Franchise Flag Maker

In the current global business scene, it is important to be highly competitive. Companies’ ability to beat and rise up from competition is considered important because revenues depend on it. Of course, it is apparent that competitive firms are more able to generate good income and profits because consumers and customers are reliant and trusting on them.

Competitiveness and good relationship with customers can be ensured by setting and putting in place good customer service practices. Good customer service levels would help your business achieve the competitiveness it needs. That is because putting into consideration the major perceptions of customers would make your company strive harder to develop good products and improve already existing products and services. To do so, you must adhere to good and working customer service metrics.

If your business has a customer service operations, you must ensure a recommended customer service metrics is in place. Usually, working customer service metrics include the following as main factors.

– Volume of customer inquiries handled per hour. This is a measure of productivity. Of course, the higher the number of customers attended to in an hour, the better. But there is one common and logical setback. If you would force your customer service representatives to take numerous and continuous calls, for sure, the quality of call service would suffer.

– Volume of customer complaints. This is not actually a direct customer service metrics but more of a performance indicator of the business and production operations. The more complaints your company receive, the more it is evident that your company has failed to be efficient in rendering and producing quality goods and services.

– Volume of resolved customer complaints. If you would run a daily tally about the volume of resolved complaints from customers, you would be able to distinguish the effectiveness of the customer service unit. In return, customer satisfaction would be boosted. Customer service metrics should always include this measure.

– Return customers volume. If customers keep on returning or buying your products, that means they are satisfied with the quality of services and products. In the customer service level, if clients keep on coming back despite their complaints, that means they realize that your business is still satisfactory.

Such customer service metrics can be considered more inclined on the quantitative side. Of course, by looking and tallying volumes of satisfied and dissatisfied customers, there are numbers involved. Quantitative metrics like the one described above are easier to handle and interpret.

However, you can also adopt and integrate within your quantitative metrics a good and working qualitative customer service metrics. A qualitative customer service metrics would take note and reflect stated opinions and overall perceptions held by customers. Most of the time, it is much more interesting to look at qualitative customer service metrics because they point more to quality issues. Interpretation would be easier and more convenient. If you would be able to look at qualitative measures and at the same time at quantitative customer service metrics, the better. Customer service metrics are a great way to evaluate the performance of helpdesk or call-center unit of any company.

Because his money is involved, a prospective franchisee must be extremely careful in scrutinizing franchise offers. He should have a ready set of questions that the franchisor must be able to answer convincingly and show basis for his replies. Some of the important questions to ask a franchisor are:

How long has the franchisor been in the business? How many franchises are there at present? How many have failed? The answers to these questions will give the franchisee an overview of the business and its present franchise network.

Specifically, what will the franchisee get from paying the franchise fee? The franchise fee is usually a large sum of money paid to the franchisor once the agreement is signed. Therefore, it is important to know the advantages that the franchisee will be getting in return.

How intensive and effective are the initial and continuing training programs of the company for opening and running the franchise unit? The quality of the training programs of the company for start-up operations and running the business smoothly will determine the ease or difficulty with which the franchisee will run his unit.

What support services can the franchisee expect from the company on an on-going basis in terms of helping him deal with problems that may crop up in the course of the business? Continuing support from the franchisor is essential for the unit to run as projected. The franchisor must be able to enumerate in detail the support services that the company will provide in a variety of scenarios wherein the franchisee is confronted by different problems relative to the business. These problems may concern labour, customer complaints, equipment breakdown, and stock shortage.

Is the central management transparent in the appropriation of pooled funds for advertising and promotions? Did the past marketing programs of the company have a positive effect on sales? Part of the unit’s revenues is paid to the franchisor for the company’s advertising and promotions, therefore, the franchisee must know how well the company handles this fund and if its past marketing programs helped boost sales for its franchisees.

Is there a guarantee from the franchisor that the quality of the products and services offered by suppliers through him will be consistent and delivered promptly? The reliability of suppliers will be a big factor in the successful operation of the business. Hence, it is important that the franchisor is willing to guarantee the dependability of his suppliers and the quality of their products and services.

How long will it take the franchisee to recoup his investment? Naturally, every franchisee is very keen on knowing the company’s projection on this matter. The franchisor’s estimate must be supported by documents giving credence to his projection. However, it would be wise for the franchisee not to merely take the franchisor’s word for it but to research on the matter with other franchisees.

How well has the company studied the marketplace in terms of the ideal number of franchises in a given area to ensure the success of each? Is there a guarantee that the company-owned unit will not compete with the franchises? If it does, what will the company do? There are instances wherein the mother unit directly or indirectly competes with its franchise perhaps due to lack of a proper market study. In any such case, the company must be prepared with a viable solution that will be beneficial to both parties.

How receptive is the company to the idea of adapting its products and systems to the culture and preferences of the market in a given location? If the franchisee is considering a business site wherein the culture and preferences of the people are markedly different from that where the mother unit and other franchises are located, it would be detrimental to the success of the franchise if the company will persist in strictly adhering to its original product line.

A franchisee must carefully list the questions before arriving at the final decision. The aforementioned questions are only some of the most basic among the crucial questions that a sensible franchisee must ask. The manner by which the franchisor answers them can help determine the level of his sincerity. In addition to asking the franchisor, the franchisee will be able gather valuable insight into the actual state of the franchise from the other franchisees themselves. More often than not, they are more than willing to share their problems, frustrations, and advice. Asking the right questions will certainly help the prospect make the right decision