Franchising your business: managing customer complaints

A complaint received through your brand’s national account may concern a sale made by a franchisee. Who responds? Who issues a refund? Before franchising your business in France, turn your existing after-sales practices into a clear procedure. The aim is to maintain trust in your franchise network without blurring the responsibilities of the businesses within it.

1. Identify the business responsible for the sale

In your existing business, you can probably resolve a dispute directly. With several franchisees, things become less straightforward: the brand the customer sees is not necessarily the business they have contracted with.

Start by mapping your sales channels: in-store purchases, online bookings, deliveries, services provided in customers’ homes or orders paid for through a shared website. For each, identify the business that enters into the contract with the customer, issues the invoice and takes payment. Who takes payment is one factor to examine, but it does not always establish who the seller is.

In France, franchising is not governed by a single dedicated legal framework. Contract law, commercial law, trade mark law and competition law apply, among others. In dealings with consumers, the relevant requirements of the French Consumer Code must also be met.

A franchisee is an independent business operator. Article A.441-1 of the French Commercial Code requires franchisees to inform consumers of their status as independent businesses, clearly and visibly, on their information materials, including advertising, and both inside and outside their premises.

This identification is more than an administrative detail: it helps customers direct their enquiries to the right business. Check your invoice templates, order confirmations and customer-facing materials before they are put into use.

2. Create a simple complaints-handling process

Draw up a short complaints-handling form that someone unfamiliar with the customer’s history can use. It should help them gather the facts without immediately promising compensation.

Include at least:

• the details needed to trace the transaction;
• a factual description of the problem and what the customer is asking for;
• the outlet or service provider concerned;
• the person responsible for responding;
• the circumstances requiring urgent escalation to the franchisor;
• a record of the response and the agreed resolution.

Distinguish between three categories: routine dissatisfaction, a problem that could affect several outlets and a safety alert. An isolated delay should not follow the same process as a potentially dangerous product.

Set internal targets for acknowledging complaints and following them up that reflect your resources. Present these as service standards, keeping them distinct from the statutory deadlines that apply to certain requests. Test the process in your existing outlet, particularly when the person who normally handles complaints is absent.

3. Establish who decides and who bears the cost

The franchisor can provide response templates, a method for assessing problems and technical support. This does not automatically make it responsible for every sale made by a franchisee.

Set out the allocation of responsibilities in the contractual documents, then translate it into consistent operating instructions. In particular, specify who can offer a goodwill gesture, when approval is required and how incidents involving a shared system are handled.

Always distinguish consumers’ legal rights from discretionary goodwill gestures. Where a refund, repair or other remedy is legally required, the internal procedure must not prevent the customer from exercising that right. Conversely, where a discount is offered to preserve the customer relationship, it must be clear who can approve it and who pays for it.

Avoid ambiguous nationwide promises, such as exchanges at any outlet, unless arrangements between the businesses are already in place. If you want to offer this service, first define the proof of purchase you will accept and how costs will be settled between businesses.

4. Provide for mediation and learn from complaints

For consumer disputes within its scope, Article L.612-1 of the French Consumer Code gives consumers the right to use a consumer mediator free of charge. The business must ensure effective access to this service. The relevant mediator’s contact details must be provided in accordance with legal requirements, notably on the website and in the terms and conditions, where these exist.

Do not assume that the scheme chosen by the franchisor automatically covers all franchisees: check the membership requirements and the scope of the mediation service. An internal complaints service is not a substitute for this route to redress.

Finally, regularly review recurring causes of complaints rather than simply ranking outlets by complaint numbers. The same misunderstanding across several outlets may point to an instruction, marketing description or purchasing process that needs correcting.

Key takeaway: before your first franchise outlet opens, test a complaint from start to finish. You should be able to identify who is responsible, who makes the decision, who bears the cost and what route to redress is available to the customer.