Buying a Franchise in Malaysia: Check the Support Available After Opening

An appealing brand and good initial training do not guarantee that help will be available when your outlet starts running into problems. Before buying a franchise in Malaysia, check how support is actually delivered after opening. A healthy franchise relationship requires clear responsibilities: who provides help, when it is available, what it costs and what happens if a problem remains unresolved.

1. Distinguish support obligations from sales promises

Malaysia has specific legislation, the Franchise Act 1998, which has been amended, including through amendments in 2020. The Act applies to franchise sales in Malaysia within its defined scope. It also provides for assistance from franchisors to franchisees in operating their businesses, including matters such as training, marketing, and business or technical assistance.

However, this obligation to provide assistance does not mean that every request must be met immediately or free of charge. You need to check the implementation details in the agreement and related documents. Do not treat phrases such as “ongoing guidance” as a guarantee of monthly visits, weekend assistance or help restoring sales.

Under Section 15 of the Franchise Act 1998, the franchisor must provide the franchise agreement and disclosure documents at least 10 days before you sign the agreement. Use this review period to compare the sales representative’s promises with the written commitments.

Official registration guidance also lists operations and training manuals among the documents required for a registration application. However, the existence of manuals alone does not prove that the support team is adequately resourced. Ask how those manuals are backed up by assistance from staff when real problems arise.

2. Break down “full support” into specific tasks

Ask the franchisor to provide a list of the support available after opening. Each type of assistance should have a designated person or team, a channel for requesting help and clearly defined deliverables. If access to the full manuals is restricted before the contract is signed, ask for at least a summary of the scope of support that your lawyer can review.

Use the following questions to obtain answers you can assess:

• Operational visits: Are visits scheduled, or do they take place only on request? Does the franchisee receive a report setting out follow-up actions?
• Technical problems: Who carries out the initial diagnosis, and who coordinates technicians if repairs are needed?
• Outlet performance: Does support include analysing problems and developing an action plan, or simply sending sales reports?
• Replacement staff: Can new employees attend follow-up training, and how are training places booked?
• Urgent queries: Who can you contact when your usual support manager is on leave or unavailable?

Also distinguish advice from implementation. A franchisor may offer guidance on preparing staff rotas without providing replacement staff. The marketing team may suggest local activities, but the franchisee may have to carry them out.

Record this division of responsibilities so that you do not buy a franchise expecting the franchisor to take over the management of your outlet.

3. Test support capacity, response times and costs

Ask about the support team’s structure: its geographical coverage, the number of outlets each team member handles and the handover arrangements when staff change. The aim is not to find a single “ideal” ratio, but to understand whether the support promised is realistic given the resources available.

If the franchisor is willing to share them, review anonymised examples of visit reports or support request records. Check whether problems are logged, actions are assigned to named individuals and case closure is confirmed. A brochure referring to an “experienced team” does not answer these questions.

Next, discuss a specific scenario: your outlet cannot process orders during a busy period. Ask who receives the report, when an initial assessment takes place, what temporary measures are available and who coordinates the resolution.

Response time is not resolution time. An acknowledgement that a complaint has been received does not mean that operations have been restored. Ask for a clear distinction between the two, including situations where a resolution depends on an external supplier. Any time targets you negotiate are contractual commitments, not standard deadlines that you should assume are set by law.

Finally, separate assistance included in your regular fees from support that costs extra. Check charges for additional visits, travel, accommodation, retraining and out-of-hours assistance. Ask how costs are approved before work begins, rather than simply requesting a price list.

4. Make support commitments part of the agreement

Prepare a support schedule to review alongside the draft contract. For each type of assistance, specify its scope, frequency or the circumstances that trigger a request, service hours, contact channels, response targets, charges and escalation contact.

Ask your lawyer to ensure that the schedule has clear contractual status. Promises made in presentations or messages may be difficult to rely on if the final agreement states that only certain written terms bind the parties.

Also check the process when support is not provided: how notice must be given, who reviews the failure and what corrective steps have been agreed. Do not assume that you can unilaterally stop paying royalties because you are dissatisfied with the support; doing so could put you at risk of breaching the contract.

Practical conclusion: Before signing, make sure you can answer three questions: what assistance has been promised, who will provide it and who will pay. If the answer is still no more than “we are always here to help”, ask for written clarification first.