No business wishes to be in a position of having to deal with mistakes and unhappy customers. But the reality is that it happens. Business owners have two options in such cases: ignore or avoid the situation, and deal with it half-heartedly.
Alternatively, they can respond and address concerns promptly and directly, which will ultimately lead to a stronger brand that’s known for always looking out for its clientele.
As such, the hallmark of a good business is how it deals with adversity. And in the context of franchising, this is where franchise reputation management comes into play.
Table of contents:
Online reputation management tips and steps
Your franchise reputation is worth its weight in gold. It’s one of the main reasons why customers are drawn to and choose your business. It’s also why prospective franchisees seek you out when looking for a business opportunity.
With almost all searches these days being conducted online, it’s important, nay, critical to establish, monitor and maintain your franchise reputation in the digital space. With this in mind, here are some tips and tricks to bear in mind as you approach this mammoth task.
Our guidelines are presented based on the different stages of franchise development: getting the basics right, what to do after getting started, building and maintaining your brand the right way, self-monitoring and evaluation as a continuous process, and of course, there’s a bonus tip for you. Let’s dig in.
Step 1: Getting the basics right
When a business owner of a successful venture sets out to franchise their business, there are certain things they need to bear in mind in order to build and secure a strong reputation.
It all starts with ensuring that all your logos, trademarks and copyrights – your intellectual property – is well protected and registered with the appropriate bodies.
Also important to do at the outset of franchising your business is to be careful of franchisee selection. Not every prospect will be suitable for your brand, even if they have the financial resources.
When you’ve secured your intellectual property and onboarded new franchisees to your network, you need to build reputation management guidelines into your franchise agreement.
It’s also worth considering building confidentiality guidelines into your agreement.
Master franchisors, on the other hand, should be responsible for managing the reputation in their territory. Franchise reputation management should start right at the beginning of the franchising process. It also needs to be an ongoing consideration by both the franchisor and the franchisee.
Lastly, as you recruit new franchisees and start the training process, ensure you take sufficient time to educate them on sensitive issues. Do this during the initial training and the ongoing support process you offer them.
As such, you should have dedicated training and support teams in place to ensure that your franchisees are aware of the importance of maintaining a solid franchise reputation on- and offline. Without the right knowledge and tools, something as small as a negative customer review can turn into a PR nightmare.
Step 2: What to do after getting started
Right, now that we’ve covered the basic building blocks towards maintaining a strong franchise reputation, you need to know that the process is far from over. Steps you should take during this phase include:
Develop a consistent strategy across your franchise network
this should be communicated to your franchisees on a regular basis so that they are not only educated about how to use the brand materials and intellectual property but also to make sure that they’re updated on new developments.
Isolate your franchise locations on various online platforms
Whether you use local search engine optimisation to boost your Google My Business listings or social media channels, ensure that each franchisee has their own channels and platforms so that these can be easily managed and accessed through a master account.
By isolating each franchisee’s online presence, you can protect other franchisees from harm and limit the exposure of negative reviews left for a specific franchisee.
Use your internal support network optimally
One franchisee that underperforms can affect the entire franchisee network with a single unaddressed negative comment or online review. This is why all franchisees need to be supported to ensure that if one card crumbles, the entire house of cards doesn’t fall.
It’s a simple analogy but it’s effective. Franchisees operate within a network and need to support each other and also get the right levels of support from the franchisor. One of your roles as a franchisor is to provide easy access to this support structure and ensure all franchisees take advantage of it.
Step 3: Building and maintaining your brand the right way
It’s now time to build and maintain your business’ online reputation management. What steps should you follow? Here are some industry best practices to consider:
Listen to your customers
This means engaging with them, whether they leave positive or negative reviews. Positive reviews and comments should be acknowledged. The simplest thing you can do is to say thank you. Negative comments require an almost immediate response because of their potential to get out of hand. Always treat such customers with respect and offer them tangible solutions to the problem.
Don’t allow your online profiles to become outdated
This means not only claiming and keeping your business listings updated, but also keeping your URLs simple, utilising NAP (name, address, phone number), adding relevant local content, including Google Maps to various franchisee locations and continuously working on optimising each of their pages.
Monitor and manage all reviews and social media mentions online and respond to private messages promptly (within 24 hours).
Use a blog to build your brand by adding high-value content to help build brand authority and credibility. Social media should be used in the same way.
If you’ve made a mistake, humility will go a long way. It’s okay to admit mistakes. However, avoid disputing any aspects of your business or customer relationship management in public. Try to resolve things in a private space instead.
Step 4: Self-monitoring and evaluation
Once your online brand has been built, you can’t rest on your laurels. Continuous self-monitoring and evaluation are needed. You can foster customer loyalty by doing some of the following:
- Auditing your online reputation and feedback channels regularly (monthly)
- Identifying review outliers
- Analysing feedback and review trends
- Consistently replying and responding to online reviews
- Using positive reviews for marketing purposes
- Continuously monitoring your brand’s reputation network-wide.
Bonus tip: Go the extra mile
Our bonus tip for boosting your brand and online reputation is something quite simple. It’s something that can be implemented by every franchisee across the network and it doesn’t have to be costly or time-consuming.
It’s simply a matter of going the extra mile where the service allows for it. A little extra effort is really appreciated and shows that you care about your customers and not only about getting the job done.
Recap
Franchise online reputation management is a continuous task that needs to be monitored all the time. One slip and a negative customer remark could spiral out of control.
Although franchise marketing resources can sometimes be constrained, using the services of a franchise marketing agency can work out to be more cost-effective and professional than attempting to put out fires on your own.
