why brand monitoring is crucial for franchises

Why brand monitoring is crucial for franchises

Customers are all connected – to win them over, franchises need to be just as connected.

Nearly 60% of franchises aren’t communicating daily with customers online – Franchise Marketing Report 2015

As a franchise, whether you distribute a product or provide a service, ultimately what you’re delivering to your customers is an experience. The quality of this experience determines how likely customers are to do business with you again or recommend you to others. Great experiences=more customers.

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December 2016

Sharpen brand perception both inside and out – you’re in this together.

While independent companies also deliver products and services, franchising has strength in numbers.

1. More products and services provided under the brand name means greater consumer recognition2. Greater recognition increases likelihood of a customer choosing that brand when in need3. More consumers using a brand increases market share faster

External brand perception depends on internal brand perception. Franchisees are not each other’s competitors, and should not view themselves that way: rather, they are strategic partners who can work together to establish their brand as the market leader. Often franchisees view brand marketing initiatives as solely advancing the franchisor’s interests and not their own. However, the success of each franchisee is critical to the success of the brand, and the success of the brand determines customer acquisition and retention of each individual franchisee. This means all branches should deliver consistent experiences of the highest quality--poor performance from even one franchisee not only harms that franchisee, but tarnishes perception of all the others.

To achieve that consistency, corporate must develop a thorough understanding of how each franchisee represents the brand at a local level. With a unified brand management solution in place, customers know they’ll receive the same quality and service regardless of which store they shop, service they purchase, or office they call.

Before implementing a brand management solution, however, the franchise should ensure all locations are starting on the same page: establish and clarify your company’s standards, values, and voice to lay the groundwork for consistent customer experience brand-wide. With unified thinking across all levels, you’re well on your way to sustainable success.

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December 2016

Dominate local competition with reviews from your happy customers.

“Near me” searches have increased 34x in the past year alone, according to Google. The problem is, simply being near the customer doesn’t mean a business will show up in a search. Star ratings from a high volume of great reviews enhance SEO and push businesses further towards that coveted #1 search ranking.

Each individual franchisee can become the local industry leader with dedicated review management. This includes everything from generating new customer reviews to responding to them and promoting them across the web.

How do reviews help local SEO?

1. Collecting new reviews and engaging with customers builds brand loyalty and establishes a sense of community.

2. Proactively responding to reviews and solving issues immediately prevents customer frustrations from escalating to the public and strengthens online reputation.

3. Marketing reviews across channels generates leads, increases CTR and conversion.

Bottom line: a solid customer-centric culture can become a brand’s primary differentiator, but it needs to come from every franchisee.

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December 2016

Be proactive, not reactive. Anticipate customer issues and solve them before they escalate.

A franchisor needs to be certain their perception of how they’re marketing their product matches their customers’ perceptions. If a discrepancy appears anywhere, the franchisor must make improvements to change that. How can they make informed improvements?

Addressing every customer through real-time brand monitoring builds a deep understanding of their customers’ needs. Constant engagement at all locations prepares the franchise for upcoming buzz, equipping it with strategies to calmly solve problems as they emerge and never get blind-sided by negative feedback. Insights gathered from customer conversations can fuel preemptive support measures. If a problem persists for some locations, chances are it’s a problem at others as well. For example, if several franchisees receives frequent complaints about food being too spicy, franchisors can instruct all franchisees to update their menus with labels indicating spiciness levels, as well as offer more mild options.

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How BirdEye does it

BirdEye empowers franchises to enhance online presence, manage reviews, and leverage actionable customer insights to improve operations--all in one place. Every franchisee can manage customer experience at their own location, and corporate can oversee them all. This comprehensive, streamlined brand monitoring approach sheds light both on pain points and on appropriate corrective actions.

With so many global, regional, and local sites, as well as franchisee’s individual social accounts, critical customer conversations are at risk of being overlooked in a sea of feedback. That’s why BirdEye’s solution is completely automated. An automated solution saves time, narrows the margin of error, and strengthens brand performance. With BirdEye, businesses decide what to say to their customers and when, and we take it from there.

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December 2016

BirdEye for Blaze Pizza

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Blaze Pizza, a build-your-own pizza franchise, saw same-store sales increase of 15% for stores rated 4.4 stars and higher, and stores rated 4 stars and below saw negative same-store sales. Opening an average of 5 new branches per week, this franchise understands the important role that brand consistency plays in customer experience. As an industry leader, they need to exceed customers’ rising expectations by delivering above-and-beyond experiences at every location. By using BirdEye insights to make improvements and replicate positive performance nationwide, Blaze has bolstered brand loyalty and turned each branch into a local favorite.

Location insights for Blaze Pizza


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A unified effort from all franchisees to hardwire experience around customer feedback will yield immeasurable rewards. Connect with customers, boost ratings, increase revenue with end-to-end brand monitoring.


December 2016

birdeye.com

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why brand monitoring is crucial for franchises

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