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“Training is the foundation of a strong franchise system. Successful franchising is all about duplication and consistency. A brand is strongest when the customer has the same experience each time they visit a franchised location, no matter what time of day or which location. The only way that brand consistency can be accomplished is through training.”

- Canadian Franchise Association

Thriving franchisors understand that training is the foundation of a strong franchise system. McDonald’s Corporation, arguably the most successful franchise in the world, knows that training is critical to their success, which is why they created Hamburger University. This 130,000 square foot facility located in Oak Brook, Illinois has seen over 70,000 managers graduate since it opened back in 1961.

Nowadays, innovative franchisors are moving their Corporate University to the Internet. Subway, a restaurant franchise with 30,000+ locations worldwide, recently launched the University of Subway, an online Corporate University that allows them to train their management team and staff on various topics such as merchandising, store equipment and food safety.

What if your pockets aren’t as deep as McDonald’s or Subway’s?

Leveraging the Internet to train your franchisees makes financial sense regardless of how many locations you operate. Training facilities require a huge investment, and flying everyone to and from those facilities quickly adds up. An online Corporate University on the other hand can be launched for a fraction of the price of a brick-and-mortar school and completely eliminates travel and living expenses.

Not only is an online Corporate University more cost-effective, it also allows franchisors to reach a larger audience in record time. While McDonald’s multi-million dollar facility enabled them to train 70,000 managers over a 45-year period, a Corporate University hosted over the Internet allows you to train the same number of people over a 24-hour window!

An online Corporate University additionally grants franchisors more control over their training program. Not only are they able to control the consistency of the information being taught, they can also easily enroll students in mandatory courses, track their participation, and even monitor their progress and learning through the system’s report card capability.

Another significant advantage made possible by an online Corporate University is the ability to manage crises effectively. Think of the 2008 Canadian listeriosis outbreak linked to the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto, Ontario. Certain restaurant franchises offering deli meats to their clientele had to react quickly in order to limit damage to their store brand. Thanks to their online Corporate University, vigilant franchisors were able to quickly develop an action plan in the form of an eLearning course and have every single franchisee in Canada trained within 24 hours following the report of the outbreak. They were able to teach every manager and staff member how to deal with the crisis before it became a serious threat to their business.

Having a first-class Corporate University with multimedia-rich courses also goes a long way to convincing existing and potential franchisees that your company invests in its most important resource: its people. With so many franchises to choose from, entrepreneurs looking to invest in a business are looking for franchises that will provide them with unparalleled support and ongoing training. Having an online Corporate University certainly gives franchisors a leading-edge when compared to competitors that have nothing better to offer than a short initial on-site training session and an Operations Manual in a series of three-ring binders.

In order to remain competitive, franchises need to evolve. New products, technology and innovations require that franchisees have ongoing training to keep current with the evolving brand and continue to be competitive in changing markets. While physical training facilities do get the job done, they are not cost-effective, and certainly not economically viable for small- to medium-size franchisors. Perhaps more importantly, brick-and-mortar facilities are truly limited in regards to their throughput and ability to quickly and consistently disseminate key information.

The solution for small- to medium-size franchisors appears to be an online Corporate University. By leveraging the Internet, franchisors can train people anytime, anywhere, regardless of how many learners are involved. All that at a fraction of the price!

Luc Richard is the President & CEO of Dual Code Inc., a one-stop eLearning shop that designs, develops and hosts eLearning content for franchisors that understand the value in training their franchisees. For more information on eLearning or to learn more about the Dual Code Franchisor Program, visit http://www.dualcode.com

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