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Everyone hates inspections. Me, personally - yeah, especially me, because at heart I am really a pig, a true slob. I have to keep this place clean and neat because the city health inspector will come around, look everything over and issue violation tickets for health code shortcomings. Then some damn TV reporter will do a special Rat & Roach Report. Next thing you know, I wouldn't be able to give away a lunch in here. Worse yet, some guy who happened to come upon some 'bad ice' will claim he got poisoned in here. You know the rest. Everyone in the military hates inspections except the little brown nosers who spruce up hoping to get points, and the anal compulsive who have to have everything just so. Oh - I forgot the elite units - always sharp - always ready - always on top of their game - always the ones we call on when we simply have to win.
Whoever wrote the trademark act, and all the judges who ever decided common law trademark cases had similar notions - if you don't police the quality of the use of your mark by those you license to use it, you are held to have abandoned it - you lose all your rights to keep anyone from copying it.
And, culturally /genetically/socially oriented the way we are, all of us having been trained by wonderful mothers, we don't go into places that are pig sties (except for people like me who are pigs anyway).
In franchising, back in the old days (and, thankfully, more rare today) franchising companies were not as sensitive to important social sensibilities as they have to be today. Their field reps who did store calls and store inspections were often more opportunistic and sadistic than an insurance adjuster or an IRS auditor. I remember cases where folks got bad reports if they didn't buy enough stuff from the franchisor, or if their store manager didn't pretend to be passionately in lust with the sweat hog who came around with his clipboard and his attitudes. If you were a price cutter you could get a bad inspection report - dirty bathrooms was a favorite of the 'filling' station set. Your brethren in the system wrote complaint letters about your price cutting, but the 'real' reason you got terminated (despite the fact that you were a high volume dealer) was that your restrooms weren't clean - yeah right!
My, how things have changed. Franchisees nowadays actually complain when there are not pervasive pop inspections. Franchisees coming into my office from time to time put it in terms of the franchisor ruining morale by allowing slobs to get away with trashy stores, ruining the reputation of the chain and, therefore, their own stores as well. Today a franchisor that decides to save money by reducing field reps and having fewer inspection visits is making a big mistake. Especially in this day of multi unit store owners who rely on the savings of not having to hire their own inspecting field reps because the franchisor's people come around regularly, conduct rigorous inspections and leave copies of inspection reports that store managers have to staple to their daily reports. Pretty soon you will sell more franchises by advertising that your franchisees are frequently inspected and written up for defaults if their operations are not really ship shape. When a store can cost over a million and a half dollars, including the real estate, plus $70,000 a month to operate, you are providing a most valuable and indispensable service by having a really rigorous inspection program. With that level of investment quite common these days, no store manager wants anything but 95% plus marks on inspections, because someone else would just love to have that job and be thrilled to keep it in ship shape all the time.
Griping and complaining are the common ingredients of any group. But discipline is the only true morale maintainer - discipline is the training that makes punishment unnecessary. Today, everywhere, but especially in the food business, a good franchisor will mercilessly winnow out the slobs. Sloppiness is a predictor of bad performance in every aspect. The slob will become the slow pay no pay champion. The slob will have the worst insurance claims record. You are what your worst looking store looks like, no matter how well the other stores shape up - good news is not news - only bad news is news. And if the slob you tolerate is your relative, or the favorite of some management person in your organization, you need reality therapy. There are no secrets in any franchise organization. There is no excuse for failure to police quality control at every level. All the really successful franchising companies are champions at DRESS RIGHT! DRESS!
Copyright 1997 - 2010 || Richard A. Solomon
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