To be honest, we don't. Like a lot of companies, we talk about it and wish for a utopian society where we all fairly comment on each other's work habits and skills and strengths and irritants. But, we are human. We never quite get it right. So we do the best we can and keep looking for a better way. If you know of one, please share it with us in the comment section.
Something we do have nailed is customer reviews. In this case, customer means a franchisee, not a bread buying customer. Every decade or so we have our franchise agreement reviewed by the Association of Franchisees and Dealers to make sure we meet their standards for a fair franchise agreement. The AAFD is the country's leading advocate for franchisees and we respect their opinion. We are in our periodic review process as I type this and hope that our agreement is recertified as fair. And, if it isn't we will know where we are lacking and work to fix the issues.
We think we run a fair business and like to share that with others. A number of years ago, a company called Fran Survey approached us. They do peer reviews of franchise companies and sell those reviews to people interested in buying a franchise. That is a great selling tool for us but more importantly, it is a better management tool. The report is put into a format that can be published, but we get to see the raw responses in anonymous form. Every year we take those and see if we can fix the problem areas. Some we just can't for a variety of reasons. For example, we always hear "We should do national advertising." Maybe, but while we are a good sized company, we still are small enough to where local efforts are best. But, we fix what we can. This year, the one we are tackling is "The CEO doesn't spend enough time in our bakeries." To better hear what people need for me to hear, I have c
ommitted to taking a trip into bakeries every other month for 2010 and listen to what our owners have to say in person. There is no substitution for direct interaction. CBS is even doing a reality show now on CEO's in the field.
My first field trip this year was a blast and I was able to see an idea we have been tossing around successfully validated in the field. Any time you can spend more time with your customers, that is a good thing. In the meantime, let us know if you have the 360° employee review process figured out...
