To increase franchisee adoption of the Hub you’ll want to be sure you develop and execute a layered rollout plan. Especially for those organizations who are adding FranConnect to already built processes in a large franchise organization, it is important to know that the Hub can be rolled out in stages.
It is a best practice to start your implementation of the Hub with the Library and Franbuzz. The library gives you a place to store all your important reference documentation for use by your franchisees. When they need something, your franchisees will go to the library to find that documentation. The use of the library will build their comfort with FranConnect thereby making future rollouts easier. In conjunction with the library, you will want to show your franchisees the basic functions of the Home page to be sure they know how to access library documents from Home as well as accessing E-Polls for the rollout of Franbuzz.
As mentioned, the second function to roll out with the Hub is FranBuzz. FranBuzz is an internal social media site allowing franchisees to interact with you and other franchisees in a way that makes them comfortable. One of the great features of Franbuzz is your ability to customize its name. To gain buy-in you can collaborate with the corporate team to come up with a few different names for Franbuzz. Once you’ve narrowed it down to 3 or 4, use the E-Polls function to have your franchisees vote on a name. This will make them feel invested.
In addition to voting before Franbuzz go-live you’ll want to make sure you have a good content development plan in place. For each Franchisor, this looks a little different however there are a few best practices to ensure the content is fresh daily. Assign one corporate person per day to post on FranBuzz. You’ll want them to start a conversation or post something that creates engagement. In addition, you can create a consistent day and time when you’re available for Q&A, e.g. Marketing Mondays. The Marketing team will present topics and create discussions about new products, strategies, and successes.
Once you’ve implemented the Library and Franbuzz, your franchisees will naturally begin to explore the other functionality of the Hub. You’ll want to consider rolling out the additional features at a time you feel is right for your franchise system.
Suggested Roll Out Pairings:
Home (remaining functions) and Related Links: for single sign-on access to other systems used by your organization.
Calendar and Tasks: for assigning follow-up tasks to be completed by the franchisee.
Directory, Alerts, and Messages: for sending internal messages.
Renaming Franbuzz:
From Admin, select The Hub.
Click Configure Franbuzz Name.
Click Modify name then click Save.
Rename then click Save.Creating an E-Poll:
From Admin, select The Hub.
Click E-Poll.
Select Post New Poll.
Input the following information.
- EPoll Title (e.g. Name our new social media site).
- Input the Start and End Dates (the length of the voting period).
- Select which users you want to vote.
- Choose the radio button to select when users can view the results of the poll.
- Input the question (e.g. What name is best for our new social media site).
- Select the option type: radio, dropdown or checklist.
- Input the options (e.g. FranChat, FranTalk, etc).
- Click the Add Option text to add more names.
- Click Add.