Franchisee Support as a Strategic Goal in Grocery Business Franchising
The practice of franchising grocery business is rare in traditional retailing. Modern omnichannel grocery brands are coming up fast and in the coming years, these businesses will stagnate the growth potential of the traditional grocers. To counter this challenge, the physical retailers have the option of going omnichannel and franchising their grocery business. Being omnichannel makes a grocery brand more competitive from a contemporary perspective. And by choosing to take the franchise route, the business model can be quickly replicated. With experience in both omnichannel and franchise consulting, YRC maintains that franchisee support could be used as an effective business strategy to succeed in grocery business franchising.
Marketing Support. Being the host partner, and usually the more dominant one in terms of experience and expertise, franchisors can play a big role in providing the necessary marketing support to their franchisees. After all, making the franchise business succeed is the common goal for both parties. Franchisors can share their marketing expertise in running the business. They can work together in market research, finalizing the product merchandising decisions, formulating the pricing and channel strategies, planning promotional and advertising campaigns, run unified digital marketing campaigns, etc. All these could mean a lot for franchisees, especially those who are new to the grocery business. By providing the necessary marketing support, franchisors can remain assured that marketing is done correctly for the franchise business. Most of the big brands in the food-chain sector already follow this strategy.
Technical Support. Technology has already impacted retail grocery big, especially in the developed countries and in many of the metropolitan cities. But for the majority of grocery stores in the world, the tools and technologies being used in the stores for routine business are quite common, prevalent, and averaging the industry standards. However, it will not be fair to assume that franchisees and their employees would already know how to acquire and apply these tools and technologies. To help franchisees quickly incorporate and implement the required business-IT systems, franchisors should provide them with the necessary technical support in terms of understanding the technological environment in which the business will operate, helping in finding the right solutions/products, and aid in implementation.
Operational Support. In operational support, franchisors provide assistance to franchisees in building a strong operational platform. Again, franchisors carry the edge of experience of running the same business. No one will know better how to define the business processes and operations for a franchised grocery store better than its franchisor barring a few elements of localization. Franchisors can help the franchisees in drafting the operations manuals for various business operations. With the design and application of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), the goal of standardization is also achieved. Franchisors can help franchisees quickly implement the required operational platform and help them become process-oriented.
Training Support. When it comes to the execution of business operations, franchisees do need the necessary training support for a smooth take-off. For instance, managerial roles have to be imparted training for business expertise and skills based on the job profile, people skills, handling business-IT systems, customer-related aspects like consumer behaviour, grievance management, etc. Similarly, employees also require training on soft skills, handling customer queries, merchandising, following SOPs and operations manuals, team-play, etc. Again, here also, franchisors are expected to be having a comprehensive understanding of the training requirements required in the business. On-the-job training could be extremely helpful in helping a franchisee team pick up the necessary skills in an organized manner.
Compliance Guidance. Compliance could be an intricate activity for franchisees. Normally, the rules and regulations vary from state to state and district to district. Within the same regulatory authority, franchisors can guide franchisees in advance of the compliance requirements. These compliances could be pertaining to obtaining/renewing of trade license, display of trade license, documents to be shown at the time of inspection, safety and security measures to be maintained all the time, waste disposal, working hours, etc.
The points raised by YRC offers a much-needed validation towards emphasising the importance of providing the necessary support platform and guidance to franchisees by their franchisors. At the end of the day, both franchisor and franchisee are running for the same cause - the success of the franchised business. And it makes sense that they work together to accomplish this goal. Being the host and, usually, the more experienced party of the two, franchisors remain in an able position to provide the necessary business support and guidance to their franchisees. However, franchisors need to bear in mind that in order to help franchisees in doing business, first, they must themselves get to be doing it right.
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