Logistics service provider World Options is fired up to help franchisees boost their business and has freed them from time-stealing tasks.

“It is critical for franchisees to make time to maintain their sales productivity,” says Malcolm Rees.

So the business is overcoming the time-stealing challenges that take franchisees away from selling.

In the world of logistics, problems will inevitably occur, Malcolm points out. About one or two per cent of shipments may be late, damaged, lost or need rerouting. And solving these problems can take time out of a franchisee’s day.

Time-saving techniques

World Options has tracked the process to find out just how much time it can take to resolve a logistics issue for a customer.

“We tracked how long it takes to make a call on average across all of our carrier partners. The minimum length of a phone call is 25 minutes. A problem shipment could require up to five calls,” he says.

That’s almost an hour and a half of a franchisee’s time spent fixing just one issue.

“We’ve recognised that problem-solving is a time stealer,” Malcolm says. “If you’re trying to make a sale you need to be focused. If you have to keep calling a carrier to fix a problem, its disrupting.”

Problem-solving support

So World Options implemented a time-saving business system that empowers franchisees to focus on sales.

“If a franchisee spots a problem they can ask themselves ‘Can I deal with this quickly?’ If not, they hand it to us, and we follow up on the shipment.”

World Options has a skilled problem-solving back office team which provides a franchisee with two updates daily until the issue is resolved.

Once the solution is found, the team informs the franchisee who then passes on the good news to the customer.

“We’ve just had the best feedback from franchisees at our sales conference that this system allows them to carry on selling,” Malcolm reveals.  

“We provide this to our franchisees free of charge; if franchisees are free to sell that enables us to grow our system too,” he explains.

Debt collection

Another time-saving business advantage for World Options franchisees is a centralised payments system, and debt collection.

“World Option chases the money, sends out statements, and follows up invoicing. If an invoice is 60 days overdue, then we go back to the franchisee who needs to have a conversation with the customer.

“If franchisees have to chase debt, that’s another time stealer,” he says.

A study a few years ago revealed sales people spend just 27 per cent of their time actually selling. In world class companies sales people spend more than 60 per cent of their time selling, says Malcolm.

“We’re looking to emulate this; franchisees selling 80 per cent of the time is the goal. We don’t want them consumed by the problems.

World Options system benefits customers and franchisees

“In logistics, if an item is picked up and delivered we will never hear about it again. If there is a problem, customers can get upset or frustrated. So our service not only works for franchisees, it provides a much better service to the customers,” Malcolm says.

Franchisees can showcase this back office support system as a major selling point for customers.

“World Options does all the carrier contact work – if you’re a small customer doing this yourself you don’t have access to a major account customer service desk that the carriers operate. We’ve circumvented a lot of the issues.”

After a year in use, the system is now embedded as part of World Options’ whole support program. 

“It boosts performance and gives franchisees the ability to keep on being a super salesman,” Malcolm says.

Super sales skills

Malcolm points out a World Options franchisee’s number one skill must be sales, backed-up by a desire to self-learn.

“To succeed, you have to be willing to learn the carrier products we sell and become expert in our shipping software.”

While the most successful franchisees come from within the logistics industry an ex-hospitality franchisee has shown you don’t need experience. He has embraced the World Options system and is now in the top three for franchise performance.

“A World Options franchisee can earn an income immediately, and the benefit is that customers trade every month. And there is the opportunity to scale; our largest franchisee has two franchises and three employees.

“We initially give a territory to allocate online sales leads, but it is not-exclusive. A franchisee can sell anywhere in Australia but we recommend forging a strong local base, leveraging networks and people you know.”

World Options has a total of 21 franchisees and is planning to add another seven to 10 franchisees in 2025. Long term the goal is a national footprint of 60 franchises.

Malcolm says the overarching goal for World Options is to help the franchisee be successful in business and its time-saving techniques are integral to this.

“We want to provide the best services to the franchisee. Our philosophy is to give them more time to sell, and they will be more successful,” he says.