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As a former franchisor, now retired, I often think back about the relationships I’ve built with our franchisees when we first got going. It seems to me that our first 25 to 50 franchisees were all on my speed dial, I knew them all by name, as well as their families, and even their pets. However, as the franchise company grew larger and larger, I didn’t know all the franchisees by name, nor did I talk to them very much. Rather I relied on our older franchisees that I had a relationship with to feed the information the marketplace to help us modify our franchise business model to compete.

Now then, I would like to explain how old a franchisor founder can get into this trap. You see, if you are constantly talking to a small group of franchisees, they will come to you with their complaints, and you will solve their individual problems, and yet you won’t assist other franchisees with the same problem, or handle their frustrations, and therefore allow hostility to form with disgruntled franchisees, that you had no idea were out there.

Sometimes, it’s good to take some of those original franchisees and put them into more of a leadership position, making then the regional heads of larger groups of franchisees, and sort of a mini Franchisee Association within your organization. Therefore, franchisees that are having problems will go to them first, and then when those leadership franchisees get a number of complaints which are similar, they will come to you. I used to have a rule; “call three, then me,” in other words, talk to other franchisees first about any challenge you have, then if no one knows the answer call me personally and here’s my direct cell phone number.

It is often said in the franchising industry that allowing franchisees which are too entrepreneurial into your system is a mistake. If you aren’t in the franchise industry, you probably haven’t ever heard about this, and you are saying; “huh?” But perhaps I should explain it to you. You see, franchisors have a specific business model, and each franchisee that joins the system is to run their business model exactly in that specific way.

As a former franchisor founder, I can tell you that in the many years of developing our business model, I had built all the mistakes out of the company, and continually refined it until it was good enough to franchise. If a new franchisee comes in and doesn’t want to follow the program, or acts like a rogue franchisee trying to modify and change the system here and there, they are liable to go back and make all the mistakes that the business model had built out of the program. Therefore it makes more sense to only allow franchisees that will follow the system exactly, without deviation, into the system.

Okay so, now that I’ve explained why this is important, let me explain why it is also a double edge sword. You see, in the marketplace you need innovation, and when customers ask for certain things, you need to oblige. If a franchisee is following the system, they are liable to tell a customer; “I am sorry, our policy is to do it this way.” And if all of your franchisees say that, and there is a trend in need, desire, or wants from customers out there, eventually you will have to acquiesce, and your entire franchise system will have to change.

Of course change comes very hard if no one within your organization is entrepreneurial. Now then, those entrepreneurial franchisees who have somehow worked their way into your system, are going to be hard to please, because they want to do things their way instead of your way. I would submit to you as a franchisor founder you need to take your most entrepreneurial franchisees, who will also be the most outspoken, challenging your system at every turn, and often becoming a pain in your rear end – and you should put those franchisees on your speed dial.