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For <a href="https://franchise.wbu.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=wild-birds-unlimited-recognized-as-leading-brand-by-franchise-leadership-development-conference-for-fifth-consecutive-year-2704757" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wild Birds Unlimited</a>, franchise development isn&rsquo;t only about numbers. While the brand is eager to grow its 300-plus unit system, it&rsquo;s also interested in growing the right way. That&rsquo;s why the franchise development team behind <a href="https://wildbirdsunlimited.1851franchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=wild-birds-unlimited-recognized-as-leading-brand-by-franchise-leadership-development-conference-for-fifth-consecutive-year-2704757" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wild Birds Unlimited</a>, including chief development officer Paul Pickett and franchise development manager Lisa McGill, attend the Franchise Leadership &amp; Development Conference every year.

&ldquo;The Franchise Leadership &amp; Development Conference is an amazing event. In addition to being able to network with other leaders in the industry, there are great conversations and sessions happening that are focused on quality brand development. And those discussions go beyond growing the number of units in your system&mdash;it&rsquo;s about growing your brand the right way with the right people,&rdquo; said Pickett. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a migration over the years to encourage the collaboration of development and operations teams at the conference, which I think is critical in the franchising process. I always leave the event with ideas I&rsquo;m excited about, and I&rsquo;m eager to see them take shape across the Wild Birds Unlimited system in the months ahead.&rdquo;

In addition to being a top tier resource for leaders in the industry, the Franchise Leadership &amp; Development Conference also recognizes top brands with its STAR Awards. Franchises are secret shopped from a phone and internet lead standpoint&mdash;judges review brands&rsquo; websites, responsiveness, social media presence, &nbsp;franchisee satisfaction and more in order to give awards both in individual categories and overall. This year, Wild Birds Unlimited came home with two of those awards.

The brand received the award for Best Website Prospect Follow Up as well as the Best Overall Responsiveness award. These two awards mark the fifth consecutive year that Wild Birds Unlimited has taken home coveted awards.

&ldquo;Going home with the Best Overall Responsiveness Award is huge. That means that we&rsquo;re taking care of people when they inquire about our franchise opportunity.&nbsp; We&rsquo;re prompt, we&rsquo;re giving the right information, we&rsquo;re asking the right questions and we&rsquo;re listening very well to our candidates,&rdquo; Pickett said. &ldquo;Being responsive both to our franchisees and our candidates is a major focal point for us at Wild Birds Unlimited. That water flows downhill&mdash;if we aren&rsquo;t being responsive to our customers, many of whom become our franchisees, then how can we expect them to be responsive to their customers in-store? We work hard to live up to this value every day, and it&rsquo;s an honor to be recognized for it at the Franchise Update Leadership &amp; Development Conference. It&rsquo;s a real representation that we&rsquo;re walking the walk.&rdquo;

As Wild Birds Unlimited closes out 2017 and moves into the next year, it&rsquo;s plan is to continue walking the walk so that it can improve its system for both new and existing franchisees. That&rsquo;s why Pickett is already taking what he learned and applying it to the brand&rsquo;s system.&nbsp; He is committed to helping Wild Birds Unlimited reach its full potential and to continuing the legacy of earning annual STAR awards.&nbsp;But most importantly, his team is committed to providing an exceptional franchise development experience to each and every candidate.

&ldquo;This is the fifth year that we&rsquo;ve come home from the Franchise Leadership &amp; Development Conference with an award. It goes to show how we&rsquo;re constantly striving to improve the Wild Birds Unlimited brand&mdash;our goal is to consistently enhance our system to better set our local owners up for success,&rdquo; said Pickett. &ldquo;The Franchise Leadership &amp; Development Conference also gives us a great opportunity to learn more about where we can improve. I even had conversations with judges from categories where we didn&rsquo;t win an award to determine what we can be doing to up our game and compete with the best in the business. That feedback is already being implemented across our system, and we&rsquo;re looking forward to making more improvements to our system before heading back to the conference in 2018.&rdquo;

Wild Birds Unlimited Recognized as Leading Brand by Franchise Leadership & Development Conference for Fifth Consecutive Year

1851 Franchise

The brand took home the Best Website Prospect Follow Up and Best Overall Responsiveness Awards from the 2017 conference.

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