As a franchiser, you want to see your franchisees find success with your business. A lot of franchisers are trying to find a way to help their franchisees provide services and goods in a way that is consistent with the carefully crafted brand that your customers have come to expect. With this in mind, many franchisers are turning to online training to help in the process, finding that long-term franchisee success starts with consistent, easily-accessible online training.

This article will discuss the benefits of online training, cover some of the key techniques for creating successful training, as well as some things to keep in mind as you set out to find an online training software.

The Benefits of Online Franchise Training

While you might have on-site training at your headquarters or the new franchise location, online training gives you several opportunities that you don’t have with in-person franchising training courses. 

  • You and the Franchisee Both Save Money You want to make sure you provide thorough training, but as Entrepreneur magazine points out, “the longer the training, the more expensive it becomes” because franchisees are working with you rather than welcoming customers to their new franchise. Meanwhile, each training you provide requires you to pay a trainer. An online franchise course gives the franchisee an opportunity to continue training while they work (and save money on travel and accommodations) and you save the time you’d spend training or the money you’d spend on a trainer.
  • It Allows for Ongoing Training If there’s something that doesn’t make sense to the franchisee, he or she can go over that portion of the training as many times as necessary. Providing online franchise training software means your franchisees will always have access to the information they need to do a good job.
  • You Can Assess Competence It’s easy to track how much of the course has been completed, and tests and quizzes give you the feedback you need to ensure your franchisees are learning everything they need to know.
  • You Can Easily Update It Changes in company policy? Introducing new products? No need to call all franchisees over to headquarters; simply add the information to your online franchise course.
  • This Is the Future More and more businesses are turning to online training courses because of the reasons listed above. It’s efficient and economical. In the competitive and ever-changing world of business, it’s essential to keep your practices up-to-date.

The Key Techniques for Online Franchise Training

When it comes to developing a franchise training program, you have a lot of options. You’ll want to create modules or lessons to cover a wide range of topics for your franchisees as well as, perhaps, for the people they hire. 

  • Operations Manual This will be a long-term reference for all employees. They can quickly look up solutions as issues arise over the years.
  • Product Whatever your franchise offers, your franchisees (and the employees they hire) need to know the products inside and out.
  • How to Hire Employees Teach your franchisees to choose the right people for the jobs.
  • How to Train Employees It’s one thing for franchisees to learn what they need to know, but do they know how to train their employees?
  • Sales If you’re in business, you’re in sales.
  • Customer Service Make sure your franchisees know how to take care of your most precious asset: your customers.
  • Leadership Essential for the franchisee as well as his or her managers.
  • Safety This could include food preparation and storage and equipment usage as well as cleaning and maintenance.
  • Marketing What’s permitted? What’s not? What advertising tools do you offer your franchisees? How can you protect the integrity of your brand?
  • Finances Teach your franchisees how to budget and where to buy required materials.

When creating your online franchise training software, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind:

  • Keep Lessons Short A 2013 preliminary research results indicated that student engagement with videos drops off after six minutes, making short videos more effective in an online learning situation.
  • Offer a Variety of Delivery Systems Some learners prefer videos while others would rather read. Illustrations can help explain a difficult idea. Use a variety of methods to get the point across.
  • Clarify Your Objectives Before the franchisees begin, they should have a solid understanding of what they need to learn from the training.
  • Have a Way to Measure Progress and Comprehension You need to ensure your franchisees are not only completing the training but also comprehending what they’ve learned. A good online franchise training course allows you to assess their understanding.

Why You Need a Learning Management System (LMS)

With an LMS, you can easily manage your course content, adding and removing material as your franchise grows and changes. You can create custom learning paths that suit your franchisees and their employees. Franchisees can access it all on their own time on any device. Through it all, you have access to the data you need to determine the effectiveness of your program. While you might still do a short training at headquarters or on-site, with an eLearning solution you can provide ongoing training to ensure your new franchisees learn everything they need to know to facilitate the best chance of success with your business. At Knowledge Anywhere, we are experienced in helping franchises expand their reach through online franchise training. Contact us and get started today.

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