Franchisee Support in Lebanon: Clear Commitments After Opening

When turning an existing business in Lebanon into a franchise, you may promise prospective franchisees ‘ongoing support’ because your team already helps your branches every day. But what happens naturally within your company needs a formal structure when the recipient is an independent franchisee. Building a stable relationship within a franchise network starts with defining the help you will provide after opening, who will deliver it, how it can be requested and tracked, and what is included in the fees or requires a separate agreement.

Turn support from a marketing promise into a defined scope of work

Start by listing the help your team actually provides to your existing business during a typical month of trading. Review calls, visits and correspondence: do they concern equipment breakdowns, difficulties following recipes, interpreting sales reports or resolving supplier issues? The aim is not to transfer every task to the franchisor, but to distinguish support relating to the franchise system from day-to-day management, which remains the franchisee’s responsibility.

Prepare a brief specification for each service, covering:

• The subject of the support and its intended outcome.
• The person authorised to request it on the franchisee’s behalf.
• The person or team responsible for delivering it on the franchisor’s side.
• How it will be delivered: a call, remote session, visit or written report.
• The information that must accompany the request so the team can act.
• Situations that fall outside the service’s scope.

For example, support might include analysing the causes of increased waste and suggesting corrective action, without extending to purchasing stock or managing staff. It might also include explaining how to use the ordering system, without taking responsibility for repairing equipment owned by the franchisee unless both parties have agreed otherwise. These boundaries prevent ‘we help you run the business’ from becoming an expectation that the franchisor will manage the outlet on the franchisee’s behalf.

Align commitments with Lebanon’s legal framework

Lebanon has no comprehensive standalone franchise law or mandatory franchise-specific disclosure regime comparable to those in some other jurisdictions. However, the relationship is subject to the Code of Obligations and Contracts, as well as commercial law, intellectual property rules and consumer protection provisions, depending on the obligation or practice concerned. The absence of specific legislation does not make a promise of support merely an advertising statement with no contractual effect.

Technical and commercial assistance are core elements of the franchise model. A Lebanese lawyer should therefore review the consistency of your commercial proposal, agreement and operating practices. Recruitment materials should not promise services that the agreement later excludes. Equally, the absence of a prescribed franchise disclosure document does not diminish the importance of good faith and clear information during negotiations.

Legislative Decree No. 34 of 5 August 1967 on commercial representation warrants legal review where the nature of the relationship makes it relevant, as legal commentators and court decisions differ on whether it can apply to certain franchise relationships. A support clause alone does not determine the legal classification of the agreement.

In practice, set out the core support obligations in the agreement or an attached service schedule, and put the procedures for submitting requests in the operations manual. Do not leave the entire scope of the obligation to a document that either party can change unilaterally, and do not confuse providing advice with guaranteeing the outlet’s profits.

Establish a response process your team can deliver

Avoid promising that your team is ‘always available’ unless you have the staffing arrangements and resources to make that possible. Specify service days, hours and communication channels, then classify requests according to their operational impact. A fault that prevents an outlet from accepting orders is different from a request for advice on arranging a product display.

Distinguish between three stages: acknowledging receipt, beginning diagnosis, and providing a solution or follow-up plan. Do not promise a final resolution deadline for every problem, as some will depend on a supplier or a technician’s visit. Instead, define how the franchisee will receive progress updates, who is responsible for escalation when a response is delayed, and how temporary measures will be recorded.

Test this process within your business before including it in your offer. Record how long the team takes to handle requests, and check that someone can provide cover when the responsible employee is absent. If support depends entirely on the founder, promising to serve several franchisees may exceed the business’s actual capacity.

Introduce a standard request form covering the problem, when it first appeared and what has already been tried to resolve it. After each intervention, record the recommendation, the person responsible for implementing it and the follow-up date. This makes support traceable rather than allowing it to get lost among messages and calls.

Define costs and review service quality

State explicitly which services are included in the agreed recurring fee and which additional services require prior approval. The latter might include an extra visit requested by the franchisee or assistance outside the usual scope. Do not assume, however, that every additional intervention can be billed without a clear contractual basis.

Also specify who pays for travel, accommodation and external specialists, and how cost estimates are approved before work begins. If the franchisor uses a service provider, make clear who oversees its work and who remains responsible for fulfilling the agreed obligation to the franchisee.

Review the support log regularly: which requests recur? Are they genuinely resolved, or do they keep returning? Does a procedure need a clearer explanation? Use the findings to improve the service, not simply to count responses.

The practical takeaway: Before awarding your first franchise, prepare a realistic support schedule, test your team’s ability to deliver it, and align it with the agreement and fees. Good support is not an open-ended promise, but a defined commitment that both parties know how to use and monitor.