I can hardly turn round these days without a blog post smacking me in the head.
This one flags a peril of franchising.
As I’ve never owned a franchise, I’m really hoping you can help us join the dots.
Pizza walk
After Fonnie and I left the bar, we fancied a margherita of the pizza kind.
I’d read about a gourmet place that had exploded from 1 to 100 outlets.
One outlet was a short stroll away.
With franchises costing $400K, I expected great things.
When we arrived, the counter guy raised a warning hand: there was a register crisis.
At last he took our order.
We asked for a delivered pizza which, given the 20-minute wait, we’d easily beat home.
(We didn’t want to eat in the outlet, or spill it on ourselves as we walked.)
To our delight, the order was much cheaper than our usual pizza place.
Home run
The guy asked our address.
Abbotsford is one of Melbourne’s smallest, least known suburbs.
But it is next to Collingwood, the suburb in which we stood.
The guy looked nervous. He strode to a coloured wall map, searched intently and returned.
‘I’m sorry; we can’t deliver your pizza.’
‘How come?’
‘Abbotsford is covered by our Richmond outlet.’
I knew that wherever the Richmond outlet was, it was further from our home than this one. I’ve since looked it up: it’s thrice the distance.
‘This is our first time here; can’t you look after us?’
‘Sorry. You can wait for take-away, but we can’t deliver it.’
It was a territory thing.
McNuffin
Walking home hungry, I recalled a time when I was much younger (and drunker).
I’d convinced two friends to join my quest to get the McDonald’s drive-through to recognise a ‘deemed’ car.
We shuffled along the asphalt making engine, horn and brake noises.
The window attendant was unmoved.
‘I’m sorry; I can’t serve you. It’s cars only here.’
‘Yes. We are a deemed car.’
‘Sorry. Cars only.’
‘We know. But for the purposes of this transaction, we are a car.’
‘No you’re not.’
‘Beep beep! Vroom vroom! Screeek!’
‘You’re still not a car.’
Book ‘em!
Michael E. Gerber says you should build a business to be run by morons with a manual.
[Note: As you’ll see from our discussion below, this wasn’t an actual quote. Michael has been kind enough to provide the correct one via Twitter: ‘build your system so "novices" could use it to produce professional results.’ Many thanks Michael!]
Seth Godin decries this as a race to the bottom (and the furthest thing from ‘art’).
I think guidelines are good.
But staff need the authority, autonomy and imagination to bend them if they’re to win, delight and keep customers. (Just like that amazing grocer.)
Most franchises provide rules and training.
After our pizza parlay, I wonder if it’s worth the substantial investment.
Fortunately, there’s no franchise on wisdom.
So please share yours with us!
Paul Hassing | Founder & Senior Writer – The Feisty Empire
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Author
MyCarBudget
November 17, 2011 at 11:13 am
He should have just called Richmond, booked the order over the phone and had it delivered. Surely this happens all of the time and they have a process to manage it.
The inability of staff to make decisions is what most customer complaints are drawn from. We have experienced a restructure at Fleetpartners to address just that, greater customer focus and more authority at the lower levels of management. Sounds great in the presentation, let’s see how well we implement it.
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 11:18 am
Dang, MCB; why didn’t I think of that?! I can see why YOU call the shots at your end!
It seemed to me that the guy was brand new (and possibly parachuted in from the other side of the country). I got the feeling he was looking up Abbotsford as much to work out where it was as to whether it was in his zone.
I guess he’ll get it eventually. But how many putative lifelong customers will he disenfranchise in the process?
Many thanks indeed for your elegant reaction.
Author
Leon Noone
November 17, 2011 at 11:47 am
G’Day Paul,
I laughed out loud. I’m sure it wasn’t amusing for you. But I”m an Essendon supporter and you were next door to bloody Collingwood. Even I know where Abbotsford is………just across the Yarra from Xavier Prep, Raheen and Kew.
We’re surrounded by lousy service. We shouldn’t get our knickers in a twist about it. The silly buggers like the dills who run your pizza franchise aren’t worthy of the attention.
One of my major clients is a domestic maintenance plumbing company. That’s all they do . It’s called “The Clean Plumber” and their motto is, “If we’re late you don’t pay.” ‘owabout that?
Why don’t you run a reader contest. Tell us about outstanding customer service: names, dates and serial numbers included. I’m sure that your mates at MYOB could provide a substantial prize. And we could all learn lots of good things to do instead of bad things to avoid.
