Franchisors are expected to provide principled leadership to their Franchisees, but one crucial aspect of this is the need to listen. A Franchisor cannot be effective unless he knows his Franchisees’ needs. Franchisees will often have sensible ideas about ways to improve the business, and making suggested changes is one of the best ways to cement their support. Also, listening to Franchisees in ‘non-core’ areas is one of the best ways to gain support when it comes to ‘core’ areas such as customer service, when no compromise is possible.

Similarly, National Office listens to Franchisors regularly and intensely. Major policy changes are put out in a newsletter for a majority vote, or discussed by an elected ‘Advisory Committee’. While National is under no legal obligation to accept these decisions, in virtually all cases this is what happens.