Franchise business, currently the most popular business method, refers to a company’s practice of giving its business trademarks, business models, and products to other people in exchange for a price. The company giving the products is referred to as the franchisor, and the person buying the business permission is the franchisee. 

In India, like in several other places, the franchise business has gained significant popularity as it makes a brand’s growth easier and drives business expansion. On the other hand, a franchisee finds it easy to begin a new business as they possess resources like brand name, products, and a tried-tested business module to start the business journey and earn profit. 

The franchise business is worth $47 in India and shows the potential to reach 140bn by 2027. The tea franchise business, for instance, has gained major drive across the nation and abroad. Companies like Tea Time help people to own their tea franchises easily anywhere in India with less investment.

Franchise management 

However, effective franchise management is a must-have to ensure franchise business growth and the development of a brand. Here are the 10 best tips for franchise management, actually helpful for effective management. 

1. Effective communication is key

Communication with your franchisees is crucial to encourage them to do business well and gain success. This, in turn, will drive your brand’s success. 

Regular or frequent communication reduces miscommunication and establishes mutual trust between a franchisor and a franchisee. Discuss business problems and aspects requiring improvement. Documenting the facts would help target problem areas and solve them. If the franchisee community is large, meeting with the regional managers would be helpful.

Tea Time, for example, actively communicates with franchisees to exchange information and understand problems that help the company to thrive.

2. Give training

Training helps everyone to understand the business goals, mission, and vision and come under one big umbrella. It enables the company and its franchisees to share a similar goal, which is helpful in driving company growth and development.

It helps to make teams proficient as they acquire information and first-hand experience concerning operations, customer service, and marketing. 

Thanks to online information, you can conduct virtual sessions and easily send resources like PowerPoint and pdf to franchisees. However, face-to-face training is still an effective method. 

Tea Time, for instance, conducts face-to-face training. It provides first-hand training in menu preparation, kitchen, and accounting. The simple menu makes it easy for anyone to learn it within a few days. 

3. Support truly helps

Give your full support; the common yet most overlooked factor is the point. Many companies fail to properly support franchisees, which slowly affects the brand name and goodwill.

Setting up a customer support line to answer queries, give prompt responses, and act on the solutions would be helpful.

4. Good data means success 

Communication with customers and business growth have helped you to acquire data and use it. Proper analyzing and application of available data can really drive your franchise’s success. Conducting data analytics in marketing, inventory, sales, and so on can work wonders for franchise business development.

Several tea franchise businesses have gained noteworthy success with the strategic use of data. Tea Time, for its franchise business, communicates with franchisees and takes data for further improvement. On the other hand, the company uses digital marketing to get valuable leads for tea franchise business expansion. 

5. Try and Succeed 

We all know that business is a game of trial and error methods. The good part is you can experiment with products and services. During the launch of new products testing it in certain business franchise outlets is a good option. Whether new regulations or products, the franchise outlets’ responses can effectively help assess the same. 

6. Clear goals, a necessity

Understand the goals and then explain them to the franchisees. It will help everyone to stay updated and come together. Do you want to focus on marketing or products? Do you want to change or improve certain aspects of the business? Have clarity and frame the goals accordingly.

During the tea product launch, for example, talk and inform the franchisees. The latter can also share ideas relevant to turn into business goals.

Synergy is a business’s strength. A clear, well-defined goal also helps franchise business owners understand the long-term target and focus. 

7. Acknowledge and Appreciate 

Acknowledge and appreciate franchise business owners contributing to your brand franchise growth. Providing monetary and non-monetary perks is a good way to motivate franchisees. Giving gift hampers, memberships of selected clubs, and vacation tickers are good options in this regard. 

Tea Time, India’s largest tea chain with more than 3500 outlets across the country, has digital forums to highlight the successes and contributions of the tea franchise owners.

8. Don’t forget the feedback 

Care for your franchisee community like a part of your company. A certain amount of criticism would be present, but it will only help you to understand and deal with the issues.

For effective franchise management, using a feedback system would be useful. For instance, the majority of tea franchisees say that delayed product delivery has become an issue then the supply chain department has the problem. 

9. Technical solution application

Franchise management has become easy thanks to the availability of technical solutions. Unlike before, you can easily conduct audits and conferences online. Moreover, the solutions help in activities like tracking, employee onboarding, marketing, and so much more. 

The technical solutions help in time management, enabling you to prioritize and sort your work accordingly. 

10. Transparency 

Last but not least is innovation. Study customer behavior, product popularity, market trends, and so on. Find ways to regulate expenses and invest in areas needing change. Urge franchise businesses to innovate, be involved in the innovation process and work together. A tea brand with its franchisee reviews and suggestions can help generate new ideas that, in turn, can benefit franchise business development.