It Takes a Village to Grow a Franchise

In franchise, the customer’s experience IS your brand. Every experience customers have with your franchise affects their perception of your brand—whether that experience is with HR, operations, marketing or beyond. To ensure customers are always getting the RIGHT impression of your brand, every department in your franchise needs to live up to your brand promises.

Luckily, we have lots of experience in the franchise world. So we’ve put together these fun case studies to illustrate how some franchises successfully integrated.

DOMINOS Delivers

If you’re a pizza fan, you probably remember Dominos’ famous “30 minutes or Free” delivery guarantee. This policy put Dominos on the map as a national brand. The policy required full integration with operations to be successful. On a national level, franchisees had to train and perfect the art of quality pies, cooked and served fast.

Delivering a consistent, thoughtful customer experience has been the heart of Dominos’ branding for decades. While not all Dominos offer “30 minutes or free,” they do offer both carryout and delivery insurance. These generous policies require teamwork between corporate, management, marketing and store to continue a lasting, positive brand experience.

The Egg (McMuffin) Is Hatched

The egg certainly came before the chicken at McDonald’s. But did you know that the famous Egg McMuffin was invented by a franchisee?

In 1972, Herb Peterson and Donald Greadel, operators of a McDonald’s in Santa Barbra, presented McDonald’s president Ray Croc with a wild new product concept: a breakfast sandwich.

By 1975, the Egg McMuffin was national. And by 1977, McDonald’s breakfast menu was officially debuted across U.S. restaurants. A collaboration between operators, marketers and franchisees led the entire franchise to offer a new menu, changing the breakfast world forever.

The Stars of Flooring Are Born

Floor Coverings International consistently received 5-star ratings (with an average of 4.8) making them the best-rated company in their market. Sounds great, right? Except nobody knew about their high ratings or industry advantage.

REGROUP came up with a plan: why not make the high ratings the brand? Enter the “Stars of Flooring” campaign that highlighted real customer stories and a star flooring experience guarantee. An updated look and emphasis on operations delivering the branded service required the whole franchise to work together. New marketing materials were launched to introduce the new brand stance. Franchisees were trained at workshops and through a revised marketing plan that explained the new guidelines.