The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present new challenges for franchisors. Yet day by day, we are seeing an uptick in field audits despite many months of uncertainty and dependence on virtual visits. Now is a good time to dust off that old field audit questionnaire and get it ready for use. You can start by making sure your audit is the best it can be \u2013 in other words, doing an audit of your franchise audit.<\/p>\n
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In this post, we\u2019ve outlined a simple list of tips to help you review the health of your current franchise field auditing process for optimal outcomes.<\/p>\n
Having extra questions means unnecessary work for the auditor. In addition to obvious extra questions, you\u2019ll find more subtle questions that are simply redundant.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s critical to eliminate any redundancy or unnecessary questions to ensure you\u2019re getting the most streamlined and critical answers from your audit.<\/p>\n
A question that addresses multiple concerns makes it difficult for the franchisee to understand what needs fixing.<\/p>\n
Example: \u201cWalls and floors are clean and don\u2019t feature any apparent damage and the marketing posters on the wall are recent and approved.\u201d When faced with a failure on this question, the franchisee would not be sure what to fix.<\/p>\n
How you ask questions can impact your outcomes. Question formats such as multiple-choice, text-based or yes\/no should be carefully considered when building an audit.<\/p>\n
Example: Using a yes\/no question when it comes to meeting temperature standards rather than simply recording the temperature value itself.<\/p>\n
When designing a questionnaire, you should review the characteristics of each question to ensure the audits are objective and impactful.<\/p>\n
If a question is vague or addresses too many concerns, it\u2019s unclear what is being evaluated. If it\u2019s not measurable, then the audit becomes subjective. If it\u2019s not actionable, then you won\u2019t be able to find fixes for problems. If it\u2019s not relevant, then it\u2019s extra work that isn\u2019t impactful. Finally, questions which aren\u2019t time-bound make it unclear as to what time period is actually being evaluated.<\/p>\n
Example: Using terms such as \u201ca reasonable amount of time\u201d instead of simply recording how quickly the franchisee should perform the service in terms of seconds, minutes, and hours.<\/p>\n
Spelling and grammar errors can cause auditors and franchisees to lose faith in the system.<\/p>\n
Matching the audit \u201cflow\u201d, starting outside the front door and ending with the coaching session at the back can save time and enhance the process.<\/p>\n
A question that refers back to standards should include a reference to the franchise manual or online standards guide.<\/p>\n
Example: \u201cScheduling appropriate to sales volume\u201d \u2013 the guideline outlining how many employees a franchisee needs for a given sales volume should be posted.<\/p>\n
Audit scores are often represented by top-level section scores such as \u201cBack of house: 80%\u201d or \u201cCleanliness: 75%\u201d. This is a good way to slice the information, but additional facets can be reviewed.<\/p>\n
It is a best practice to tag specific questions with the relevant process that drives that standard. When a set of standards fail and they\u2019re all associated to the same back-end process, you can coach for the root cause rather than each standard.<\/p>\n
Example: A standard such as \u201csmiling and welcoming guests\u201d could be categorized as \u201cservice\u201d but a better way would be to tag it as \u201cTraining: going above what\u2019s required & wowing the guest\u201d.<\/p>\n
The audit should only be as long, or as short as it needs to be in order to achieve its goals. Most long-form format audits contain 200 to 400 questions.<\/p>\n
When shorter (eg: 50 questions), the coach may be perceived as performing a cursory visit and not going into detail. It\u2019s normal (and desirable) to have short-form audits, but if your longest one is only 100 questions, you likely haven\u2019t formalized your visit\/coaching process.<\/p>\n
When longer (ex: 600 questions), the coach may be perceived as performing busywork, and spending too much time filling out forms rather than coaching franchisees. If you drill down into the data, you\u2019ll normally notice a large cross-section of the audit never-fails. These questions are candidates to be removed.<\/p>\n
While at first it may seem like a good thing to have strong audit scores, scores that are too high will not drive change in the organization. An average score of over 90% will lead franchisees to lose motivation in terms of corrective actions as they see themselves as performing at an A+ level whereas the franchisor\u2019s view may be different.<\/p>\n
Solutions to this issue are complex but include:<\/p>\n
There are some audit questions which are so core to the brand that they should have a \u201ccritical\u201d marking \u2013 such as using unapproved suppliers.<\/p>\n
If questions are marked with severity, additional business rules such as \u201cthe audit should fail if any critical questions fail\u201d can be easily put into place instead of a convoluted question weighting system.<\/p>\n
When a weakness is recognized, it is a best practice to use a corrective action to get it followed-up on by the appropriate person.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s typical to not start using the task system immediately when adopting a platform such as FranConnect as it does require a bit of change management and expectation management with the franchisees. Once established, however, leveraging tasks can increase accountability.<\/p>\n
Having a backlog of tasks indicates a lack of process or of training \u2013 it is a good idea to discuss expectations with the franchisees and coaches.<\/p>\n
When exploring system-wide weaknesses, sometimes there is a core process that is consistently not being followed. To solve system-wide weaknesses, it can make sense to include new practices such as recurring self-assessments.<\/p>\n
Example: A consistent failure on exterior cleanliness may require a system-wide training or process reminder, perhaps complemented by daily self-assessments where pictures are submitted.<\/p>\n
The franchise consultant role is evolving beyond simply being a \u201ccop\u201d who maintains standards. It is also a \u201ccoach\u201d who helps the franchisee achieve their goals. The questionnaire should reflect this change.<\/p>\n
Example: Having a \u201ccoaching\u201d section in the audit is a fantastic first step towards creating a coaching dynamic.<\/p>\n
We sometimes see questionnaires which include various number questions which need to be punched in by the coach. For example, what were last month\u2019s sales, labor costs, etc.<\/p>\n
Automating this collection outside of the coach’s visit, via an integration with the Point of Sale or other source system, can save the coach time plus enable them to have time to research ahead of the visit and prepare a proper action plan with the franchisee.<\/p>\n
When reviewing average scores among auditors, you may notice dramatically different scores. One root cause of this is an inconsistent understanding of what the standards are for each auditor.<\/p>\n
When your coaches aren\u2019t calibrated on a certain question, it is often helpful to utilize pictures to highlight both when a standard is not met AND when it is met.<\/p>\n
This generates a photo stream that the whole team can observe and discuss. It helps refine the standard so everyone is in agreement. If you only have pictures of failures, you have a skewed perspective.<\/p>\n
A few key standards, even if they do not have any calibration issues, should be consistently documented with pictures (both success & failure) as it is a goldmine of information.<\/p>\n
Having a backlog of pending audits could mean that completed work is not being used. Make sure to have an approval \u201crhythm\u201d set up within the system and the appropriate auditor manager is aware of your expectations. Alternatively, some questionnaires may benefit from being automatically approved.<\/p>\n
Having locations \u201cfall through the cracks\u201d could be detrimental to the brand on many levels. We\u2019ve often seen this in contexts where a franchisor expects each coach to visit each location quarterly but doesn\u2019t effectively make the coaches accountable to do so.<\/p>\n
The average franchisor has approximately 6 different questionnaires, so it\u2019s worth considering whether the set for your franchise is complete. Pay attention to mix of self-assessments and unscored audits (see more about that in our Franchise Operations Index report<\/a>). If you use operations software to identify your weak unit segments, you can create questionnaires just for those underperformers.<\/p>\n Sample questionnaires include:<\/p>\n\n