What Franchise - Issue 21.2

13 WHAT-FRANCHISE.COM Ins ights INNOVATE WITH, NOT FOR, YOUR FRANCHISEES Our biggest-selling product today barely existed three years ago. But it’s important to remember that product cycles come in waves. A new “trend” shouldn’t come at the expense of progress elsewhere. Innovation isn’t just about new products. It’s just as much about new systems or technology. Anything that helps customers, school partners, the central team and franchisees work more effectively should be seen as innovation. The most successful ideas are collaborative. Involving all stakeholders early helps prevent costly changes and a loss of confidence. Using selected franchisee groups can support innovation rollout and prevent a loss of focus by agreeing upfront why some opportunities are a firm “no”. Formalise franchisee collaboration. Create trailblazer groups, pilots and feedback loops where one rule applies: the model isn’t “finished” until your best operators would happily bet their own P&L on it. KNOW ALL YOUR CUSTOMERS Customer intelligence is critical. Franchisors should always have deeper insight than any single franchisee. National trends often emerge long before a local operator sees the early signals. Network- wide data sets are far richer than those at unit level. This intelligence goes far beyond buying patterns. It includes booking behaviour, heat maps and emerging trends, all of which should be gathered continuously and fed back into training, product development, process improvement and marketing.