Managing the Digital Transition with your Service Based Franchise

We live in an era of rapid technological innovation. The rise of mobile and internet technologies changed the way we socialize, shop, and even find true love. Of course, these technologies irrevocably changed the business world, too; outsourcing, easy access to global markets, and unprecedented levels of client communications have turned many business models on their heads and made systems virtualization a basic business requirement.

Back in 2016, Kevin Crowley, vice president of digital aviation for Boeing, told The Wall Street Journal that the contemporary business climate makes mobile and cloud technology a must: “It just became apparent that we needed to centralize around one technology.” While the words of an aviation expert may seem to have little relevance to the way a service-based franchise does business, the truth is that any company that neglects the digital transition will struggle to stay competitive in 2017.

With this in mind, today’s post explains why you should take advantage of cloud and mobile technology, then shares some strategies for streamlining your service-based franchise’s digital transition using FranchiseSoft’s tools.

Streamlining Systems’ Virtualization With Franchisesoft Technology:

FranchiseSoft makes the digital transition easy because our entire system was designed for simplicity. In the same way that FranchiseSoft makes scheduling, billing, reporting, analysis, and communications easy, we’ve built our system with rapid integration in mind. Our management team has actually owned and operated franchises, so we know what it means to manage the digital transition within the context of different service industries. Furthermore, our franchise support service is comprehensive, combining simple self-service, detailed FAQs, step-by-step instructional videos, and a secure help desk to reduce franchisee training and retraining.

Streamlined software aside, we can also recommend some general best practices during your company’s digital transition:

Try to approach your move to mobile field management software as a team-building exercise. Your staff will have very different levels of experience and familiarity with smartphones, tablets, and business software. Identify which of your staff are comfortable with these devices and technologies and capitalize on their knowledge, positioning them as leaders or helpers to build the confidence of their teammates.

It is quite common for the service-based employees with the strongest tradecraft to be the most reluctant to make the change. These veterans are used to being the experts, and may be uncomfortable learning new skills. Since these people will be some of your greatest assets, it is recommended that you manage their training carefully. As you continue to incorporate cloud and mobile technologies into your daily duties, make sure to stress how you value tradecraft skills over technological fluency, and make it clear that you will continue to support their learning and mastery of these new processes over time.

Meanwhile, be careful about making too many assumptions about what your staff’s age says about their technological fluency; that 60-year old pest control experts may code websites in his spare time, while a fresh-faced landscaping hiree might have never logged into Facebook!

Where Can I Learn More About Franchisesoft Field Service Management Software?

FranchiseSoft offers a zero-commitment, 100% free demonstrations of our product. Contact us for a demonstration, and one of our representatives will be in touch within 24 hours – visit https://franchisesoft.com/franchise-solutions/field-service-management/ or call 888-302-3676 to speak with one of our knowledgeable representatives today.