All franchise companies should have regional team meetings with their franchisees and in these meetings as for reality based feedback and listen. It is important to keep an open mind even if there are times that bitch session looks as if it is breaking out. You cannot fix the system, streamline operations or improve efficiency of your franchised outlets without honest feedback.

You will be surprised as to what you will learn. Recently at a regional team meeting or regional director and the leader of the franchisee club regional group sat down before the meeting and had a one on one. We offer royalty reduction in areas of seasonality weather conditions to franchisees who will spend time with us and give us some suggestions. I believe all franchise companies should do this although in all the franchise books I have ever read, I have yet to see any of them actually doing it.

Here are the ideas they had regarding our royalty reduction program recently. Much of this information is based on our conversations and calls that they have had with current franchisees. They feel the need to get involved on whatever level possible at the moment.

The questions were simple; What are the Car Wash Guys greatest strengths? Do you see any potential weakness on the horizon?

Answers; The Strengths: pricing, superior customer service, mobility, diverse service offerings

Weakness: potential burnout, labor, managing growth

Good problems to have right? Well with unemployment low, getting good help is difficult and that means longer hours from the managers and franchisees. For the smaller franchisees with 1-3 units on the road we had found that the average franchisee was about ready to sell their company within in 3-4 years, due to this burn out.

Generally and hopefully at a profit to a larger franchisee, although that was not always the case; knowing this helped us tremendously in managing growth and helping the smaller franchisees train managers so they could take some time off once in a while. We also implemented a Franchise Buddy System so the nearest franchisee would watch for the other and manage his operations while on vacation and trade off every three months to slow down the burn out rates. Think on this in 2005.