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Building in buy-in for adoption of new software in your franchise network can be classified as one of the most difficult operations in the life of a franchise network. From the franchisors side the implementation could mean more business, or greater efficiency resulting in cost savings for the franchisee but are still met with challenges. These challenges can result from a number of factors outside your control such as franchisees not having enough bandwidth to learn something new, strained relationships between franchisor and franchisee from a predecessors poor management, franchisees not being involved in the vetting process of the new software, or the current state of franchisees ability to generate revenue.
A typical franchise network consists of a stratosphere of franchisees that dictate the probability of new software adoption. This stratosphere consists of three groups: top 20%, middle 60%, and remaining 20%. Typically the top 20% of franchisees in the network are the first to assess and adopt new software provided the perceived value is clear. This group will provide you with the most effective feedback, challenge the software to be better for the franchise brands offering, and be your internal champions to share and promote with other franchisees.
The middle 60% are looking to see what the top 20% do and how they use the new software. The hurdle for this group is allocating resources and time to implement the new software, be it bandwidth or costs. This group will have its own groups consisting of early adopters, hold until proven, and late adopters. Once the word is out from the top 20% that the software is of value and the typical hurdles out of the way most of the middle 60% will adopt the new software. The remaining 20% are a group of franchisees challenged with a number of hurdles such as personal issues, lack of funds, still learning the model, or looking to exit. New software is hard to adopt with these challenges and is best left alone till after the core challenge has been dealt with.
It's been our experience that if we get 75% adoption of new software in a franchise network in the first year we have been extremely successful. The key solutions to this success are based on building trust with the entire brand. We establish this trust by a simple and effective practice to show value up front prior to engagement through a pilot program. This allows us to establish trust with not only the franchisor, but also the franchisees who are the top influencers for the brand.
Through the pilot the stakeholders get first hand experience with our software and team to showcase the value and effectiveness of both. The result is the franchisee validating the software and the franchisor gaining trust in our company. From the pilot we design a strategy of digital services and software to meet the needs and budgets of all groups in the franchise network. We evaluate all current efforts and funding allocations in the brand's FDD to make sure we are utilizing the correct budgets to create the best value for the brand and its franchisees.
The top 20% and most of the middle 60% are already budgeting for digital services and know what they are looking for from a provider. We use one-one interviews with this group to customize a package that makes the best sense from the data we aggregated from the pilot and the franchisees local market knowledge. This one-one consultation lends to further buy-in of each franchise for use of the new software. The remaining franchisees are given two packages to choose from with the option not to participate. Some brands chose to use the new software as an incentive for this remaining late adopter group to get past their core challenge to take advantage of the new software. This keeps the decision making process simple and the budgets inline with expectations. The early adopters and franchisees with stronger budgets are afforded more support and training to accelerate their return. Our experience has taught us this group franchisees are the ones that can influence change and bring further adoption quicker based on the attention they receive with support and training.
This adoption application can be used for any type of implementation of new processes or software for your franchise network. As a dedicated franchise network vendor we are here to support our franchise community and help grow brands with our expertise, services, and software. Please contact us for further review of this accelerated adoption process, our pilot programs, and our full suite of digital services
About SeoSamba
SeoSamba’s marketing and sales automation software suite is used by thousands of businesses, small and large, around the world, with service centers in the United States and Europe. SeoSamba’s software is private labeled by solutions providers and media companies alike, and available in 14 languages.
SeoSamba combines email, SEO reporting and execution, centralized blogging for WordPress and SeoToaster powered websites, PPC, social media marketing, CRM, website builder with built-in call tracking, analytics and more, under one ro
of, at an affordable price.
SeoSamba offers turnkey services, including franchise development and franchise brand marketing for local lead generation packages.
SeoSamba was recently named ‘Best in Marketing’ for franchise brands by Entrepreneur Magazine for the second year in a row.
For more information about SeoSamba and the services we offer, visit www.seosamba.com, email us at info@seosamba.com, or call us: + (1)877-450-9894 (U.S.) and in Europe at +33(644)-600-678
