In Part 7 of our home-cleaning franchising series, we explored key differences between franchisors that offer business consulting services and those who actively coach and support you in all aspects of your life as a business owner. In the final two installments of our series, we look at why it’s so important for a franchise company to make promoting engagement and building a strong sense of community amongst franchise owners a priority.
Smart franchisors prioritize franchisee engagement and work actively—and incessantly—to find new ways of creating close-knit franchisee communities that emphasize connection and collaboration.
They do this because engaged stakeholders are much more likely to feel supported and to work diligently toward:
- Elevating and expanding the brand.
- Honoring and protecting the brand’s standards and reputation.
When that happens, everyone in the system benefits.
Three ways in which contemporary franchisors promote engagement and community is to host:
- Digital forums where franchise owners—like-minded people sharing similar business experiences—can connect 24/7 to ask and answer questions, share knowledge, and advice.
- Webinars in which franchisees can cost effectively participate to hear about new strategies, tactics, processes, systems, etc.
- Physical events, such as national conventions and local/regional face-to-face meet-ups, that encourage not only business networking and two-way communications, but also foster real friendships among brand stakeholders.
Strong emphasis on building community makes a franchise experience feel less like an arms-length business relationship, and more like a family or neighborhood: allowing people to come together to both celebrate their triumphs and support each other in times of need.
If such a franchising experience sounds appealing to you, here are some key questions to ask potential cleaning franchise partners that will quickly reveal if promoting engagement and building community are high on their priorities lists:
- What kinds of forums and events do you create for your franchisees to connect with each other?
- How do you encourage participation in those forums and events?
- What specific things do you do to ensure your events feel inclusive (especially for new owners)?
- What differentiates your events from other standard business conferences or conventions?
- What is the balance at your events amongst education, collaboration, networking, entertainment, vendor exhibits, and other activities?
- How engaged are corporate personnel in attending your conventions and other events? Who can I expect to meet?
- What will I learn?
Stay tuned for our final installment in the series, in which we will share a unique way in which MaidPro takes franchise community building and engagement to an entirely new level.