Internet Can Foster Open Franchisor-Franchisee Dialogue

If the Internet is used to foster open and honest dialogue, it will be an invaluable tool for franchise organizations.

Franchising World Magazine:

The franchise relationship has long been the lynchpin of successful franchising, but that lynchpin comes with a catch.

In order to maintain the long-term health of any franchise system, the franchise company needs to act as a trainer and trusted coach. At the same time, in order to maintain system standards, the franchise organization needs to enforce these standards, which puts them in the role of policeman and occasionally judge and jury. And it is precisely this dichotomy that has been the root of many a franchisor-franchisee conflict.

Now, with the advent of the Internet, both of these roles have, in some respect, been placed on steroids. On the one hand, many franchise companies view the Internet as a tremendous boon to franchise relations. Intranet sites, blogs, chat rooms, real-time reporting and input, online training, the ability to monitor and compare system-wide performance and instant communication with franchisees through e-mails and e-newsletters–all of these advances have made communication faster and more frequent–and have unquestionably improved the franchise system’s ability to train and coach franchisees.

At the same time, the ubiquitous and sometimes intrusive nature of the Internet, combined with the franchise company’s need to maintain system standards, can rapidly transform the organization from the friendly beat cop into a much more menacing ‘Big Brother’ in the blink of an eye. Remote video cameras, real-time access to the franchisee’s POS system, unencumbered access to franchisee data, and “friendly spam�? can turn the Internet into a too-easy substitute for dialogue, and create an ‘us vs. them’ environment in which the franchise relationship is bound to suffer.

So what is the franchise system to do? Trust is the Key…