A field service consultant’s responsibilities include visiting, mentoring, and training a franchisee or group of franchises in a geographic area.  They provide advice on how to develop and improve customer service, sales, operational strategies, etc. They visit each location in their region of work to monitor progress and performance and address relevant issues.

When a field service consultant conducts these field service visits, they have to add value to the franchisee and their business. It is not just a typical store visit where you have a checklist, tick all the boxes, and just leave without providing any feedback or value to the franchisee.

While a range of titles exists for this role, titles are not as important as the:

• purpose of the role,
• the competence of the people performing the visits,
• and the processes they use.

There is a proven six-step process used for structuring an effective field visit:

1. Joint Preparation

Preparation is the first key factor that will ensure that a field service visit is successful. A week or two before the visit contact the franchisee with details of the visit including time, duration, what you would like to cover, and the process they intend to follow.

It is important to allow for joint preparation, where the franchisee can share anything, they would like to cover during the visit. Thus, allowing a joint agenda for the meeting to be created.

This enables both parties to prepare accordingly:

• For the FSC it may involve the review of KPI’s for their business, discussing any social media customer reviews of the business or information gathered from an earlier interaction that they may think will be helpful.
• For the franchisee, it may be scheduling more staff for the period that they will not be available to avoid any interruptions or discuss any issues that they may be experiencing and need assistance with.

2. Building a rapport

The first few seconds of the field service visit sets the tone. If a positive tone is set from the start the rest of the meeting will flow smoothly. A field service consultant should:

• Take a few minutes to prepare mentally before entering the franchisee’s premises.
• Clearing your mind of any distractions or problems you have been dealing with and focusing on the person you are about to spend time with.
• Go through your notes and the agenda for the meeting. Remember the purpose of the visit and what outcome you would like to achieve. Deliberately ignore any clear operational problems until you have properly engaged the franchisee as well as the staff by name.
• It is important that you remember that you are entering into the franchisee’s space, and you are not aware of what has been going on before your arrival. Never formulate conclusions about anything that seems out of place. Make a mental note to discuss this at a suitable time.

3. Agree on the process

To ensure constructive and effective outcome from the time spent together during the field service visit/meeting through the ‘what and how’ of the visit together (the topics you want to cover and the process you will use i.e., the agenda and priorities thereof) before proceeding with the in-depth discussions.

Reconfirm the time you have set and check if this is still applicable. Something may have come up and the franchisee may not have as much time as initially agreed on.

Check the franchisee’s behaviour. How engaged are they? Are they glad to see you? Are they paying attention or distracted?

Go through the agenda next, ensuring the franchisee is still comfortable working through the topics with you. Just reminding them that the agenda was prepared together with their input.

Lastly agree on the sequence and the process you will use. For example, you can start by reviewing some agreed reports and figures together to arrive at a shared understanding of how the business is performing. Review the progress of the franchisee’s business plan or goals. A walk-through around the business is a clever idea just to get a sense of the environment.

4. Getting into the nitty gritty

At this point, you delve into the purpose of the field service visit. Stick to the agreed agenda and process, and cover everything that was agreed on.

Here are a few things to look out for during this step:

• Observe their behaviour or watch out for signs of defensiveness, boredom, or distractions. This will help you to steer the conversation according to their behaviour.
• Ask them for their insights or interpretation of specific events that may have affected their business.
• Share information on the criteria or process you have used to arrive at certain conclusions.
• Link discussions back to profitability and brand alignment at every opportunity.
• Keep in mind the visit should be done with the franchisee, not to the franchisee.

5. Review outcomes and check commitment

When you have worked through the agenda and the process, review what has been achieved, discuss agreed outcomes, and make a note of actions you or the franchisee will take. This provides an opportunity to clarify areas of uncertainty and give you both a sense of satisfaction that the visit was productive. Do not assume that just because a franchisee has committed themselves to the agreed items, they will act on them. Check their commitment by asking questions like “how do you feel about doing this?” or having them share what specific action they are going to take.

6. Positive end and follow up

Ideally, field service visits should end on a positive note. How the current visit ends sets the tone for the following visit. Ask the final questions like “What parts of the visit were useful?” 

Never linger around the premises when the field visit is done. Ensure that you send an email the following day thanking the franchisee for their cooperation, also mention what you have agreed on and check back with the franchisee about what actions are they going to take, just so that everything is in writing and both parties can be held liable if they do not deliver on the agreed outcomes and actions that need to be taken.

Conclusion

Field visits provide franchisor support executives with a powerful opportunity to make a real difference in the success and satisfaction of their franchisees. These six steps will help a field service consultant to be successful.

If you require assistance with the development and training of your Field Service Consultants or want to share your experiences, If you would like to comment or discuss the subject, contact us or leave a comment

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