Franchise brands are few and far between on list of top brands in customer service!

Despite repeatedly hearing that exceptional customer service is paramount in today’s economic environment, franchising sees few brands make the list of top brands in customer service.

Do you believe it’s possible for a franchise brand to consistently deliver positively memorable customer service along the likes of Apple and Amazon.com, just to name a few of the brands that are repeatedly mentioned when discussing exceptional customer service and customer experience?

Are franchisors dedicating enough resources on customer service training? Are franchisees focused enough on providing exceptional customer service?

Personally, I believe it all starts with the culture of the Franchisor and the same must be conveyed to franchisees, not only through training, but in the way franchisors treat franchisees. It must be a top-down effect to start the process and must be on the forefront of everyone’s mind at all times and at all levels of the franchise organization. I also believe an extremely high level of providing positively memorable customer experiences is a key component towards improved unit-economics, and also in helping increase interest in franchise opportunities.

50 Brands Named ‘Customer Service Champions’ as posted on MediaPost.com March 15, 2012

In the faltering economy, the importance of customer service has reached new highs, overtaking even price as a purchase determinant, according to a J.D. Power report.

Read the complete article.

Want to learn more about customer service in franchising?

Mindy Golde, Director of Sales at Listen360 (formerly Systino) discusses Consumer Sales and Customer Experience at the upcoming Franchisee Sales & Marketing Summit. Listen to what she has to say about franchise brands and customer service! FranSummit is March 26-29.

Webinar Leverages Social Media and Customer Feedback to Improve Your Operations

Atlanta, Ga. , January 18, 2012 … In today’s economy, it’s more important than ever to understand the true value of your customers’ business and how to retain business-at-risk before it’s too late. But unless you’re talking to all of your franchisees’ customers on a regular basis, how can you proactively solve a problem before you lose a customer’s business – or before a scalding comment shows up on Facebook, Twitter or one of hundreds of review sites?  And how do you leverage your customers’ positive feedback for word-of-mouth recommendations across all of your social media platforms?

That’s the topic of “It’s Easier to Grow Your Business When You Know What’s At Risk & How To Fix It!” a free one-hour webinar launching Tuesday, January 31, 2011 at 12N PST (2 p.m. CST & 3 p.m. EST).  The interactive webinar is presented by Mindy Golde, director of development at Systino, Inc. and hosted by Paul Segreto, president and CEO of franchisEssentials and co-founder of FranSummit, which is producing the webinar.  FranSummit specializes in the production of eLearning events developed exclusively for the franchise community worldwide, including webinars, virtual summits and online workshops.

Golde’s lively presentation includes how to use social media to enhance customers’ experience; proven tips for developing a “culture of listening” throughout a Franchise; calculating the true value of customers’ business over time; and real-world success stories based on Golde’s with more than 70 Franchise brands and 14,000 locations.

“The days of ‘hiding’ unhappy customers are over,” says Golde, an expert in the integration of social media and customer feedback. “With social media and review sites, everyone is a potential critic or advocate for your business. The only way to know the difference is to learn efficient and actionable methods for listening to your customers.”

Adds Segreto, “Franchise owners recognize that they need to capitalize on social media and integrated, actionable customer feedback. We’re thrilled to have Mindy, one of the leading experts in this niche topic, walk us through the latest in optimizing customer loyalty and how to achieve measurable results.”

Golde adds, “A customer feedback management system used to be a ‘nice-to-have.’ Today it is mission critical. The best tools keep you ahead of both the competition and technology such as social media and text analytics. When it all works together, it can make the difference between keeping a customer and losing him to the competition.”

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Click to Register

About Systino
Systino specializes in providing Franchise companies with detailed customer feedback in an easy-to-use, affordable web-based solution. The Systino system leverages system integration, social media, customer loyalty algorithms and text analytics to provide meaningful, actionable and detailed customer information that’s accessible throughout a Franchise organization.

About FranSummit
Paul Segreto is the President and CEO of franchisEssentials and co-founder of FranSummit, an organization specializing in the production of eLearning events developed exclusively for the Franchise community worldwide, including webinars, virtual summits and online workshops. Segreto has exclusively served the Franchise industry for more than 20 years as a consultant, coach, senior-level corporate executive, franchisee and developer. He brings the latest industry information to
those connected to the Franchise world. Learn more at www.FMDpro.com, www.FranSummit.com.