We old HR blokes have to innovate you know. And it’d be great fun….except perhaps in Abbotsford.
Regards
Leon
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 11:51 am
Hi, Leon! Laughter is one of the greatest compliments you can give and I certainly strive to amuse.
I like your idea a lot. In fact, our Melina covered a kindred concept in her recent post:
http://myob.com.au/blog/online-site-helps-to-keep-it-clean/
I’ve sussed this site out and it looks pretty jolly good.
Best regards, as always.
Author
Stephen Hamilton
November 17, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Excellent idea!
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Right on, Stephen!
Author
Malcolm Owens
November 17, 2011 at 11:52 am
Hang on to your hats, here it comes!
The service levels from most small businesses in Australia are truly shocking. I have come to the point where I expect mediocrity at best and usually get it. Disinterested, bored and downright rude shop assistants that are clearly there only for a pay cheque.
It doesn’t matter what the business the staff need to be engaged, involved and helpful. The blame for that lies firmly at the feet of the owner. They need to provide training, set standards and ideally provide incentives for good performance. Especially if the owner has invested $400k in a franchise!!
Most businesses don’t care. Then they wonder why they go broke and blame everyone else or the economy. Good businesses stand out, bad ones fade out. The difference in effort is low, the difference in results high.
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Good afternoon, Malcolm. I love how the power and clarity of your expression is exponentially proportional to your depth of feeling on the topic. Judging from this fine outing, you feel this very deeply. Many thanks for sharing!
Author
Stephen Hamilton
November 17, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Yes, Malcolm, I think you are right. Most business owner don’t care, so what incentive does the staff have? Usually, there is a disincentive for the staff to offer good service – who wants to cop a grilling about why you bent a rule, gave a discount, spent some extra time or whatever it takes to keep a customer happy.
It isn’t always the case, but often enough to be an excellent rule of thumb – if the staff don’t give a damn, chances are their boss doesn’t either.
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Man, if I’d just coughed up a $400,000 franchise fee out of my retrenchment package instead of bunging it safe and sound in the bank at 6%, I’d be doing EVERYTHING to ensure NOT ONE punter eluded my grasp!
Author
Stephen Hamilton
November 17, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Back for another bite at the proverbial cherry…
I’m personally torn between the vision of Gerber (I believe clear processes are critical to any business wanting to scale successfully) and the way he communicates it (who in their right mind would hire, let alone keep, a moron?).
I guess it is just his schtick to get people interested. I suppose at some point anyone worthy of being a successful business person has to figure out that investing in your staff so they are capable of, and comfortable making decisions is a winning strategy.
Processes are critical, otherwise things just fall to bits. As an employee, knowing that you can, and are expected to make decisions that shortcut the processes to achieve a good outcome it a must. If the employee then fails to make these decisions, get rid of them. But punishing them for taking the initiative is just plain stupid, in my opinion.
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 12:51 pm
I lived and breathed Gerber for years. I even constructed a five-tier Empire organisation chart that had MY name in every damn box!
More at http://myob.com.au/blog/policy-shift/
But when Seth-baby spoke his mind, it stopped me in my tracks.
Maybe it’s because I AM my business … and the only way I’ll ever ‘scale’ is to eat more pizzas!
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 12:56 pm
PS. The term ‘moron’ is mine, not Gerber’s. He’s much more polite about it. I was editing for effect. And alliteration. Or is it assonance? I always forget. Though I probably shouldn’t admit that …
Author
Stephen Hamilton
November 17, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Sure, I know he never said ‘moron’, but in that context, saying you should build processes so anyone can follow them is absolutely inferring ‘moron’.
Oh, and yay for alliteration, my favourite poetic device!
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Fer sure. I think his words were something like, ‘Use systems to empower ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results.’
Ripping rant, rather?!
Author
Sonia Cuff
November 17, 2011 at 1:58 pm
If you paid $400k and were guaranteed an exclusive territory, how would you feel if you found another franchisee was bending the rules and delivering to customers that were in your protected area? Yes, devil’s advocate I know, but franchising rules protect the investments of each individual franchisee. It’s over to the particular franchise as to what extent their letter of the law goes to and how they enforce those protected territory rights.
Without giving away our national secrets, if you call an individual Computer Troubleshooters franchisee, they have the first right to service you, regardless of where you are located, because you called their inidividual number. The aim is to get franchisees promoting the heck out of their own number in their own protected marketing territory. The ‘out of area’ calls are few and far between beacuse of this strategy and franchisees can still choose to pass your call to another franchisee instead (which happens often because of distances & busyness). We find this works the best for us, because IT support is about rapport, trust & relationships, not about shifting volumes of product.
