Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2015 | Page 84

OUTST
ANDING IN THE FIELD
her own burning drive to succeed.
Few franchisees would argue that they
depend a great deal on corporate for marketing and brand support. When Firehouse voted “as a franchise community”
to increase advertising spending nationwide, franchisees expected a lot from the
national TV and radio ads and billboards
they’d agreed to pay for.
“For the first time in history, from
coast to coast, everybody in America is
seeing our product,” Davey says, citing
the humorous Firehouse TV commercials featuring brothers and co-founders
Chris and Robin Sorensen. “January was
a fantastic month for us,” he says. “If I
were a mom-and-pop business involved
in regional marketing, there would be no
way to leverage all 800 other franchisees
out there.”
Smith, Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine’s
2013 MVP Role Model Award honoree,

B

also feels strongly that franchisees should
be a part of testing new products, services,
and programs. “It’s important to do a lot
of beta testing before something new is
rolled out. There are definitely nuances
when it’s rolled out in corporate and in
the franchises,” he says. “By selecting a
division of corporate stores and some
stores on the franchise side, it’s easier to
pinpoint problems quickly before it’s rolled
out to the entire system. It can save a lot
of heartache and financial loss.”
Davey has often volunteered his units
to test items for Firehouse. “They own 30
stores and they test in their restaurants
and also put it out for volunteers with
franchises. We’ve tested items for them.
Some have worked and some have not.
But it’s important for us all to go through
this process,” he says.
Negotiating better prices for products
and services is another way corporate

BRETT PONTON

efore becoming CEO at American Driveline Systems (parent company of
AAMCO Transmissions, Cottman Transmission Systems, and Global Powertrain Systems) in September 2013, Brett Ponton was a franchisee. In fact
his Heartland Jiffy Lube organization was the brand’s largest franchisee, with more
than 500 units.
“As a franchisee, you wake up every day trying to create value for your company,
whether you’re a large multi-unit owner or a small proprietor,” says Ponton. “And as
a franchisee, you expect your franchisor to be working on programs and initiatives
that, at the end of the day, create value for you. That’s the backdrop of what we’re
trying to bring into the company. Every initiative
we launch is for the franchisee.” And as a franchisor,
he says, “Our key role is to grab the best practices
from the body and share them with our franchisees.”
American Driveline’s support to franchisees includes training across three areas: technical, management, and ownership, says Ponton. “From the
franchisee perspective, what makes great retailers is
great people. I firmly believe it is our responsibility
to provide the training to help develop good people
and demonstrate to them a career path with the opportunity to grow both professionally and economically. As we provide these opportunities, we are rewarded with loyalty, more engagement, and better
care of the consumer.”
Another important development targeting franchisee success was the addition of Newnan, Ga.-based
Global Powertrain Systems, which refurbishes transmissions. “This purchase directly helps our franchisees control their labor and inventory costs on their highest
and most profitable ticket—transmissions—thus positively affecting their bottom
line,” says Ponton.
“This speaks to one of the requests we’ve gotten from franchisees to simplify the
model and make it easier to execute,” he says. And in February, American Driveline
announced the opening of its new AAMCO University in Newnan, about 40 miles
southwest of Atlanta.

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field consultants can have a major impact on franchisees, says Davey. “This is
an area where they can really add value.
Even within a local market like Orlando,
which has 42 restaurants, they have successfully negotiated the prices of things
like window washing, uniform cleaning,
and even contractors building stores when
they offered vendors all 42 restaurants in
a nice contract,” he says.
Says Wilson, “Two Men and a Truck
offers a vendor partnership program that
provides franchisees with a list of supplier
referrals from qualified vendors that have
a proven commitment to our franchise
system in fields necessary to our business
model. Open communication between
franchisees and franchisors provides avenues for reference checks when pursuing
new vendor relationships. Positive experiences with vendors travel fast; negative
experiences travel faster.”
Size matters
Though all franchisees aspire to success,
their needs can differ depending upon
their number of units and unique market challenges.
“When you’re 2 or 3 units you need
someone to teach you what to do, but
when you get up to 30 or 40 units there
are important little nuances within the
culture that we’re well aware of and seeing from the same viewpoint,” says Smith.
“We have a more global view.”
“As a large operator, I face challenges
that single-unit owners don’t,” says Davey.
“To their credit, Firehouse and CEO Don
Fox rolled out a large operators committee
for those with more than five units. Twice
a year we get together and talk about issues
we face, such as how to train and what to
pay district managers to oversee some of
our restaurants, and how to comply with
the Affordable Care Act. It’s nice that
the franchisor saw this need and gave us
a forum for connecting with other large
franchisees in our system.”
Franchisors know that providing
prompt and effective field support to
franchisees is essential to the health of
the system, says Davey. “The first thing
would-be franchisees do is call up a system’s franchisees to see if they’re happy,
making money, and getting support from
corporate. Franchisors know the success
of the brand starts with the franchisees.
If they’re not happy and making money,
the system isn’t going to be able to partner up with the best people.”

MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE IS S UE II, 2015

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