Making Franchise Training More Accessible

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Todd Hopkins, founder and CEO of Office Pride (white shirt); Office Pride franchise owner Gregory Carr (navy shirt); Maria Haan, Office Pride Director of Operations

Many franchisees chose franchising because of the aspect of being in business “for yourself, but not by yourself.” To that point, a large plus for people buying a franchise is the training provided. Over the years, franchisor-led training sessions have evolved from the tried-and-true classroom sessions to also incorporating video and other digital methods like teleconferencing.

Now, podcasts are becoming part of the training mix. Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Services has begun a weekly podcast devoted to training for franchisees. Franchise President and CEO Todd Hopkins serves as the host. The podcast focuses on training topics through interviews with seasoned franchisees, business leaders, marketing experts and authors about topics that its franchisees need to know.

“Of course, we were excited about video, when that was trending, too, but podcasts are more accessible and just as effective,” Hopkins says. “We know that more people already have downloaded our podcasts than all the videos we made. Even though the podcasts are longer, they are easier to fit into your schedule. They can listen while they’re driving or even sometimes while working on routine tasks.”

The podcasts are decided on by franchisees’ feedback, and cover everything from hiring to billing to customer service. “We started with a series on hiring and keeping good quality workers,” says Hopkins. “Our theme for 2019 is to ‘Achieve Customer Amazement,’ so we are doing a series on that. Recently, we aired a podcast on the importance of answering the phones instead of letting them to go to voicemail.”

For more on the franchise, please visit our Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Services
profile.

Note: This post originally appeared in our Cleaning Franchise Industry Report 2019. Read it for more on the cleaning industry, including an industry overview, a spotlight on how robots and other technologies are helping cleaners perform tasks, and info about buying a franchise within the industry.