Quality. It’s so important these days. It can be a serious differentiator.
Think about all of the businesses you visit…and spend money with.
If you don’t feel you’re getting a quality product, or are receiving quality service, do you go back? Do you spend your hard-earned money there again? I think not. I know I don’t. Not unless the poor quality was from a place I’ve done business with in the past, and I feel it was probably just a fluke.
Consumers are not very forgiving when it comes to poor products or poor services, especially since they have a lot of choices these days. That’s why it’s really important that the franchise you end up purchasing offers top shelf stuff. When you’re investigating a franchise, it’s important for you to find out how good the product and/or service is that you’ll be offering-as a franchisee.
How To Find Out About Quality
There are a few ways for you to find out how good a franchisors products and/or services are.
1. Try them yourself
If you’re lucky enough to choose franchise that has a location in your immediate vicinity, great. If you’re thinking of buying a pizza franchise, all you have to do is order a couple of pizzas and sample away. If you’re looking to buy a home services franchise-like a carpet-cleaning business, call them up and arrange to have your carpets cleaned. In both cases, not only will you have an opportunity to sample their offerings, you’ll be able to experience their business processes from start to finish. That can be pretty powerful.
2. Have others try them
If there’s no franchise location in your area, find the page on the franchisors website that lists their locations. There may be a franchise location in a part of the country that some of your friends or relatives live in. If so, tell them what you’re thinking of doing, offer to pay for them to sample the franchisors offerings, and ask them to provide an informal review of whatever it was they purchased.
3. Ask franchisees
When you have discussions with franchisees (as part of your research) ask them how they rate the quality of their offerings. After all, they’re the ones who have already invested their own money in the franchise you’re interested in buying.
Beyond Product/Service Quality
Having a high-quality product or service to offer as a franchisee is crucial. It will end up being one of your competitive edges. But, there’s more to having a successful franchise business than just offering a high-quality product and/or service. Your odds of success as a franchisee also depends on the quality of your franchisor.
One way to find out if the franchisor you’re about to partner with is a quality one is to (once again) ask the franchisees. And, I don’t mean asking only one or two of them.
Arrange to contact 10-15 current franchisees of the franchise concept you’re investigating.
Have a list of questions ready to ask. Here are 4 questions you can use to hone in on the franchisors' quality. Remember, these questions are just a start.
- When you contact franchise headquarters with a problem, how would you describe their response? How fast do they work to help you solve the problem?
- What are some of the new franchisees like? Do you feel that the franchisor is committed to only choosing high-quality franchisees?
- How good are the business systems? Does the franchisor use high-quality technology solutions? Are you being properly trained on system upgrades that affect your business’ operations?
- Finally, ask the franchisees you call (and visit) if they themselves feel that the franchisor is a high-quality one.
If you want to increase your chances of success as the owner of a franchise business, make sure you choose a high-quality franchisor that offers high-quality products or services. Shoot for the stars!
The Franchise King®, Joel Libava, is a franchise ownership advisor. He’s the author of Become a Franchise Owner! (Wiley Publishing) and owns and operates Franchise Business University. Joel contributes a blog post to Franchise Direct monthly.