As we head into the summer and sit well past the halfway point of 2020, it’s time to look at franchise trends for the year. And more importantly, how these trends might change or emerge in remaining calendar months. In order to prepare your franchise location – whether it’s already up and running or waiting to be launched – staying up to date on franchise trends can help you find professional success.
Follow these trending best practices in order to give your brand its best shot at being prepared.
1. Follow Social Distancing Practices
We may live in the home of the free, but there’s nothing brave about avoiding social distancing standards. Stay up to date on your state’s guidelines so your franchise location can readily follow updated standards. Because each state – and each industry – will have its own rules, it’s important for you to remain in the know on changing rules within your location.
If you’re following headlines, you know that not everyone is playing by the rules. These brands are receiving reprimands from their respective governments. They’re also losing business due to bad press, word of mouth that it’s not a safe place to do business, or even by being shut down.
Don’t take the risk. Keep your workers and shoppers safe by following the latest standards within your franchise location.
2. Keep Your Franchise Grounded
The coronavirus and state of the economy are causing much hardship for people around the world. Keep this in mind when running your franchise location. Remain sympathetic to consumers, but also well informed in order to stay grounded. This is a move that will help you understand what your market needs.
Meanwhile you’ll be in the right state of mind to empathize with customers – this is true whether they walk through the door, or if you’re offering services from a distance. Customers want to be heard, and keeping your franchise and all of your employees on the same page can help bring the right tone to world changes and how they affect your customer base.
3. Go As Virtual With Your Franchise As Possible
Anything you can do online for your customers, do it! The more mobile, flexible, and virtual your business can become, the better. Brands are updating their websites, implementing delivery, apps, and more – all to allow their customers to maintain their distance. This does require some time and money in infrastructure, but once in place, it’s a proven way to increase revenue by allowing your products and services to be accessed, even by those quarantining or staying away from the public. In other words, a customer who’s looking for X service, but wants to distance from the masses, will still give you their business. Without it, they’re more likely to head to a competitor who has taken the time to put these virtual practices in place.
Talk with your franchising brand about respective infrastructure, or consider partnerships with apps or software to bring your local franchise more mobile.
4. High Quality Franchise Employees
Hire the best and train them to be even better – this is one of the best moves you can make for your franchise at any time, let alone in the status quo. Use any extra time to train your workers in any number of subjects. This can mean continuing education, customer service, managerial tasks, etc. You can even look to your employees’ preferences and find out where they’d like to spend time training.
Offering this perk to workers is a great way to up your employee retention by letting them learn new skills, often of their choosing. It’s also a way to give your franchise better workers, and therefore, allowing it to succeed.
Especially now, as industry standards are calling for fewer workers or shorter work weeks, consider taking that time for employee training. It’s a move that will help your franchise thrive.
5. All the Cleaning for Your Business Location
This is nothing new, but in today’s events, cleaning is a must. Create a standard for your franchise wherein cleaning is done on a specific schedule, including what is cleaned and how often. This will help your location remain a safer place for all, but it will give you a better reputation all around. No one wants to stop at the location that isn’t up to date with its safety standards, they want the franchise that is up to date on its sanitizing.
Consider a proper cleaning schedule with your franchise location for a simple way to keep your location more appealing to all who enter.
6. Stay Tuned In to Your Industry
How will your industry change in the next few months? Will new standards be release? Will there be a boom in X but a recession in Y? The best way to stay tuned in and prepped for whatever may come your way is to follow the news at all times. Sign up for email alerts and check in with sources so you can be ready for whatever updates might be released.
Keeping yourself ready is the best way to anticipate big market changes. And of course, those same anticipations can help keep your franchise ready on its feet. The more prepped you can remain, the better you can wade into the future.
Keeping your franchise business up to date on upcoming business trends is a great way to step into the future with success on your side.