Time To Raise The Bar!

Without franchisee survey standards and rigorous methodology, the public could be easily mislead

Some Franchisors regularly perform Survey/Research to communicate with their franchisees and improve their franchise programs. Because of the unique nature of the franchise relationship often times it is necessary to employ the services of an outside Research firm to guarantee respondent anonymity and be certain franchisees feel comfortable "speaking freely". 

If the results of any survey are to be published and shared with prospects as a way for the company to be transparent about how franchisees rate the services provided by the franchisor (overall franchisee-satisfaction) then it becomes the responsibility of the research firm (and everyone in franchising) to set strict ethical standards and rigorous methodology or the public could/would be easily mislead and the survey becomes more marketing spin and sales hype. Franchising deserves better; I propose the following. 

Ethical Standards for Published Surveys by Franchise Companies 

1. Every franchisee is given the opportunity to take the survey. I’ve heard every argument for excluding a certain segment of the franchisee population and none of the arguments are compelling. For every franchisee that is experiencing a "honeymoon period" I have interviewed ten or more that either can’t find a location or are having difficulty getting any business at all (no-one should be excluded from participation).
2. Complete interviews with a minimum of 70% of the brand’s franchisees. The higher the completion rate the more certain you are that the views of the respondents are similar to those that chose not to respond.
3. A survey has a life span of only 12 months. The nature of a survey is the opinions of respondents at a given point in time. Again, due to the nature of franchising it is required that every survey be taken again by the "then" current, complete list of franchisees.
4. Every question asked must be published. The exact same questions must be asked of every franchise company and every question must be published; if any are published (no cherry picking).
5. All survey respondents must be guaranteed confidentiality. This is the basic ethical foundation of using an independent Research firm. Without this guarantee the data will not be reliable; anyone with a basic understanding of the franchise relationship will grasp this concept!
6. Survey methodology should be listed on each report. Describe in detail the population surveyed (the universe of respondents), what is the maximum error range (at what level of confidence), when was the survey taken (exact date), what was the completion rate, etc.; all the specifics should be listed on every report.

I applaud those companies willing to be transparent with prospects and share the responses of their franchisees as they rate the support services supplied by the franchisor. I believe this takes real guts. But, when this process is used as a game to make mediocre franchises look much better then they really are…it should piss us all off! 

Jeff Johnson, Founder/CEO Franchise Research Institute®