A wise man once told me, “You have to keep making deposits, because one day, you’re going to need to make a withdrawal”.
He wasn’t talking about banking.
He was talking about the franchisor-franchisee relationship.
Just like in any relationship, there are ups and downs. There are times when you feel closer, and times when you grow further apart; times when you give and times when you take. When both sides believe the decisions and the direction being taken is for the greater good, deposits are being made, which builds trust. That trust gives the franchisor some leeway to make tough decisions (or withdrawals) when necessary.
It’s the same trust factor that any business builds with their customer. You make the deposits by providing a product or service that meets a need and provides value. If you make a mistake, you’ll need to make a withdrawal. The key is to fix it and learn from it. We’ve all heard that when you effectively fix a problem and make it right, you’re actually creating an even stronger bond. That’s a deposit.
So how do you fill the deposit bank back up if it’s running low? There’s no easy or quick solution. Trust can take years to build and seconds to lose.
Start with being positive. Share the wins – both big and little. Negativity only breeds negativity. Negativity within an organization trickles down to employees and then to customers. And once people are on the negativity bandwagon, it’s tough to get them off it.
Communicate, communicate, communicate… in good times and in bad. After a big corporate change was announced, someone said to me “it’s eerily quiet.” We had done a great job explaining what the changes were, but our stakeholders wanted to know what was next. They needed comfort that business was moving forward as usual. We needed to keep communicating! If you don’t, people will make their own assumptions.
Be receptive. Listen. Keep the lines of communication open. Everyone may not always agree, but they should at least know why a decision is made. And if you’re going to move forward, you need to find a way to continue the dialogue. Then you can hopefully start to build the trust again, together, one deposit at a time.
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