Growing a Franchise
Restaurant Freedom Academy founder and longtime Chick-fil-A franchisee Jason Purvis explains how clear expectations, local leadership and ongoing coaching create a consistent service culture.
Strong customer service rarely happens because employees are simply told to be friendly. So, how do I improve franchise customer service training? According to Jason Purvis, founder of Restaurant Freedom Academy and a longtime Chick-fil-A franchisee, the answer begins with replacing vague expectations with specific, observable behaviors that employees and managers can consistently teach, practice and measure.
One of the most common mistakes franchise brands make is telling employees to provide great customer service without explaining exactly what that means. A manager might tell employees to be welcoming, keep the dining room clean or create a positive experience. While those goals sound reasonable, they leave too much room for interpretation.
Instead, franchisors should translate broad service principles into specific actions. Those expectations might include smiling, greeting each customer as they enter, checking on guests during their visit or using a consistent phrase at the end of every interaction.
“A better way to lead is to say that good customer service is sharing a smile, greeting every guest as they come in or always saying ‘My Pleasure,’ as I taught when I had my Chick-fil-A franchise,” Purvis said. “Once you are very clear on what you expect, they know how to measure if they are being successful or not. Otherwise, it is like playing a game where you don’t know the score.”
For franchisors asking, “How do I improve franchise customer service training?” consistency depends heavily on the people leading each location.
“This comes down to local leadership,” Purvis said. “You have to invest in your franchisees, GMs or whatever model is being used.”
Training manuals and corporate standards provide an important foundation, but they cannot reinforce themselves. Franchisees, general managers and shift leaders must repeatedly demonstrate the behaviors the brand expects from employees.
“This takes a lot of patience and repeating of your expectations,” Purvis said. “Even in Chick-fil-A, it took our founder, Truett Cathy, three years to get ‘My Pleasure’ implemented across the entire chain. Whatever you care about is what you will spend most of your time teaching and reinforcing.”
Franchise brands should therefore make customer service a recurring part of manager meetings, field visits, performance reviews and daily shift conversations. When local leaders consistently reinforce the same expectations, service standards are more likely to become habits.
Employee onboarding introduces the brand’s service expectations, but Purvis said the real work begins after that first training experience. “The role of ongoing coaching and reinforcement is the work,” he said. “Whatever takes place during initial onboarding and training is the first touch.”
Employees may leave onboarding believing they understand the standard, only to discover through real customer interactions that the brand expects a higher level of attention, speed or hospitality.
“It will take many touches for someone to truly grasp customer service on the same level as yourself,” Purvis said. “They might think they understand, but then realize that your own standards are far higher than theirs, and then they need to learn to rise up to that new standard. It takes time and patience for this to become the cultural norm, not only in one location but across your entire brand.”
Technology can help franchisors distribute consistent training across a large system. A digital learning platform allows every location to access the same videos, examples and service expectations.
Technology can also help brands track whether the customer experience is improving. Surveys, review platforms and reporting systems can measure areas such as food quality, speed of service, cleanliness and overall satisfaction.
“Technology can never replace the human aspect of coaching and training on the ground,” Purvis said. “That is where it goes from theory to practice to culture.”
A video can demonstrate the correct way to greet a customer, but a local manager must still observe whether employees are doing it consistently. Data can reveal that service scores are declining, but leaders must determine why and coach the team toward improvement.
For franchise systems wondering, “How do I improve franchise customer service training?” Purvis believes the highest-impact investment is hiring and developing strong local leaders.
“Hire great leaders,” he said. “They are your voice and representative. This worked so well in Chick-fil-A because each location had local ownership. We were inside our restaurants, part of our communities and financially invested in our results.”
Not every franchise system follows the same ownership model, but brands can still create greater accountability by giving managers clear expectations, meaningful responsibility and a personal stake in location performance.
“This level of ownership can be duplicated through all kinds of leadership systems, but it starts at the top,” Purvis said.
For franchisors asking, “How do I improve franchise customer service training?” a few priorities stand out:
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