If there’s any one single key to franchise growth, it’s data. Having access to customized, local reporting of data is crucial for franchisees to expand their customer base and make day-to-day decisions. While franchisors typically work with raw data, it’s less common for franchisees to have a chance to view data that is applicable to their situation in an accessible, easy-to-visualize manner.
With relevant data that’s been fully tailored to their specific situation, franchise owners can be more proactive about taking advantage of otherwise overlooked opportunities and gain valuable insights into consumer behaviors.
How Franchisees can Benefit from Custom and Local Reporting
Franchisees typically pay into a marketing budget as part of their fees to the franchise brand. It’s often the understanding that this budget will not only be used to promote the brand as a whole, but also ensure individual franchisees have the marketing support they need.
While brands may use this budget to collect and analyze big data, they don’t always share their finds with franchisees in a way that has a direct impact on their daily operations. This leaves franchise owners unable to benefit from the proceeds of a large chunk of their fees.
Much of the time, this disconnect happens when franchisors are uninformed about the advantages of arming franchisees with data specifically tailored to their locations. Here are just a few of the insights franchisees miss out on without access to custom and local reporting.
Understanding Potential Customers
Basic demographic data is often used to assess the number of potential customers in an area. However, providing franchisees with this kind of static data isn’t enough. For territory-based businesses that lack brick-and-mortar storefronts, it’s especially important to collect and analyze psychographic data.
Psychographic data refers to consumer habits and buying behaviors. Because of the changing nature of this data, it’s far more dynamic than demographic data and a more accurate representation of who is likely to purchase a product or service. With this information at hand, franchisees will have a better idea of which potential customers to target. In addition, this type of data can be used to redefine territories more evenly and accurately.
Understanding the Latest Trends
Market conditions are constantly changing, and the only way to remain relevant is to stay on top of the latest changes in consumer purchasing patterns and marketing techniques. The right data allows franchisees to conduct market checks and make proactive decisions when planning and budgeting.
Understanding Where Improvements can be Made
Real-time data is necessary for franchise owners to make changes that enable them to operate their businesses efficiently and effectively. When a franchisee has the ability to do a quick data audit, they can both improve their performance and avoid making costly mistakes or investing in areas that won’t offer a significant ROI.
Data can also be used to rank franchisees based on performance. This helps franchisors understand which locations could use a little more support and why they may be falling behind.
In turn, rankings are a great motivational tool for franchisees. This system can not only be implemented to acknowledge the hard work of top performers, but also to inspire those who still have room for improvement.
Making Data Accessible for Franchisees
Franchisees already have enough on their plate as it is, and most won’t have the time to sit down and analyze a bunch of stats on a regular basis. It’s better to ensure they can get the specific takeaways they need through a customized reporting solution. A dashboard that offers plenty of control over how franchisee reports are displayed is what franchisors should be on the lookout for.
It’s also beneficial to maintain a degree of flexibility here, as everyone has different preferences for how they interact with data. Franchisees wear a lot of hats, but Data Analyst typically isn’t one of them. Choosing a reporting program that offers ample visualizations and predictability functions is the best way to ensure franchisees are able to take in data in a practical way.
Finally, franchisors and franchisees alike will benefit from keeping the data collection side of things automated. Being a business owner is demanding, and simply taking care of business is often more than a one-man job. Franchisees shouldn’t have to sacrifice time spent with customers in order to input data. Instead, it’s best to use an automated system that gathers data from a range of relevant sources (such as Google My Business and Yelp) and curates regular, easy-to-digest marketing insights for individual franchisees.
