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Franchisees normally provide additional information about them like staff details, social responsibilities, awards or achievements, information about goods or services they offer and any special deals or promotions that customers might take interest in. Additionally, customers tend to visit websites of franchisees that are regularly updated so they can stay informed.
Franchisees that uses websites built with templates and content guidelines provided by the franchisor tend to be more effective in problem-solving than independent websites, while still protecting the interests of the franchisor and franchisee. Sadly, since these websites are created and maintained by the individual franchisee, there are some problems that the franchisors and franchisee need to sort out.
- Because each website is created and maintained by franchisors, and owing to the large number of websites that would need to be supervised by the franchisor, it is rather a bit expensive to inspect and track changes such as content, script and format that franchisees may make over time.
- The probability of the franchisor failing to properly review a website is high, due to the frequent updates that franchisees may make over time.
- Customization of the site by franchisees as well as design can cause inconsistency in the brand’s chain image.
- Because franchisees regularly update and make changes to the website, this can lead to conflict/disagreements with the franchisor over format, style or content of the website. Other factors like consumer privacy policy, online sales and trade secrets can also be a major problem.
Though older franchise agreements may not aptly state the rights of the franchisors and franchisees, however, it is pertinent that the main goal continues to remain the Customer. The Website’s main priority should be to help buyers shop easily and provide them with all the necessary product information as well as understand their shopping habits. Conflicts and disagreements that may have a negative impact on the brand’s consistency need to be averted at all cost.
If your franchisees require separate promotions and programs, you can personalise the individual sites according to geography and at the same time giving them the freedom to manage the information without the need for an IT department. You can set what page/content must stay and which can be edited. For a seamless and smooth operation, it is advisable to hire the services of a reliable franchise website builder.
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