If you run a franchise, you’ll no doubt be aware of how successful this type of business can be. A recent survey from the British Franchise Association showed that the UK franchise sector contributes £19.1 billion to the economy, that 89% of franchise units are profitable, and that 82% of franchisees are satisfied with their franchisor.
To be a part of these amazing statistics, however, you need to make sure you’re training your franchisees well. While many brands invest heavily in their franchise training programmes to achieve this, far fewer have a clear way to evaluate whether that training is actually delivering consistent results across locations.
This is because the challenge isn’t just delivering franchisee training, but also identifying where gaps exist, understanding the impact these can have on your franchisees, and knowing what to prioritise when it comes to fixing them.
Getting all this aligned is crucial to the success of your franchise operation, especially if it’s growing. As your network increases, with more franchisees signing up, even small gaps in training can lead to inconsistencies in operations, slower ramp-up times, and variations in customer experience. This in turn, can dilute your branding, create a lack of control over franchisees and lead to poor customer experience – none of which you want your brand to be associated with.
So what can you do to spot and fix franchisee training gaps before they get to the stage where they’re impacting performance?
We’ve put together a guide to identifying and addressing these gaps, which will help you improve your programme without the need to rebuild your entire franchise training strategy.
Start With Performance, Not Training Content
A common mistake in franchisee training is reviewing content instead of outcomes. Many brands focus on what training is delivered, how it’s structured and whether it’s been completed – but then neglect to follow up to check if it’s actually delivering results.
As completion isn’t a guarantee of effectiveness, shift instead to assessing performance across your franchise network.
The following questions can be a helpful starting point to assess this:
- Are some locations consistently outperforming others?
- Do new franchisees take longer than expected to reach competency?
- Are there recurring operational inconsistencies?
In starting with a performance review, you can get important data on franchisee performance that you can then use to improve your training programme.
Identify Your Franchisee Training Gaps
Once you've completed a performance review, it’s time to move on to assessing your franchisee training programme content. Even well-designed programmes can contain hidden gaps that impact results, so common areas to review include:
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Limited real-world application
Does your training fully prepare your franchisees for real operational scenarios? A lot of training focuses too much on theoretical application, rather than practical. If you’re not basing your training on real-world scenarios, you’re making it harder for your franchisees to apply learning in practice.
- Inconsistent training delivery
Differences in trainers, regions, or formats can create variation in how franchise training is experienced across the network, and thus impact the success of your franchisees.
- Lack of reinforcement
Franchisee training isn’t just ‘one and done’. Without ongoing learning, coaching, or refreshers, franchisee training is less likely to translate into long-term behaviour change.
- No clear measurement of training effectiveness
This underpins everything: without defined metrics, it’s difficult to evaluate whether your franchise training is improving performance, or for you to identify where any gaps exist. This is particularly relevant if you’re scaling your franchise network – these issues will become much more pronounced and harder to manage with more franchisees on board.
How To Assess Your Franchisee Training Programme
This is a simple but comprehensive framework you can use to structure your review:
1. Coverage
Does your franchise training cover all critical roles, processes, and real-world scenarios?
2. Consistency
Is franchise training delivered consistently across all locations and regions?
3. Application
Can franchisees apply their training effectively in day-to-day operations?
4. Reinforcement
What ongoing franchisee training exists beyond initial onboarding?
5. Measurement
How are you tracking the effectiveness of your franchise training programme?
It’s very easy to assume the answers to these questions, but dig deep into your data and ensure you undertake a thorough review. It’s only when you undertake this type of structured audit that you can truly move from assumptions to insight, highlight what improvements are needed, and create a schedule for how they can be prioritised and implemented.
It’s worth noting how prioritisation is a key here, because not all gaps in franchisee training have the same impact. Your initial focus should be on those that directly affect franchise performance, customer experience, and operational consistency. This is because a lack of knowledge of customer-facing processes or core operational standards is likely to have a greater impact than less critical areas.
By prioritising high-impact gaps, you can improve your results without overcomplicating your franchisee training strategy.
Once you have the information from your performance and training reviews, you can then move onto fixing any gaps in your franchisee training.
Fixing Gaps in Franchisee Training Without Starting From Scratch
If you’re feeling disheartened after completing your reviews, don’t panic! Improving training for your franchisees doesn’t require a total overhaul of your programme. In many cases, targeted improvements can deliver significant results.
Some suggestions that can have a big impact include:
- Introducing more practical, scenario-based training
- Strengthening ongoing franchisee training beyond onboarding
- Improving consistency in training delivery
- Implementing simple ways to measure training effectiveness
- Investing in a tailored franchise training system that meets your unique needs
Your Next Steps To Improve Your Franchise Training Programme
In order for it to be a key driver of consistency and growth, your franchise training has to go beyond mere operational requirements. This is particularly relevant as you start to scale your franchise operation.
If you’re reviewing your franchise training programme or planning for growth, we’d like to invite you to book your complimentary franchise training strategy session with us. Meet with one of our franchise training specialists to identify gaps in your current franchise training approach, discover how to accelerate franchise onboarding, and learn how scalable training can improve network performance.
