IS IT ALL IN THE PROCESS? by Turp Ricketts 
Who doesn’t like a well-oiled process? Personally, I love it when a process works like it’s supposed to. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, a process is “a series of actions that you take in order to achieve a result.” The word, ‘process’, can be used in various ways and have several meanings. It can refer to a training piece a franchisor builds for their franchisees or it can be the nuts and bolts of a strategy a GM uses as he builds out his team. The one constant in the meaning of process is that it almost always sets up to be a road map for success. That is why I love the franchise space so much. They have a process that has been tested and is continually refined.
Over the past 3 to 4 years, we have seen an incredible amount of attention put on improving processes, making things easier through technology and re-imagining the whole customer journey.
A juggernaut company like McDonald’s has invested (and asked its franchisees to invest) in their process to fine-tune the customer experience. At UniFi we have spent countless hours honing our customer-facing process and using technology as an important element. We introduced BOOST, a completely digital financing platform to perfect our customer’s experience – but that’s only part of the bigger process.
My take-away from all of these advancements, even our own platform, is that balance is necessary for success. When I played baseball in college and went into an 0 for 10 slump, a huge part of getting me out of that slump wasn’t simply watching film and breaking down data and analytics. No – it was my coach, leading me to tweak a few things in order to break out time and time again. When franchisees buy into a brand, are they just doing it because brand X has a great app and tech platform? Certainly not! They are talking to the leadership of brand X and other franchisees to see if they are a fit. They want to know about the secret sauce that will make their lives as franchisees a true recipe for success.
Technology may be an enabler, but it is people who drive the process.