guarantee enduring support, which is essential because some difficulties and doubts only pop up after a franchise location opens. Finally, by not leaving hands-on and on-site training out of the program, the franchisor made sure learning happens in an environment where learners will apply what they learned.
Throughout the program, Gold Star Chili’s franchise training exudes enthusiasm for the brand’s values and commitment to quality and customer service. And that’s an excellent strategy to attract franchisees who match the brand closely.
With training programs like Gold Star Chili’s, franchisees don’t have the responsibility to train franchise employees. The headquarters takes on that responsibility, at least for the employees hired before the grand openings. Nevertheless, such programs prepare franchisees to onboard personnel hired after that.
What now?
Truthfully, there’s no way you can have a rock-solid franchising business without effective franchise training.
Your entire franchise network must consistently grow in sales. Profit-wise, it must also be sustainable.
And teaching a standardized customer experience to franchisees pushes in that direction and is a win-win situation. Franchisors beat the competition and maintain customers’ trust, whereas franchisees make money.
Get in touch with us to get started with franchise training programs!
