How to Bring In Quality Franchisees to Grow Your Home Service Franchise [Infographic]

Traditionally, home service companies would find new customers by delivering flyers to homes, cold-calling on the doorstep or through word-of-mouth recommendations. Today, with the internet now a primary tool to find local services, it is imperative that home service franchises create a strong online presence to attract customers. The same applies when attracting prospective franchisees. Creating a website that clearly outlines your company details, the market opportunity, your expectations of franchisees and marketing material that will encourage inquiries, is essential if you want to compete in today’s consumer market.

You should also include testimonials from franchisees, case studies and social proof to add weight to your claims. Online messaging should be carefully worded so that it is clear that you are looking for serious, qualified candidates. This will help to filter out unqualified and unsuitable candidates from the selection process.

Whether you have invested in a mobile phone application for your field service business or you have invested in business automation software that helps to optimize day-to-day operations across your franchises, this should be showcased as part of your franchise package. Software that makes life easier for customers and service technicians and that helps to streamline business processes will be a big plus for any franchisee.

A great way to grow a business is to have a solid location-based strategy in place. By analyzing the areas where your franchise may be well-suited, you can start to build out a map that details where you should target first and the locations that will follow. This will help you to focus your marketing efforts on these regions and create a good blend of geo-targeted online and offline marketing.

Buying a franchise is not a decision that most people take lightly. For this reason, they will often spend months and even years researching franchise opportunities and options before making a decision. One of the most important things to do during the early stages of marketing your franchise is to get these people into your sales funnel. You can do this in a number of ways. For example, collecting their details at a trade event in exchange for a franchise pack, or requesting their email address before they can download franchise information will give you the ability to send them marketing emails.

The great thing about buying into a franchise instead of starting a new business from scratch is that most of the legal and financial work is already done for you. This fact should play a big part in your marketing strategy. Prospects that are serious about buying a franchise will want to see documented proof that the business is profitable, that it is compliant and that you have all the right legal documentation in place. Most will also employ an independent franchise attorney to check the finer details, so it is essential that you have a watertight business documentation available.

The franchisee selection process is one that can be riddled with problems if you open your door to everybody. However, you also need to attract the right people to your door. By ensuring you have a transparent and profitable business model, possess serious brand credibility and can build a strong case to prospects looking to make an investment, you will be making a step in the right direction towards attracting quality franchisees that will elevate your brand.