When a company such as FOCUS Brands has a corporate message to spread, their biggest challenge is how.
The company's concepts consist of Carvel, Seattle's Best Coffee, Cinnabon, Schlotzsky's and Moe's Southwest Grill, and while some franchisees are comfortable using a computer, others are not.
To bridge the communication gap, executives of single- and multiunit concepts use a variety of communication formats to get across their messages.
Concepts such as Qdoba, FOCUS and Salad Creations use newsletters, committees and a varied assortment of technological tools to reach out to a wide variety of franchisees. While some methods work better than others, they all play a part in the communication process.
"Certain franchisees like to be communicated with in different vehicles. Some are smaller, and it's one person sifting through all of the information, and they can be overwhelmed," said Todd Owen, vice president of franchise development for Denver-based Qdoba. "It's hard to know if we're over communicating or not communicating enough."
Newsletters, franchise committees
FOCUS mails a newsletter every other month, sends a CEO letter every Monday and prints a 22- to 36-page magazine three times a year. The magazine is a good tool for "sharing across brands what other concepts and franchisees are doing," said Jennifer Dempsey, FOCUS Brands' senior director of public relations and corporate communications.
The company also holds off-campus meetings three times a year for its Carvel brand franchisees, who tend to be less open to computerized communication.
"Franchisees come together to review key elements they need to be aware of," Dempsey said. "It's capturing people that don't get on ezLink (the company's Intranet site)."
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Fifty-four unit Salad Creations also holds off-site meetings throughout the year with a franchisee council, which further works to fill the communication void. Each council member is responsible for reporting back to the franchisees they represent and minutes of the meeting are recorded by an outside firm and provided to every franchisee.
Salad Creations founder and president Jeff Levine said the company also brought in a communication specialist to help detail how the meetings should proceed.
In addition to the franchisee council, there are six different committees franchisees can chose to participate on that cover everything from marketing to distribution to lead generation.
Franchisees also are encouraged to call company executives anytime they have something to say.
"We've got a real open door policy here," he said. "If it's something related to our franchise syetm, we'll get right on the phone and try to fix the problem."
The Intranet
One tool revolutionizing the communication process is the Intranet, a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securley share information.
FOCUS Brands' main vehicle for brand-specific communication is its Intranet site called ezLink.
"Each franchisee has access to that and also each brand has its own section," Dempsey said. "We also have a chat board where franchisees can post messages and ask each other for advice."
Qdoba has used an Intranet site for seven years, Owen said. The site has become the company's most comprehensive tool for its communication efforts.
"The Intranet has been used to provide the most up-to-date and timely information to franchisees," he said. "Even untechnologically-savvy franchisees have gotten more comfortable with clicking on a link and pulling something up."
Meanwhile, Levine said Salad Creations' Intranet site is used for anything business related the company wants franchisees to know about. That includes the posting of pictures anytime a new store opens or spreading the word when a franchise has been sold.
Videos and webinars
While FOCUS Brands doesn't rely on videos for its communication efforts, Qdoba has invested in its ability to use videos for training and other purposes.
"(Video) has a huge impact at the restaurant level because you have people that may not be able to speak English very well, but that still need to be communicated with," Owen said. "That's an area we need to emphasize more."
Levine believes videos are the next wave of communication tools, especially when it comes to dealing with international franchisees.
"I think we'll get to the point where everything will be video," he said. "We have stores in Brazil that communicate through Skype and that makes it so much easier to communicate." (Skype is a certain kind of software that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet.)
Webinars also are used by each brand to communicate certain messages. For example, Salad Creations uses webinars to showcase a new product rollout. They also can be used to give employee-training or other operational tips and tools.
However, as more communication methods are created to help restaurant executives reach franchisees, caution must be applied.
"The biggest risk is over-communication," Owen said. "If your organization isn't careful, each department could define their information as the most important. Technology is a simpler, more cost-effective and timely tool, but it can be abused."
