With more than 450 family-owned businesses operating within its national store network, 7-Eleven franchisees contribute significantly to customers, communities and the culture of 7-Eleven in Australia.

Every second of every day, seven customers are served in a 7-Eleven store, which is why every franchisee has access to the company’s sophisticated systems, robust processes and an assigned retail business manager (RBM).

RBMs work directly with franchisees across a range of areas, from training and coaching through to merchandising and retail sales, to support them in maximising their business potential.

 7-Eleven Regional Manager and former Retail Operations Coach Kirsten Stone said RBMs were continually developed and empowered to support change.

“Given the important role the RBMs play in building the capability and skill set of franchisees to succeed, ensuring their skills are of a consistently high standard is important,” she said.

“Retail Operations Coaches act as mentors and their job is to ensure RBMs are always up to speed and adding value for franchisees from day one.

“This means they are equipped to provide support and build capability of franchisees, store managers and their teams in core components of the business including operational procedures, OHS & safety, business acumen, sales building, and people management.

“We want our support for 7-Eleven franchisees to be the best in the industry, and that’s why we invest so heavily in the ongoing development of our people.”

But Stone said helping team members reach their potential wasn’t about having all the answers, noting that while the training provided to RBMs was extensive, the wider 7-Eleven support system was also significant.

“As a coach, you don’t need to be the expert in everything – it’s equally important to create connections and facilitate knowledge-sharing to enable franchisee success,” she said.

“The great thing about 7-Eleven is that we are able to connect with experts within our own operations team and across the company.”

Stone said franchisees benefited from access to experts across areas including marketing, finance, IT, innovation and property.

She also said leveraging best practice to accelerate rollouts, optimise performance and resolve challenges quickly was crucial.

“When we roll out new initiatives, we will always identify those that are performing more successfully than the average so that we can help others.

“We identify what is driving delivery excellence, where there are brilliant ideas, exceptional results or best practice, so that this can be shared quickly with the rest of the network.

“This is vital to our ongoing success.”

Stone said working closely with franchisees to understand roadblocks and challenges that needed to be resolved was also important.

“While of course we always aim to pre-empt the obstacles, if we truly understand the challenges and identify operational issues that are impacting results, we can make iterative changes and continuously improve,” she said.

“We’ve got a bold ambition to maintain our leadership position in Australian convenience retail and we’re evolving at a rapid pace.

 “Our future is incredibly exciting, and our team will be there, day in and day out, to consistently help our franchisees succeed.”

Find out how top level support and training could help you run your own 7-Eleven business.