Becoming a restaurant franchise owner has the great advantage of giving you the chance to join a successful formula. As the franchisee, you’re joining an established brand with a proven track record; you’re offering a menu that is already popular with diners, and presenting a dining experience already familiar to loyal customers.
But for all of its ready-made steps, nothing is for certain with a franchisee—especially if you let your inexperience get the better of you. Want to know how? Follow these following guidelines to learn how to successfully run a franchise restaurant.
1. Be a People Person
Franchises are all about people. Day in and day out, you’ll be working with people to serve people—all within a lively people environment. It’s about making people happy; franchise restaurants have become the go-to place in many neighbourhoods for people to host their celebrations and parties.
As the franchisee, it’s important to be passionate about your role as the host of these good times. In operating this franchise, you need to be gregarious and maintain a friendly nature. No matter what type of day you’re having, your customers will always expect the high standards associated with your franchise brand.
A passion for sharing happiness is vital to operating a successful franchise. You need to lead by example because your employees and customers will always be looking to you for leadership. For this reason, it’s clear that people skills are a top trait to have for a successful franchisee.
2. Surround Yourself with Great Talent
As successful as you are in making people feel good, you can’t do it alone. You’ll need employees to follow your directions and provide the franchise experience your customers expect. These are the people that will bring your vision to life and provide the all-important human touch to your customer service.
You’ll need a staff that receives ongoing training and, more importantly, a general manager that you can depend on. As your second-in-command, your general manager needs to be responsible, solve problems, and believes in your restaurant as much as you do.
Make the right hiring decisions, and your franchise will be well on its way to becoming a favourite among customers.
3. Keep an Eye on Your Budget
There’s just so much to do when running a restaurant franchise, something that is doubly true in the beginning. The initial startup will involve upfront costs like royalty fees and may include construction delays and last-minute expenses. But even as expenses add up, you’ll need to make sure that your restaurant always has plenty of capital.
Franchises each have their own startup costs, with some reaching in excess of a million dollars. Whichever one yours is, make sure that your budget can last your restaurant at least six months.
It may be difficult to plan ahead when you’re just getting into the groove, but you should always keep an eye on the future before it sneaks up on you.
4. Get the Word Out
With so much momentum gained from your position as a franchisee, you may feel as though you can rest on your laurels. Relax—just sit back as a steady stream of customers arrive at your front door with wallets ready to spend. Ideally? Sure. Realistically? No.
You need to get to work. And as much as you’d like for head office to take care of everything, your franchise needs to market itself. The franchise brand may be well known, but your new location certainly is not; franchise customers won’t be able to come to your franchise location if they don’t know your address.
To get the word out, be sure to invest in local advertising as well as SEO and digital marketing campaigns. Do your due diligence, and avoid the mines that have sunk failed franchising attempts.
5. Satisfy Your Customers
At its essence, a brand is a promise that a business makes to its customers. In turn, customers that accept this promise become loyal and set their expectations accordingly. As the new franchisee, you have your work cut out for you; this brand promise has now become your responsibility.
But it doesn’t have to be a burden. Do what needs to be done to make your customers happy. Provide them with great customer service and delicious food. Make sure they feel welcome, and invite them to return. Watch your online reviews, be responsive towards complaints, and improve wherever you can.
The name and reputation of your franchise will certainly attract customers, but it won’t necessarily retain their loyalty. Live up to your customers’ expectations, and start building a name for your own restaurant.
Do you have what it takes to run your own franchise restaurant? Come check out the franchise opportunities at St. Louis Bar & Grill!