Timothy Ferriss is a great one for saying ‘systemise the routine, humanise the exception’. I think ‘MyCatBudget’ had the perfect solution for this. By getting the local owner to place the call with the other store, he’s kept the other franchisee happy & kept you happy. Win win! Perhaps the pizza place needs to write this into their franchisee’s operating procedures?
Some people in business, franchise or no franchise, are very quick to say ‘no we can’t’ instead of thinking ‘how can we’. Maybe that’s another blog topic though?
-Sonia.
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Your crowd sounds eminently sensible, Sonia. It sure makes sense to look after punters for the greater glory of the brand – and thus its constituents.
Yes, I’d be mighty miffed if someone were cutting my $400K lunch. But I live in the fantasy world where I’d cover my neighbouring franchisee’s back and vice versa.
The Collingwood guy, by assiduously not crossing the Richmond guy, has put me off their entire brand of guys!
Thanks very much for joining us today. It’s always worth it when you rock up.
Author
Stephen Hamilton
November 17, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Great quote from Timothy Ferriss – I hadn’t heard that one before. I love it!
Author
Winston Marsh
November 17, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Paul, enough!
We know that the landscape is littered with hopeless deliverers of lousy service so let’s draw a line for now.
Please discover and report on a place or person that delivers way beyond expectations. Like the bank teller who asked me the other day after she’d completed my transaction “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
There was actually… treatment for shock!
P.S. Didn’t Gerber say, “Idiots who can follow instructions”?
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Good point, Winston. We probably should spend more time on the sunny side of the street.
In researching links between ‘Gerber’, ‘moron’ and ‘idiot’, I found an enobling volume entitiled Small Business for Dummies.
I can’t decide whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing to combine these two elements. On purpose, I mean. (I do it without thinking all the time!)
My deep thanks to you for weighing in.
Author
Winston Marsh
November 17, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Dummies should be barred from small business!
Author
Jason Hess
November 17, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Hello all,
A) Nice Grace Jones reference in the post title, Paul!
B) What is the best place to start with Seth Godin?
C) Great comment, Sonia.
D) Back in the IT consulting days we had a couple of sayings (yes, it appears we had a saying for bloody everything!)
i) There is no such response as “I don’t know”, only ” I don’t know, but I’ll try to find out for you”
ii) There is no such response as “I can’t do that”, only “I can’t do that, but let’s see if we can find another way.”
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Hi, Jas!
A) I’m so pleased you spotted that. If not you, who?!
B) Start with Seth by buying Purple Cow. Because I’m in it. Buy ten copies, actually, and give them away to family and friends. Place your oder via this link:
http://astore.amazon.com/thefeiemp-20/detail/1591843170
It’ll cost you no more, but I’ll score a 4% commission.
You can then read Seth’s other books in chronological order.
Also, sign up for his most excellent blog. He’s done it daily for well over 3000 days. Quite the benchmark:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
C) Sonia is indeed bulk ace value.
D) Top sayings. You could get on the radio with that sort of thing!
Many thanks, Mate!
Author
Paul Hassing
November 18, 2011 at 6:53 am
PS. I’ve made bugger all from this shop, relative to the effort I’ve put into it. But I do know that smart folk like our Cheryl @known use these shops to great advantage.
So far, for me, the greatest benefit has been using it as a receptacle for all the books we recommend in our discussions.
If anyone would like to know how to set up a shop like this, just sing out. If there’s enough interest, I could do a how-to post on it.
Author
Mike Boyle
November 17, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Paul
Unreal I tear my hair out listening to your story. I travelled up to Albury today to host a Sales Cats Seminar on Friday and dropped in for quick subway at Wallan. As i did i observed the KFC girl trash the brand with a sour face, anger and general foul attitude to all that dared to order their chicken. As I left I stopped and asked her “are you not getting paid?” she snapped “of course i am” so why so angry I replied?
No answer she was stunned!
What is wrong with our young. Is the job beyond her expectations? Is this just a recruitment problem?
Interestingly the young man that served me from Subway, with a smile, a swagger and a thankyou was Indian.
I agree Winston lets talk up the GOOD deeds to push the bad ones out!
