FranConnect, the leading provider of franchise management solutions for driving success in franchise sales, operations, and marketing, released its first annual Franchise Operations Index Report, a comprehensive analysis of the ever-evolving role of franchise business consultants. In the 2021 report, FranConnect analyzed over 165,000 franchise business consultant interactions between Jan. 1, 2019 to Dec. 31, 2020 to help franchisors understand the impact of COVID-19 on franchise operations teams and benchmark their strategy and success against the broader industry.
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The 2021 Franchise Operations Index Report represents data from more than 600 of FranConnect’s customers, from Micro-Emerging brands (10 locations or less) to Enterprise concepts (300+ locations), across multiple industries, including quick-service restaurants, retail, automotive, personal services, and commercial and residential services, among others.
Key findings in the 2021 Operations Index Report include:
- Franchisor-driven evaluations increased 9.4% in 2020 as brands shifted to more frequent, virtual interactions focused on ensuring franchisees were weathering the storm rather than the traditional compliance audit.
- The number of self-assessments more than tripled in 2020, as franchisors more heavily relied on them as the pandemic persisted.
- Unscored audits increased by 29% in 2020, which had been a growing trend even in pre-pandemic times.
- Evaluation strategies have clearly shifted, with a majority of brands now using a combination of scored audits, unscored audits, and self-assessments.
- The pandemic increased franchisee business consultants’ span of control by over 21%, with each coaching an average of 34 units in 2020. This was primarily due to downsizing and furloughs, as well as franchise business consultants’ ability to oversee more units because they were not spending time traveling.
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“In the current environment, operating a franchise business is more important than ever — elevating the need for franchisors to have a sound strategy to drive performance that can withstand good times and bad,” said Jason Kealey, Vice President of Strategy at FranConnect. “FranConnect is deeply focused on supporting our customers’ operational needs. We not only want to provide solutions that help them see their own performance, but also be able to leverage our collective data to see how they are performing against the broader industry. Our Operations Index Report is the only strategic analysis of its kind and is positioned to become the gold standard for how our industry tracks and evaluates the activities of franchise business consultants.”
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