Subway’s Strategy for Communicating with Franchise Owners

Subway utilizes a range of communication strategies to ensure franchise owners receive important messages effectively.

At one of the world’s largest restaurant chains, the individuals running the stores typically do not work for those crafting the messages. Franchise owners often learn about initiatives from headquarters and then decide whether to implement them.

“Every franchisee is different,” Mahogani Chery, senior director of global communications and culture at Subway, told Ragan. “When you have corporate stores, you can run your business the way that you want to. When you have multiple franchisees, what works for one franchisee may not work for another.”

This diversity influences how Subway disseminates messages. Employee channels, such as the company’s intranet and global weekly newsletter, operate separately from the communications directed at franchisees. These messages are sent daily by regional leaders, tailored to the specific needs of each franchisee based on their location.

“There may be something happening in the U.S. that’s not happening in Canada because our products change at each location,” Chery explained. “In Latin America, we have almost 23 different markets. There might be something happening in Colombia that’s not happening in Mexico, and that’s completely different from what’s happening in Puerto Rico.”

Delivering Messages from Corporate to Franchisees

Chery noted that a post on Subway’s franchisee feed marks just the beginning of a message’s journey into the restaurants. In the U.S., the same post is also shared with Subway’s managers and directors of franchise performance, who are corporate field staff visiting restaurants throughout the week.

“When our franchisees get them, so do the people on the corporate side,” Chery said. “As they make their field visits and market visits through the week, they are also disseminating this information into the restaurants. They can print out the information for the franchisees or restaurant managers so they can see what they missed. Franchisees can decide whether or not they’re going to use that.”

Involving field staff simultaneously with franchise owners ensures that every restaurant visit reinforces what’s already on the feed. Subway also conducts monthly town hall meetings, where the top leader in each region meets with that region’s franchisees.

“You can or cannot join, and it will be recorded if you are not able to attend,” Chery said. “If there’s something that you happen to miss because there’s too much on the feed, it will be given to you by our regional presidents.”

Targeting Franchisees with Relevant Messages

In Subway’s Latin American locations, franchisees participate in similar monthly town halls. However, Chery mentioned that her team incorporates an additional channel for significant news.

“A lot of franchisees in Latin American countries do not go on the feed as much,” she said. “They’ll use a messaging service like WhatsApp. So we’ll send a link saying, ‘Hey, did you see this Halloween promotion?’ which hits their cellphones immediately. If it’s that important, we’ll send it that way instead of following all the other channels.”

This approach involves understanding where owners in each market typically seek news before determining how to reach them. Chery emphasized that this can vary from one franchisee to another.

“When I’m reaching out to the new, eager couple who really wants to make this successful, I can reach out to them through messaging apps and new-age technology,” Chery explained. “When I’m reaching out to older franchisees who have had 20 years of experience making their restaurant successful in their own way, you need to meet them where they are.”

Crafting Concise Messages for Busy Franchisees

Regardless of the communication channel or the audience, Chery adheres to one key principle: brevity is essential.

“If it fits on Twitter, it fits in their world, because they don’t want more than 150 characters,” she said. “They need to know what their main information is and how it’s going to work for them. The days of long emails are over.”

For messages requiring more detail, Chery suggests routing them through links to additional information or utilizing video messages and tutorial guides that owners can review later. This approach allows franchisees to engage with the content without being tied to their devices for extended periods.

“I always say snackable, but make sure it’s digestible,” she said. “That way, people can take it, read it, digest it and move on for action or no action on their end.”

Source: Ragan Communications