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ISCOVER
Staff Reporter
Smartline has yet again been recognised as the nation’s best franchise by a national survey.
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Topfranchise.com.au ranked Smartline number one in its latest top 10 list, following a comprehensive survey of franchisees from franchises across the country.
Smartline managing director Chris Acret said he was thrilled with the latest award, adding that it reflected the unique team culture within the franchise group.
“Our focus has been on making sure that we have the forums and tools for franchisees to help each other and that the culture really encourages and recognises peer support,” he said.
“It is a bit like the spirit or ethos within a school – while the principal or teachers will play an important role and set standards and expectations, it is the students who determine the spirit or culture.
“As a franchisor, we focus on making sure that we offer the right environment and the infrastructure and support the franchisees' need to be the most successful they can be.
“Whilst Smartline’s group office definitely plays an important role, it is the franchisees themselves, their willingness to engage with each other and their support of each other that now drives the culture.
“Communication and information sharing is enthusiastically embraced within our group, with strong leadership from the senior franchisees.
“That culture has been retained throughout the past 14 years since our establishment and through two mergers. I’m optimistic that it will continue to be a hallmark of the way Smartline operates in the coming years.”
10 THOUSAND FEET and topfranchise.com.au’s head of intelligence Ian Krawitz said Smartline had taken the group's performance to a new level in the latest round of surveys.
“It is great to see Smartline’s franchisee satisfaction levels improve again,” he said. “It really highlights the Smartline culture of continual improvement.”
Mr Krawitz said one key improvement was reflected in increased satisfaction with the structure provided for franchisees to share their knowledge.
“There are so many online collaboration tools out there; the trick is getting buy-in to their use,” he said.
“Smartline has 90 per cent of its franchisees using the social media collaboration tool Yammer and is seeing over 1,000 posts per month through this. The value provided by such a tool is clearly showing up in the latest satisfaction results.”
