What is a Franchise Discovery Day?

by Deb Evans

Discovery Day is an opportunity for prospective franchisees to meet the franchise corporate office team. It is a day spent with the team to get a feel for the corporate culture, as well as other departments of the franchise organization that support franchisees. For example, COMPUTER EXPLORERS has a Call Center which is made up of trained professionals that make calls and set appointments for the franchisees. Prospective franchisees have the opportunity to meet the representatives and learn about the process of getting new customers via the service offered as part of the franchise agreement.

Discovery Day is usually held at the corporate offices but sometimes can be part of an Expos or franchise event. COMPUTER EXPLORERS Discovery Day is held at the world headquarters of I.C.E.D. (International Center for Entrepreneurial Development) in northwest Houston. The franchise administrative offices are on the campus of Northwest Forest, a 100 acre conference center.

By the time a prospective franchisee attends Discovery Day, he/she has walked through a well defined process. They have spent hours on the telephone with a franchise sales representative, and possibly the franchise brand president. Together, they have reviewed the FDD (franchise disclosure document), and then validated information with existing franchisees.

Many franchise systems work with Franchise Business Review (FBR) to conduct franchise satisfaction surveys; which, in turn, help some of these candidates attending Discovery Day know more about how satisfied existing franchisees are. Franchise Business Review is a market research company in the franchise space that specializes in franchisee satisfaction, validation and customer validation. FBR helps franchisors benchmark and strengthen their brands. It helps interested franchise buyers identify quality franchises to invest in, and makes the process easier to connect with franchisees and find reliable satisfaction information. Michelle Rowan, COO was a guest on the internet radio show, Social Geek Radio, and you can hear her discuss how franchise surveys work in the system and the benefits.

Many prospects arrive for Discovery Day with their own first impression of the brand due to the amount of information that can be found on the internet. A good franchise system has what one of my prospects told me, "a good Google reputation.” Prospects that can find information about the corporate team via the brand Website, blogs, Twitter,YouTube and/or Facebook page attend Discovery Day with an understanding of the culture and personalities of the team that will provide support.

A Chicago franchisee shares his experiences and opinion of a franchise Discovery Day via this video.

-Deb Evans
CEO, COMPUTER EXPLORERS

Learn more about Computer Explorers at franchisebusinessreview.com.

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