Don’t Cram a Large Foot in a Small Shoe
When it comes to choosing the right franchise management software for your franchise, you want to make sure you aren’t choosing a software that has been shoe-horned into your industry. You’ll have much less heartburn down the road, if you choose a franchise POS solution that was built specifically for restaurant franchises. Franchises need specific insights from their POS that are structurally different from independent restaurant owners. The franchise POS solution must have the breadth to meet the corporate needs of the franchisor, but also have the fine details and smooth operation required by the individual franchisee owners.
The Air Traffic Control Tower Needs a Different View Than the Pilot
Large airports have large air traffic control towers where controllers see all runways and control all air space around the airports. These controllers need a much different view than the pilots flying the plane. In the same way, franchisors need a different view from their POS solution than do franchisees.
Franchisors need a robust and reliable cloud-based franchise management software system that allows them to easily create customizable reports for all your back of house reporting needs. Reports on individual locations or enterprise-wide reports on a wide array of data points should be easy to customize and viewable to the people who need them regardless of their location. Consistency in product and branding on menus and gift cards, etc. across all locations is vitally important.
We never want to experience it, but when it happens, you have to be ready for it. That is the dreaded computer crash. Your franchise POS system should have multiple backup protections for when the worst happens. Fully automated backups with local and remote backups and configuration data backups allow you to get right back to you running our franchise rather than spending hours reconfiguring your system after recovery.
A powerful franchise POS solution will arm corporate with the enterprise-wide data they need to assess the health of the franchise. Easy access to information such as repeat customers and which items are the top sellers can help franchisors formulate targeted promotions strategies. Demographic information can allow franchisors to utilize geotracking and geotargeting for special limited time offers in specific areas across the corporation’s locations to see what works. While the franchisees retain the responsibility of setting prices for products, the right franchise management software can give the franchisor powerful tools for mining demographic information.
Smooth Operations
The primary need of the franchisee is a POS system that runs smoothly and that actually saves time. The last thing a busy restaurant owner wants is the hassle of learning a complicated new POS system that confuses staff and increases time spent training new employees. A POS solution with an intuitive, easy to learn interface can dramatically reduce training time and lead to labor cost savings quickly.
When kitchen display systems, pay at table and bar management software work together seamlessly in a powerful cloud-based solution, restaurateurs can efficiently run their restaurant by reducing choke points and the number steps their staff have to take to serve customers.
We use our phones to stay in touch with our friends, track our kids and stay on top of the latest dance trends on social media. Why not use our phones to manage our restaurants too? Franchisees who run multiple locations need to be able to see vital data from anywhere, whether you’re in one of your locations or traveling between locations you may want to or need to access data on your restaurants. With the right management software, you will be able to track when staff clocks in and clocks out, check on inventory levels and Franchise Specific Containers. You can also check on revenue and labor costs across locations and make pricing changes as you see fit. In fact, with a Mobile POS Solution you can also see the weather at each of your locations including in your real-time sales report.
The Franchise Model Works, If You Give It What It Needs
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, about 20% of independent businesses close their door for good after just two years. Compare that with data gathered by franchise consulting firm FranNet showing that 92% of franchisees were still going strong after two years. Having the right systems in place makes a difference. Not all POS solutions are created equal. Franchises have unique requirements that not every POS solution can meet. Franchises need to incorporate a POS system with modules that address the needs of franchisor and franchisee. One cannot work without the other. Join the growing number of franchise locations to keep their competition in the rearview mirror by implementing a POS solution that benefits both the franchisor and you as the franchisee.