Data and building trust in the franchise sector

04 October 2018

With the current banking royal commission in full swing, the $146 billion Australian franchise industry has never been under closer scrutiny.

Approximately half a million people are currently employed in the franchise sector. Now more than ever it is paramount that this industry adheres the fundamental principles of thorough research, transparency and building trusted relationships to ensure mutual, long-term success.

The list of franchises turning to a ‘last resort’ deed of company agreement to maintain business as usual, has yet again been highlighted in the wake of yesterday’s sad news that dessert chain Max Brenner collapsed into voluntary administration. In this climate, the importance of building and maintaining transparency at all stages of the franchising journey has never been more emphasised.

A key paper providing insights from the franchise sector on how to build franchisee trust in their franchisor concluded that the five main factors in building franchisee trust are:

• franchisee’s engagement in the system,
• franchisee’s confidence in the system,
• franchisee’s perception of a strong team culture,
• franchisee’s perception of franchisor competence, and
• franchisee’s perception of franchisor character.

Of these factors, the first three are all driven by great communication, use of data and transparency throughout the franchising process.

With a wealth of data at their fingertips, not only franchisees and franchisors, but legal advisors, financial institutions and other service providers in the franchise sector have a host of sources to turn to, and are finding new and innovative ways to unlock this data.

We’ve put together this snapshot of how we see the data in Sitewisely can be woven into the franchise process:

Franchisors can share data in a digestible and informative way as standard, engaging in an open, data-driven dialogue with franchisees and partners. Here, we’re visualising in Sitewisely how the population has grown in Brisbane between 2011 and 2016. The hexbin visualisation makes it super clear where patterns have been established and easy to identify growth hotspots.

Franchisees can delve into insights on a location or territory, carrying out due diligence & research. They can partner fully with franchisors in the sharing of information on a potential franchise location or territory. Below, we can see the proportion of a specific demographic profile in Sydney. This is census data taken from the ABS that’s been filtered using Sitewisely’s advanced demographics layer.

Legal Advisors can offer advice and due diligence informed by up to date location intelligence from trusted sources such as the ABS, trusted industry experts, and all three levels of government. Here we’re using proprietary traffic data combined with demographics to look at the population in a drive-time catchment around a potential business location.

Finance can inform lending based on concrete data that’s visible to both franchisee and franchisor. Here we’re looking at 3D imagery of the planned developments in the centre of Melbourne. Is a huge block of units about to be built just around the corner from your potential coffee shop location? Is a competitor about to open next door? Will there be a building site outside your new store of the first two years of business?

To find out more about how Sitewisely can be of value in the franchise sector, contact our team.