How to Leverage a CRM System for Large Numbers of Franchisees

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Using a CRM system is beneficial to both the franchisor and the franchisee because it creates efficiencies in what can be a complex business.

By Sandi Szalay
 

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The role of a franchisor is to enable the success of its franchisees, and having a customer relationship management system is crucial to achieving this goal. When you think about a franchise system, there are three subsets of customers: prospects, franchisees and franchisee clients. It is important to manage relationships with all of them. 
 
The advent of the CRM tool has revolutionized businesses, particularly franchise systems, in that it has made it possible to simultaneously automate and personalize the sales process. There are many options when selecting a CRM system, but it is important to use one that continues to build the relationship by automating certain touch points or encouraging human touch points, and which also tracks progress and history. Sometimes the best solution could even be creating your own system. 
Prospects 
Recruitment drives the strength and longevity of a franchise system. Due to natural attrition, it is important to recruit new owners and continue steady growth to remain a powerhouse in your respective industry. However, be sure your long-term growth plans include having a support system with enough depth and bandwidth to withstand
this growth. 
 
The franchise sales cycle can range anywhere from 30 days to several years, so it is important to keep track of all communications with prospects and to write detailed notes in the CRM system, even setting reminders of when the next point of contact should occur, and what the status of the lead is. This not only personalizes the recruitment process, but it also maintains order and adds automation in what can be a labor-intensive process. 
 
At Dream Vacations/CruiseOne, our franchise development team uses the SugarCRM tool to track prospects from their initial point of contact and back-and-forth-correspondence to the signing of the contract and all the way through to retirement. The team also uses it to analyze where its marketing dollars are best spent by reviewing where the lead was sourced. 
Franchisees
We believe that our customers are our franchisees and that their success is our only business. Once franchisees join a franchise system, it is important to provide them with the resources and ongoing support they need to be successful business owners. A CRM system can provide a snapshot of a franchise owner’s interactions with headquarters, enabling the franchisor to personalize the attention it gives to each franchisee by tracking how often they are reaching out for assistance and what support they seek. In addition, a CRM can be used to easily sort franchise owners by different groups including performance level, tenure with franchise, niche, geographic location and more. 
 
We have regional business development managers who provide on-the-ground marketing support to franchise owners and use the SugarCRM to automate sending out welcome emails to new franchisees, pull rosters for their assigned region and track that they are communicating at least every three months with their franchisees. The system creates a documented history of the franchisor-franchisee relationship. 
Franchisee Clients
Franchisors that provide franchisees with a CRM system truly provide the resources of a large corporation; a CRM system is essential to the growth and business development of franchise owners. How? It can replace hours of work by creating efficiencies that simultaneously forges stronger client relationships and frees up time enabling the franchisee to focus on generating new sales. 
  • Marketing: It is in the best interest of franchisees to input all of their client and potential clients into a CRM system. Franchise owners can implement marketing segmentation and target their direct mail and email campaigns to only their most qualified customers.
  • Customer service: Just like the franchise development team tracks their conversations with prospects, franchisees should track conversations with clients and record milestones, celebrations, special interests and more. Having these notes on file can personalize the conversation, send follow-up reminders and assist in providing sales recommendations. Relationship building is key in any business, but it is especially vital in a home-based franchise such as CruiseOne/Dream Vacations. The CRM is a tool that can be used to strengthen relationships by sending automatic email communications, as well as sending reminders to franchise owners of when and why they should be communicating with clients by email or phone.
  • Business operations: A benefit of owning a franchise is that you do not need prior business or industry experience. A CRM system creates a work-flow queue and leads the novice franchise owner through the sales process, while it is more of a performance tool for mature owners. Tracking and monitoring sales and commissions while analyzing how results align against business goals is another function of a CRM. It also can assist with financial accounting and send automated invoicing.
The best solution was for our IT team to custom design its own CRM system, My Cruise Control, because we wanted to have a comprehensive three-in-one tool with a complete reservation/booking system featuring live inventory and pricing, a built-in financial reporting tool and a robust back office enabling franchisees and the corporate headquarters office to manage business.
 
Using a CRM system is beneficial to both the franchisor and the franchisee because it creates efficiencies in what can be a complex business. When working with thousands of clients, organization is key and a CRM provides a solution to automating the process, creating reminders, recording a history and so much more. If you are thinking of opening a franchise, ask if it offers a CRM system for franchisees, and if you work in a franchise corporate office, invest in a CRM system to enhance relationships with prospects and existing franchisees. 
 
Sandi Szalay is the Vice President of Information Technology at Dream Vacations/CruiseOne. Her accolades include winning the first CIO award from the South Florida Business Journal, and recognition as a corporate I.T. leader by Women in eCommerce. 

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