As an Area Manager, you are failing if you are just a box ticker.

The role of the Area Manager is to add value, not just audit reports

With pressures of the economy, load shedding (writing this blog while there is load shedding), and franchisees/managers struggling to make targets; the role of the Area Manager has changed significantly. So much more is expected from the Area Manager.

When I started working with franchises, almost 20 years ago; the role of the Area Manager was more of a box ticker. These days they have to be multi-talented, multi-faceted and multi-skilled. Gone are the days of just ticking the box to ensure that the individual store was meeting the brand standards and then sending the audit report through. With head offices who want to provide more value to the franchisee/manager who in turn are asking for more assistance to grow the top line and bottom line; the role of the Area Manager has grown significantly.

As per research conducted by DMS Retail a multi-store manager can influence performance by up to +/- 20%. This is a huge number. Then why do certain head offices not take this role seriously? They try and save money by employing Area Managers who are great at ticking the box, but that is where it stops. So they save on the expense line, however it costs them dearly on the top line.

Let’s look at some of the ways that an Area Manager can add significant value than just ensuring brand standards are maintained:

Business Coach

Often franchisees/managers tend to work more “In” their business as they are embroiled in solving and doing day-to-day challenges than working “On” their business.  As a business coach, the Area Manager must use the available data and financial information that they have at their disposal to assist the franchisee/manager in gaining important insights into the profitability and performance of their stores. In my opinion, there is no better way to add value, and gain support and respect from your franchisee/manager by understanding and identifying the key drivers of profitability for the business.

Life Coach

Sometimes the franchisee/manager becomes despondent for various reasons; such as the performance of their store, not achieving their goals etc and it will be the Area Manager who rekindles their enthusiasm for the business and to improve their focus on growing and improving their performance levels. I definitely recommend that all Area Managers attend at least a basic course in coaching skills.

Brand Ambassador

The Area Manager is the middleman between the head office and the stores. They need to ensure that all initiatives from marketing to new product rollout are clearly communicated to the stores. They need to “sell” these initiatives in order to gain full support and buy-in from the franchisees/managers. Nothing worse than an Area Manager arriving at a store with a new marketing initiative and saying to management, “Once again head office has not thought this marketing campaign through, but we have to implement it” and then expecting the franchisee/manager to support it

Operational expert

Operational expertise is a bare minimum that a franchisee/manager expects from their Area Manager. Besides, there is no way you can arrive at a store, conduct an audit and expect the franchisee/manager to respect you if you do not have the operational expertise required to perform the role. Your role is often to assist the franchisee/manager in optimising operational efficiencies.

Marketing expert

Marketing is the driving force for customers to visit the stores. Often franchisees/managers expect the national or regional marketing campaigns to do all the work for them and they do not do much in terms of local store marketing. In my opinion, local store marketing is more important than regional or national campaigns. With local store marketing the store is able to target their respective target audience a lot more specifically.

Often franchisees/managers lack the marketing expertise and this is where Area Managers can add significant value. Your role is to guide and assist franchisees/managers in implementing marketing initiatives that are impactful and which are consistent with the brand’s values.

Trainer

The focus of every visit is the development of the franchisee/manager and the team, not the condition of the store. After all, you are visiting people, not stores. Often we are more focused on compliance than people development. There are only two reasons for something not happening; or not going according to plan. It is either a people challenge or a systems/process challenge. It is never a compliance issue. This little switch in understanding for the Area Manager makes a huge difference in their approach.

2 Key questions to answer:

·        “What should the team be doing differently once the visit is over?”

·        “What will indicate the success of the visit?”

Examples of development are strategic planning, team management, customer service, market analysis, upselling or the psychology of selling.

Facilitator

As an Area Manager spending time in various stores you get to identify best practices (can also include negative practices) that are worth sharing with the rest of your stores. How do we become better? We learn from someone who is already doing well in that respective subject. I have seen Area Managers who take this specific role seriously who have managed to improve the performance of their stores; thereby reducing their own stress.

And of course The Auditor

I often heard my mentor (Ben Filmalter – Mugg & Bean founder) say to franchisees – “franchising is not a democracy”. There are a set of written rules that if you form part of a brand you have got to stick to; whether you like it or not! I believe the biggest responsibility of an Area Manager is to “protect the brand”. Consistency lies at the heart of operating successful stores. Whether you visit a store in Cape Town, PE or Johannesburg; they should all be operating under the same rules and guidelines. It is important that the Area Manager reminds franchisees/managers that compliance is a marketing issue which affects the guest experience and the integrity of the brand. The Area Manager needs to be consistent in how they reinforce brand standards, i.e. they need to communicate in an objective way and ensure that they do not take the path of least resistance and let operational inconsistencies appear (what you permit, you promote) or be too authoritarian in their communication.

The Area Manager is a key enabler and a key driver for the brand’s success. The more successful the Area Manager is able to master the above competencies, the more they will impact the performance of a store as well as that of the franchisee/manager. In fact, no other position in a franchise/corporate organisation has the same ability to influence the performance of a store and/or the customer experience.

If you would like to become an Area Manager who is able to add incredible value, grow store turnovers by 10% and more, receive all the tools which enable you to do this, positively influence your franchisees/store managers and improve brand standards, then click on the programme link to see how it is possible