A UK executive was sent to Melbourne to save a failing Australian franchise in 90 days. She rebuilt the head office in month one, spent month two riding with franchisees to fix service problems, and converted the office ground floor into training classrooms in month three. The franchise hit record sales that quarter without a single marketing campaign.
In 2013, I got put on a plane to Melbourne to fix a struggling and failing franchise. I had 90 days. The UK side of the business was doing great. The Australian side, not so well. The same business, the same system, 2 very different results. Month 1, I didn't touch marketing. I rebuilt completely the head office team. This had been the real problem for months. Month 2, I interviewed franchisees and went on the road with them to see how the service was performed and what its quality was. Small changes, better retention. Month 3, training. We turned the ground floor of the office into classrooms. The result? A record quarter, and nobody had run a single new campaign.
