{"id":2329,"date":"2023-11-29T22:39:50","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T22:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/franchisors.com\/clone\/?p=2329"},"modified":"2023-11-29T22:39:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T22:39:50","slug":"transforming-your-franchise-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/franchisors.com\/clone\/transforming-your-franchise-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Transforming Your Franchise Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By: Matthew Gourgeot, Franchise Sales &amp; Operations Director, Thryv<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When it was just you and one location, knowing what was happening in your business was easy. But now you\u2019re a franchisor. And greater growth has led to greater inconsistencies and greater complexity.<\/p>\n<p>How do you know if your franchisees are following your processes? Where can you see the full financial story? How can you take your business to the next level when lacking full transparency?<\/p>\n<p>Time to get serious about a franchise tech transformation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No Better Time to Start<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can hear the groans from here. \u201cAnother thing I have to do? I\u2019m just trying to keep this business going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, if the pandemic didn\u2019t start you thinking about a franchise tech transformation, now\u2019s the time. Because, frankly, the customer base you had pre-COVID is not the same one you\u2019ve got now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith convenience expectations forever reset, the path to sustained success means keeping pace with where and what customers value most,\u201d according to Franchising.com.<\/p>\n<p>Which means \u2026? Your customers expect tech-enhanced (not just enabled) interactions. It means they expect a consistent experience no matter who they interact with. Or where. Or how. And it means franchisees will look to you to lead the franchise\u2019s tech transformation.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www2.deloitte.com\/content\/dam\/Deloitte\/us\/Documents\/technology-media-telecommunications\/us-tmt-connected-small-businesses-Dec2017-old.pdf\">Deloitte\u2019s \u201cConnected Small Businesses in the United States\u201d<\/a>\u00a0report, digitally advanced small businesses were more successful than those who weren\u2019t. The digitally advanced businesses:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Earned two times more revenue per employee.<\/li>\n<li>Experienced nearly four times the revenue growth year over year.<\/li>\n<li>Were almost three times as likely to create jobs over the previous year.<\/li>\n<li>Had an average employment growth rate more than six times as high.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Unite Your Franchise Tech Front<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But unless your service\u00a0<em>is<\/em>\u00a0technology, your franchisees may not be tech fluent or welcoming. So, it\u2019s your job to help them understand which technologies to onboard, why and in what order.<\/p>\n<p>The roadmap will look different based on your franchise\u2019s maturity. Have you just dipped your toes into franchise waters? Maybe start with customer experience consistency.<\/p>\n<p>Are your franchises in their \u201cteen years,\u201d ready to make the next big step? Then transparent revenue reporting may be most important.<\/p>\n<p>Or, if franchise operations run well but\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thryv.com\/features\/online-presence\/\">your virtual \u201cstorefront\u201d\u00a0<\/a>needs some love (if it exists at all?), then marketing technology might be the next acquisition.<\/p>\n<p>The point is, successfully implementing and integrating software requires moving collectively as one brand. Not individual mini brands.<\/p>\n<p>22% of small businesses say digital tools helped reduce operating costs.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www2.deloitte.com\/content\/dam\/Deloitte\/es\/Documents\/Consultoria\/The-performance-of-SMBs-in-digital-world.pdf\">~Deloitte<\/a><\/p>\n<p>One obvious reason is purchasing power. Franchisees joining forces with the home office have a lot more buying muscle than single purchasers.<\/p>\n<p>Another reason: You can solve the whole franchise\u2019s higher-level needs \u2014 consistency, growth or transparency \u2014 at the same time, using the same \u201clanguage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With you leading the tech charge, your franchise ship can navigate challenging growth waters more smoothly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Culture Eats Change for Breakfast<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So how exactly do you get differing franchisee levels of tech savvy moving as one?<\/p>\n<p>Recognize your franchisees are the ones on the front lines of customer expectations. Listen to their highest-priority needs.<\/p>\n<p>If your franchisees aren\u2019t completely on board with your technology vision, you\u2019ll have failed before you start.<\/p>\n<p>So, it\u2019s important to include them when deciding solutions. Make sure everyone knows the reasons for change, and how the change will help them.<\/p>\n<p>Reinforce your commitment to a common tech vision and communicate often about progress.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yes, the Cloud Is for You, Too<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re late to the tech game, don\u2019t worry. You\u2019ve simply waited until the best-possible time \u2014 the glory days of cloud computing.<\/p>\n<p>The cloud isn\u2019t new, but the appetite for it got a major pandemic boost. Before COVID-19, cloud computing was pervasive, but not always apparent.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019d asked someone if they felt the cloud was safe, their answer was just as likely \u201cno\u201d as \u201cyes\u201d \u2014 even though, ironically, you might be polling them in a Google Doc. Questions about security, stability and control persisted.<\/p>\n<p>With the corporate world\u2019s fairly seamless transition to work-from-home, those concerns were more or less put to rest. Not that privacy, reliability or ownership issues went away. But the cloud\u2019s effectiveness became more widely recognized.<\/p>\n<p>While small businesses or franchises aren\u2019t like the corporate world, they do share common needs. Technologies like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thryv.com\/features\/customer-relationship-management\/\">customer relationship management<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thryv.com\/features\/appointment-booking\/\">online scheduling<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thryv.com\/features\/payments\/\">accounting<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thryv.com\/features\/document-storage-sharing\/\">file storage<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thryv.com\/features\/marketing-automation\/\">marketing<\/a>\u00a0are just as essential to small businesses as larger ones.<\/p>\n<p>Moving them to the cloud can reduce overall costs and enable greater consistency and transparency.<\/p>\n<p>Around 90% of small businesses believe digital tools helped them innovate, particularly when entering new markets and communicating with customers.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www2.deloitte.com\/content\/dam\/Deloitte\/es\/Documents\/Consultoria\/The-performance-of-SMBs-in-digital-world.pdf\">~Deloitte<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Cloud-based solutions helped all companies get out of the tech hardware and server business (unless, of course, that\u00a0<em>was<\/em>\u00a0their business). A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thryv.com\/features\/franchises\/\">single cloud-based platform<\/a> replaced multiple instances of the same technology.<\/p>\n<p>Costs were reduced and consistency improved. And access \u2014 regardless of location \u2014 enabled flexible, on-the-go operations for everyone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Transforming Franchise Tech: For You and Them<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You may still not be sold on having to lead your franchisees into a new tech age. But keep this in mind \u2014 customers now make decisions based on their total experiences with a brand, not just a product or service.<\/p>\n<p>Customer experience includes every single interaction your customers have with your franchise. It doesn\u2019t matter if you (or the franchisee) were involved.<\/p>\n<p>Customers decide whether to do business with you based on what they can learn about you first.<\/p>\n<p>Not investing in your digital experience is telling. Potential customers are forming impressions about the experiences they\u2019ll have with your brand. Are you confident they\u2019re good ones?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Matthew Gourgeot, Franchise Sales &amp; Operations Director, Thryv When it was just you and one location, knowing what was happening in your business was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,47],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-2329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","category-technology","tag-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Transforming Your Franchise Tech - Clone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/franchisors.com\/clone\/transforming-your-franchise-tech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transforming Your Franchise Tech - 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