Utilizing Real-time Social Media at the IFA Convention

On this week’s segment of Franchise Today, Paul Segreto welcomed as his guest, Jack Monson, Vice President at Engage121, a social media and pr software solutions providor.

With the International Franchise Association Annual Convention kicking off in Las Vegas on Sunday, February 13th, attendees will be able to enhance their convention experience with real-time social media. Jack and Paul discussed how to effectively utilize the IFA Mobile Application to create a personal convention schedule, navigate the exhibit hall and interact with exhibitors, download powerpoint presentations from education sessions, and stay on top of breaking news and alerts.

Effectively integrating the relatively new Foursquare, along with social media mainstays, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and You Tube into the mix also lends to an enahnced convention experience. As Engage121 is a co-sponsor of the IFA Convention Tweetup, Jack and Paul also discussed the benefits of attending the event and interacting with fellow IFA Tweeters by utilizing the IFA Twitter hastag #IFA.

Besies the IFA Convention-related links within this post, an additional real-time social media tool mentioned on the show is the new IFA blog site, Fran Blog.

For additional information, may we refer you to today’s post by Jack Monson on the topic of IFA Convention-related Social Media links.

About Franchise Today

Franchise Today is hosted by Paul Segreto, President & CEO at franchisEssentials, and co-produced by well-known franchise veteran, Joe Caruso. Their unique perspective and extensive industry experience provides the foundation for relevant discussions about franchising and franchise best practices. Weekly guests include some of the brightest minds in the franchise world, with specific expertise and experience within various areas of franchising.

Other features include Franchise News, as reported by the leading franchise publications, the IFA Corner, news and events from the International Franchise Association, New Brands in Franchising, a look at up and coming franchise concepts, and “Are You Kidding Me?”, eye-opening and thought-provoking insight into the comical, and sometimes illogical side of franchising.

The team at Franchise Today is dedicated to franchise success at all levels. So, whether you’re a franchise professional looking to grow a franchise concept, needing some assistance in facing today’s challenges or would just like to better understand franchise best practices, then Franchise Today is for you!

Franchise Today airs LIVE every Thursday at 12 PM CST / 1 PM EST with archived segments available on-demand.

How Has Social Media Really Affected PR?

Social media within franchising is the focus of discussion as Fishman Public Relations CEO, Brad Fishman, joins Paul Segreto this week on Franchise Today.

Certainly a hot topic, discussions about social media pique interest of franchisors and franchisees alike. Often viewed as a communications tool, social media has also been embraced by pr firms. But, has social media really changed pr? And, if it has, how?

About Franchise Today

Franchise Today is hosted by Paul Segreto, President and CEO at franchisEssentials, and co-produced by well-known franchise veteran, Joe Caruso. Their unique perspective and extensive industry experience provides the foundation for relevant discussions about franchising and franchise best practices. Weekly guests include some of the brightest minds in the franchise world, with specific expertise and experience within various areas of franchising.

Other features include Franchise News, as reported by the leading franchise publications, the IFA Corner, news and events from the International Franchise Association, New Brands in Franchising, a look at up and coming franchise concepts, and “Are You Kidding Me?”, eye-opening and thought-provoking insight into the comical, and sometimes illogical side of franchising.

The team at Franchise Today is dedicated to franchise success at all levels. So, whether you’re a franchise professional looking to grow a franchise concept, needing some assistance in facing today’s challenges or would just like to better understand franchise best practices, then Franchise Today is for you!

Franchise Today airs LIVE every Thursday at 12 PM CDT / 1 PM EDT with archived segments available on-demand.

Integrating Social Media in Current PR Programs

This week on Franchise Today, Paul Segreto welcomed as his guest, Rhonda Sanderson. Rhonda is the Founder at Sanderson & Associates, the premiere PR firm in franchising. For the past 27 years, Rhonda has had a hand in the growth of hundreds of franchise companies. This week’s discussion focused on integrating social media within current pr programs. Rhonda shared some practical insight and experience how Sanderson & Associates has embraced social media while still maintaining best practices in public relations.

This segment of Franchise Today aired LIVE on April 8th on Blog Talk Radio and is now available On-demand.