Mike Boyle – The Sales Cat
Author
Paul Hassing
November 17, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Thank you, Mike. It’s always a pleasure to have your specialist sales expertise brought to bear on our topics. If you AND Winno agree on something, we HAVE to do it! Best regards and safe travels. P.
Author
Leon Noone
November 19, 2011 at 3:29 am
G’Day again,
Gotta buy into this once more. The prime responsibility that a manager has to his or her people is this: “put systems in place that make it impossible for employees to fail.” This was clearly something your pizza franchise owner wasn’t aware of. You’ll only be able to manage your business properly when you have total confidence that your staff can run all day to day operations. And it’s the manager’s job to create that situation.
Next, customer service is a state of mind. It’s about being able to think like a customer. It’s not a subject one learns about on a training program. Nor is it saying “please”, “thank you”, or “enjoy your day,” That’s merely being polite.
Customer service is The Clean Plumber plastering “If we’re late you don’t pay” over every conceivable piece of marketing material including emails. And then honouring that promise without demur. It’s said that one of Steve Jobs great strengths was that he always saw himself as an Apple customer.
Next, if you’re impressed by Tim Ferriss, I suggest that you read “The Seven- Day Weekend” by Ricardo Semler He’s an extraordinarily successful Brazilian businessperson who eschews almost all modern management practice with unbelievable success. He published his book in 2003, four years before Tim and is supported by 25 years of practical commercial success. In fact, read Selmer if you employ staff. But expect to be surprised.
Finally,here’s some heresy. Michael Gerber ‘s ideas are very conservative. He supports rigid organization structures and hierarchies. And his ideas about systemization, while good, were being recommended by leaders such as Tom Gilbert and Geary Rummler in the field of “performance engineering” over 30 years ago. I must confess, however, that I wish that I could write a book as successful as his “7 Secrets.” That’s another “borrowed” concept too.
By the way, I’m always cranky after the footy finals and the Spring Racing Carnival finish. But I brighten up a tad as Christmas approaches and next April gets a little closer.
Relax with Ricardo……and have fun!
Best Wishes to all,
Leon
Author
Paul Hassing
November 20, 2011 at 9:44 am
Thank you so much for sharing your continued thoughts, Leon. You’re a font of wisdom when it comes to books and it sure sounds like you’ve read a truckload of ‘em! Best regards, P.
Author
Paul Hassing
November 21, 2011 at 5:05 am
Topical:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/11/optimistic-enthusiasm-as-a-form-of-realism.html
Author
Paul Hassing
December 21, 2011 at 8:53 am
There’s some clear, wise franchise advice in this beaut piece:
http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/franchising/how-to-spot-a-bargain-franchise-20111220-1p2yk.html
Author
Paul Hassing
January 2, 2012 at 6:30 am
Impressive!
http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/franchising/bakers-delight-eyes-expansion-20111228-1pc0v.html
Author
Lindy Asimus
January 18, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Gerber – Godin, you might want to toss in a bit of Kiyosaki to round it out to make sense.
Problem with the “staff need the authority, autonomy and imagination to bend them if they’re to win” is that franchisees are not employees. Many act as though they are. The franchisee still needs to act as a business owner and manage his operation.
Sometimes the art is just being responsible and resposive and keeping the toilets clean.
Really if you want to create a unique experience, buying a franchise seems an impractical place to start.
Author
Paul Hassing
January 18, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Thank you, Lindy; it’s great to get your take on this. One with which I heartily concur.
Author
Paul Hassing
March 6, 2012 at 9:44 am
A nice piece:
http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/franchising/do-your-homework-before-buying-a-franchise-20120304-1uazg.html
Author
Paul Hassing Founder & Senior Writer - The Feisty Empire
March 26, 2012 at 7:39 am
And another:
http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/walk-in-to-franchising-with-eyes-open-20120325-1vsg9.html
Author
Paul Hassing Founder & Senior Writer - The Feisty Empire
June 14, 2012 at 9:52 am
Some timely tips:
http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/franchising/ten-franchise-traps-to-avoid-at-all-costs-20120613-20936.html
Author
Paul Hassing Founder & Senior Writer - The Feisty Empire
July 4, 2012 at 8:54 pm
As if owning a franchise weren’t tricky enough!
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/brumbys-munches-humble-pie-20120704-21gj6.html
Author
Paul Hassing Founder & Senior Writer - The Feisty Empire
July 17, 2012 at 9:54 am
Another great guide:
http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/franchising/size-up-a-franchise-in-seven-easy-steps-20120716-225ul.html