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Are your field consultants cops or coaches?

Sarah Stowe

Imagine getting a speeding fine and feeling grateful. It happened to me. I was 18 years old cruising down the highway with Santana’s wailing guitar at full blast. But my steering wheel drumming stopped abruptly when I glanced over to see a policeman driving alongside me beckoning me to pull over.

He told me to get out of the car, looked me up and down slowly and deliberately, then put down his pad on the bonnet of my car and said he wanted to explain something to me. In a voice, which I felt contained genuine concern, he told me about some of the more unpleasant things he had seen in his many years of policing. Of the young people like me whose lives had ended abruptly in a bloody mess of broken glass and twisted metal.

“You seem like a smart kid. You don’t want to end up like that, do you?”

“No sir,” I mumbled.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” he continued. “I’m going to give you this ticket to remind you to drive more carefully. And you’re going to stay within the speed limit from now on. I don’t want to see you dead. Okay?”

I actually found myself thanking him. This man was more of a coach than a cop. Someone who saw his job as saving lives by contributing to a safe driving environment. Speeding fines were a means, not an end.

While I can’t honestly say I never sped again, the experience did modify my behaviour and certainly had a positive impact on me. The fact I am sharing it with you 35 years later is a testament to this.

  • Do your field consultants understand their job is to contribute to a safe business environment in which franchisees make money, customers leave satisfied and the brand is protected?
     
  • Do they understand that every request they make of a franchisee should be linked back to how this will improve profitability, create happier customers or protect the brand?

WHY ALIGNMENT IS MORE POWERFUL THAN COMPLIANCE

People who operate from a compliance mindset will tell you what you must or must not do because this is what the rules say. Compliance is about obedience. It is also based on old fashioned authoritarian values.

Franchisees deserve a more enlightened approach, especially as many of them bought into their business so they could be their own boss and not have to do the bidding of someone else.

On the other hand, when a field consultant explains to a franchisee why they should do something and how it will help their business, they are practising brand alignment, which is about ensuring there is harmony and consistency between all elements in the business.

For instance, ensuring the customer gets what they have been promised and there is consistency in their experience, irrespective of which outlet they deal with.

Field consultants with a compliance mindset tend to use the threat of a breach notice as their tool of choice for influencing behaviour. They use it like a parking officer might use a parking ticket. We all know how that feels.

However consultants with a brand alignment mindset are able to give real life examples of how inconsistent standards can result in negative publicity and damage, not just to the franchisee’s business but to that of their colleagues and the brand.

The breach notice is a last resort to be used sparingly, but firmly in the case of flagrant disregard by a franchisee of safe business practices.

So are your field consultants cops or coaches?

Greg Nathan is a psychologist and the founder of Franchise Relationships Institute