1851

It&#8217;s common for CEOs to leave their offices to work on the frontlines with employees to learn more about their companies. But it&#8217;s a whole different matter to do that on national television as Dina Dwyer-Owens did last year.

As CEO of The Dwyer Group (TDG), a Waco, Texas, multi-concept franchise company, Dwyer-Owens wanted to see for herself how some Dwyer Group franchisees worked their brands&#8217; systems and followed the company&#8217;s code of values&#8212;only she did it in disguise as the guest CEO on CBS&#8217;s &#8220;Undercover Boss&#8221; show.

To avoid being discovered by her franchisees, Dwyer-Owens topped her short blonde hair with a long brown wig, covered that with a ball cap and then painted on thick, waterproof makeup to build a disguise. Adding to such ever-present discomforts, shooting for the show was done in the dead of summer in Memphis, Houston and Atlanta.

&#8220;Everywhere we went, the heat indices were at least 100 degrees&#8212;Memphis was 118 and I was working outside with our Grounds Guys franchisee,&#8221; said Dwyer-Owens, referring to TDG&#8217;s grounds maintenance and landscaping franchise. &#8220;I have to admit, I had some trouble working one of their lawnmowers, but overall it was great because I was working with frontline team members. For me, it&#8217;s fun when I&#8217;m engaged and in a conversation with somebody who&#8217;s trying to achieve the same goal.&#8221;

Dwyer-Owens didn&#8217;t just put herself in that spot for the show, she said she really wanted to see how well her franchisees followed systems and practiced her company&#8217;s deeply ingrained code of values. She said every franchisee she worked with, except for one, was right on track, but even the one who deviated slightly from the brand&#8217;s 14 key steps &#8220;still really cared about providing that customer an excellent experience. That matters a lot. It was exciting to me to find that they all had done a really good job of teaching those values and were working hard to live by them.&#8221;

While she admits doing the show was time-intensive and exhausting (CBS does not allow show guests to discuss production details), Dwyer-Owens is glad she did it because it taught her a lot about how her company&#8217;s franchisees operated in the field and reminded her how hard they work.

But would she recommend other CEO&#8217;s go to such lengths? Perhaps, she said, as long as they thought it through carefully.

&#8220;If you are a leader who knows what&#8217;s going on in your company, is really aware, I&#8217;d say do it,&#8221; she began. &#8220;But if you don&#8217;t really know, go find out what&#8217;s going on before you get in front of that camera. You&#8217;re going to be vulnerable in that position.&#8221;

Dwyer-Owens said TDG&#8217;s leadership saw her doing the show as a learning opportunity for everyone, but they knew the decision wasn&#8217;t without risks.

&#8220;You don&#8217;t have any editing rights at all or tell them who they&#8217;re going to talk to or film,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It&#8217;s the real thing and it&#8217;s out of your control.&#8221;

Dwyer-Owens was quick to credit CBS&#8217;s editors with &#8220;a very fair cut&#8221; for the episode that aired, and that she was amazed at &#8220;how they could take all that footage and put it into 44 minutes and tell The Dwyer Group story.&#8221; But perhaps what amazed her most was the feedback she got from viewers all across the country.

&#8220;About 99 percent of the feedback we got was extremely positive: people said it was refreshing to see a CEO who truly does care about employees and customers and has values in their business,&#8221; said Dwyer. She also said many praised her for being an outspoken Christian on the show because they saw it as proof of her transparency. &#8220;I actually expected to get some negativity about that &#8230; but the opposite was true.&#8221;

One letter writer, however, shared how she&#8217;d nursed a 15-year grudge toward a Dwyer Group company.

&#8220;It had been that long ago, but she&#8217;d still not forgotten about it! Talk about the impact you make on customers!&#8221; she said. &#8220;You can bet we&#8217;re going to use that person&#8217;s experience in our franchisee training about customer service. It&#8217;s proof that customers never forget a good or bad experience.&#8221;

1851 Franchise

It’s common for CEOs to leave their offices to work on the frontlines with employees to learn more about their companies. But it’s a whole different matter to do that on national television as Dina Dwyer-Owens did last year.

As CEO of The Dwyer Group (TDG), a Waco, Texas, multi-concept franchise .....

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CEO’s experience as Undercover Boss becomes learning opportunity for whole company 

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