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A strong and healthy franchise relation is an imperative part of every franchise system. Franchisor provides the franchisees with all the necessary help and guidance that are required during business establishment. But a franchisor alone cannot assure the success of the franchise business unless the franchisee actively participates in it, and understand the fact that the franchisor’s job is to assist the franchisee in every possible way. But the real task of shaping one’s business enterprise wholly depends on the credibility of the franchisee. It is important for the franchisee to work according to the written obligations, develop methods to avoid conflicts and work together with the franchisor to gain sustainable growth. This article throws light on how a franchisee can avoid conflicts and encourage strong franchise relations among themselves.
As a franchisee, you should always be considerate that your franchisor has provided you with a functional system that would direct your mind and enhance your skills to get success. Like Rod Young, ED, DC Strategy says, “A good franchisor is the one who believes that helping franchisees get what they want will actually help them (franchisor) what they want, which is a valuable asset.”
Franchisees’ role in maintaining relationship
The duty of building healthy franchise relations is not restricted to the franchisor. Rather it is the duty of both the parties to make it work effectively in order to achieve the desired goals. Especially it’s the franchisee that takes up the responsibility of building a strong relationship with the franchisor. Along with investment of time and money they also need to build trust on the franchisor in order to lay the strong foundation of a healthy franchise relation.
Situations to avoid
A number of situations can make the franchise relation go astray, which are enlisted below:
- Spending needless energy on negotiating the franchise fee and royalties. With the growth of the franchising business, the franchisee’s level of satisfaction starts dropping. A franchisee needs to avoid greediness.
- Once the franchise business starts running successfully, franchisees start attributing the success to themselves. Rather than being thankful to franchisor, they start criticising franchisor, which should be avoided.
- There usually comes a stage when a franchisee starts feeling that s/he has to start his/ her independent business. It is not at all appreciable as a franchisor has invested his/her valuable assets on the franchisee in order to establish the franchise business. Therefore, a franchisee should always be thankful to the franchisor and keep in mind that s/he has to follow the franchisor’s instruction to run the business profitably.
- Following the franchise system is not a part of franchisor’s dictatorship; rather the strict obligations of franchisees are made to maintain the standard of the franchising business. So, exaggeration of disagreements can create problems in the franchise relations. Therefore, a franchisee is always advised to have healthy discussions with the franchisor rather than chirping out to other franchisees within the network.
A franchisee has to ignore all the above situations in order to avoid the conflicts in franchise relationship. A franchise relationship depends on the mutual efforts of both the parties. Though the responsibility of building and maintaining the franchise relationship is typically placed on the shoulders of the franchisor but a franchisee also seeks to play an active role in this endeavour.
Healthy relations are the foundation of future association. Therefore, it is not only necessary to build a strong relation but also to maintain it. So, a franchisor and his franchisees have to work together to build a mutual understanding among themselves to make a successful franchise business.
