Social media reaches a whole new level within the bounds of franchising. Unlike other business owners, the franchisor worries about the performance of several franchisees spread across a country, continent or the globe because each franchisee store is a continuous extension of his or her brand.
As such, what each franchisee puts out on social media, how they react to customer complaints or feedback, how they engage with local customers etc., all those messages not only need to be monitored by the franchisor but also managed very carefully and in a timely manner.
Although most franchisors and franchisees now understand and acknowledge the benefits of using social media whether it’s to raise brand awareness, engage with customers or provide prompt customer service, most of them don’t know how to extract valuable insights from various social media platforms and how to capitalise on the explosion of social media data.
With the proliferation of social media and mobile devices over the past few years, it is not surprising that every man and his dog now has at least one social media profile, businesses included – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Foursquare amongst many others. Customers increasingly take to social media to provide genuine feedback about products or services and this generally generates a lot of online conversation with other customers who either share the same opinions or who have had a different experience.
But how can franchisors and relevant local franchisees jump into those conversations right away, while they are happening in order to limit any collateral damage caused by any negative feedback?
SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING
From the perspective of a franchisor who is managing social media for its entire chain, it can be challenging to monitor local social media conversations across so many stores. That is the reason why franchisees very often do a poor job at responding or engaging with local customers on social media. Instead they use social media only to push out deals and specials or any new product or service.
What franchisors can use is a real-time social media analytics and engagement tool that filters through various social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Linked, Foursquare and Instagram, to uncover what’s of value to any particular franchisee store. Having a proper social media monitoring and analytics solution in place removes the complexity of managing the social media profiles for multiple franchisees, providing a one-stop social media solution for all bricks and mortar stores.
Real time, location-based customer intelligence means franchisees get automated alerts of what customers are saying while they are on the premises of that particular franchisee. For example, if a Bondi customer posts a picture on Instagram of his hamburger with a hair in it, a great real-time, social media monitoring tool would immediately send an alert to the hamburger store in Bondi as well as the franchise head office before damage is done to the brand.
Franchisors often view social media as a unmanageable beast that generates negative comments about the brand and they often think they are helpless when faced with these situations.
However it does not have to be that way. There are many ways for franchisors to leverage social media channels to increase foot traffic in each franchisee store, build strong local customer communities and turn their customers into their brand advocates.
CASE STUDY: GELATISSIMO
The multi-award winning Australian franchise, Gelatissimo, uses location-based data shared on various social media platforms to significantly enhance customer engagements.
Gelatissimo’s challenges were two-fold:
- Limited to no social engagement with customers
- Delayed response and actions regarding customers’ feedback on social media
Filipe Barbosa, CEO of Gelatissimo says managing the social media profiles for the multiple gelaterie in the network was difficult without proper analysis. But adopting the location-based tools “helped us obtain a quick snapshot into what our customers are saying as well as identify our influential customers on a store-by-store basis.”
For example, during the unveiling of its two new concept stores, Gelatissimo was able to use Local Measure’s analytics tools to measure its success using real time information on what customers were saying across various Gelatissimo locations.
This means front-line staff are able to maintain visibility and respond quickly to customers, delivering benefits for the franchisor.
“We have been able to build up our social community and engagement with our most active customers,” says Barbosa.
“There is so much data out there about customers that franchisors can capitalise on. It is of utmost importance for franchisors to invest in social media monitoring and analytics tools so they can improve their service and product based on customer feedback as well as engage with their customers in real-time,” he says.
Local Measure is a real-time, location-based customer intelligence tool: www.getlocalmeasure.com