8 Winning Strategies to Make Your Home Services Franchisees More Successful [Infographic]

Once you’ve started to establish your franchise owners, it’s essential that you provide them with the guidance and support they need to be successful. Proper training is critical to the home services industry. When there is a brand associated with your services, homeowners expect the same quality of service regardless of where they live and which company they work with. It is because of this fact that it is vital your franchisees go through a thorough onboarding process to make sure they are fully supported as they launch.

In the very early stages, you should develop a healthy relationship with your franchisees. As the business grows, you need to be able to trust that your franchisees are delivering on your service standards. An excellent way to develop this trust is to go to a few home service jobs in their area and see first-hand how customers are being treated. You should create an open line of communication with the new franchisee to help guide them through your expectations and always be available to answer questions, take their problems, and listen to their concerns.

Before launching a franchise, you should have a dedicated list of policies and operating systems in place that your franchisees can benefit from. Field service automation software is a powerful tool that both you and your franchisees can benefit from as new locations become established. By establishing a software solution for your franchisees, you can automate customer scheduling, billing and communication to make each franchise location run at maximum efficiency. A dedicated operating system that your franchisees use regularly will help save them time and allow you to help organize and scale your business.

As more and more of your home service franchise visits become established, it’s essential that you don’t lose track of your franchisees. You should make a point to visit each of your locations several times per year. This frequency will show your franchisees that you care about their needs while giving you the opportunity to identify areas for improvement. You should ensure that homeowners are getting the service they deserve by reviewing customer testimonials and reviews on local services websites. If some quality standard issues need to be addressed, make yourself available for coaching and mentoring. Field service automation software, which can improve your communication with franchisees and help you gain visibility over them, is an investment worth looking at.

You should provide the right marketing support that a franchise needs to open their business successfully. Regardless of what type of service your company offers, you can spread the word about a new franchise location by running local advertising and offering special promotions for services provided. This is a great way to get the word out and get a franchise started on the right foot. You can also help monitor the advertising spend of each of your franchisees to ensure they are advertising their services regularly as per your specified standards. This enforcement will ensure their location benefits from a strategic marketing plan that brings them more new customers and repeat business.

In every home services company, there is a need for parts, tools and equipment to complete jobs on site. Sourcing all of these may be time-consuming and expensive for new franchisees with less experience. Do the heavy lifting for your franchisees by negotiating better costs for these parts and equipment so they have a smooth, cost-effective way to source what they need to get the job done right. Company work vehicles are another necessity for home services companies. If you’re able to, work with a local dealership to arrange fleet vehicle pricing for your franchisees. This arrangement can mean considerable savings for each of your owners and will allow you to maintain uniformity and consistency with your services. Once your franchisees are set up with their supplies, you’ll want to think about a system that can help them (and you) monitor their equipment and inventory.

Once your franchise locations are up and running, it’s essential that you make sure they are performing at maximum efficiency in all areas. If you have multiple franchise locations, it’s easy to start establishing benchmarks to see which place performs better than others. These benchmarks can be in the form of first-time fix rates, number of completed jobs and hours spent on a job and overall sales, which can be easily measured and tracked with field service software. By establishing criteria around each of these performance identifiers, you can see which locations might need your additional support to be more successful.

Creating a home services franchise can be very rewarding as your business begins to scale. By following these winning strategies, you can ensure your brand’s reputation for quality service is protected while making sure your franchisees are successfully growing their businesses.