Day: February 16, 2023

Another great year has just come to a close, and we have plenty of plans for 2023! Before diving into 2023 with high hopes, we think it’s always a good idea to take a step back and reflect on the past year. Let’s take a look back at 2022. Our Year in Numbers The “all-in-one” collaborative platform—as we like to call it—dedicated to franchises, now includes more than 250 brands across 100 countries on 5 continents. That’s more than 300,000 daily users, with a total of 6 languages available on Cerca ex Franchise On Cloud. We’re proud of our partnerships and our clients, whom we’re fortunate to support in their quest for growth. According to an annual survey conducted as part of the renewal of our ISO 9001 certification, we achieved a customer satisfaction score of over 98 %.  The 2022 Franchise Development Report: A Great Way to Start the Year Last year also began with a focus on data, as we felt we lacked sufficient data on the franchise sector. Thanks to our years of experience, we were well-positioned to create the Franchise Development Report in partnership with EverFruit Digital. The webinar is still available, as is the survey. We continue to analyze consumer behavior in order to provide a service that is as tailored as possible to the needs of franchisees and franchisors, particularly when it comes to recruiting franchise candidates. Franchise Trade Shows and Forums Every year, two major events take place that bring together all the key players in the franchise sector. The first takes place in Paris: Franchise Expo is a true meeting place for entrepreneurs. For four days, the French and global franchise ecosystem gathers at Franchise Expo Paris. The second, the Franchise Forum in October in Lyon, brings together more than 160 brands seeking to accelerate their growth by recruiting new franchisees. This event is primarily aimed at franchisors, organized retail brands, and experts in the franchise sector. We’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to meet with franchisors and our clients there and to showcase our solution to them. A mobile app for franchisors and franchisees A new version of our mobile app has been available since this year. It includes all the day-to-day features needed to communicate within the network. Available on Android and iPhone, it puts your network right at your fingertips. This includes all the latest news with comments and likes, the interactive directory, messaging, workgroups, and notifications—and even audits and visit reports starting this summer! Discover Cerca: Local digital marketing integrated into management software The year continues, and so do our investments—always with the goal of supporting our clients in their local marketing efforts, as well as in communication within the franchise network itself. A look back at the various features implemented over the past year: Focus on local marketing with the Cerca x Mobilosoft partnership Mobilosoft complements Cerca’s service offering in local digital marketing. It helps drive web-to-store traffic and addresses the finding that nearly 80% of consumers who conducted a local search visited a store within an 8-km radius (HubSpot Marketing Statistics 2021). It strengthens the training offering and provides a collaborative digital marketing platform for franchise networks and their franchisees to better organize and manage their online reputation. Communication within the franchise network The day-to-day operations of the network and its coordinators have been simplified thanks to our new in-network communication features. News items can now be sorted by location, and visit reports can be duplicated from an existing report without losing comments or follow-up information. Additionally, when setting up action plans within a visit report, a new tab allows you to check if an action plan is already in progress, thereby preventing duplicates. Regarding mapping, you can now merge catchment areas for a specific location. Location markers can also be hidden. These new features streamline the platform’s use and make network coordinators’ work easier. Events are changing! Also new this year: Zoom is now available for video conferences, as is Google Meet. In addition to Teams and GoToMeeting, you can now host video conferences using the popular Zoom and Google Meet platforms via Cerca. Furthermore, starting this year, a single email is all it takes—instead of two as before. The first email already contains the link for the video conference and will also be available in the event listing on your calendar. With just one click, you can join the video call! A Look Back at the Major Consumer Trends of 2022 Consumers will search online before potentially making a purchase locally, as we mentioned in this article: searches for “open now nearby” have surged by more than 400% year-over-year worldwide. Shopping is becoming increasingly omnichannel: social media, the web, apps, newsletters, and more. But the reality is that consumers are primarily looking for added value. They scrutinize offers and promotions, while also paying close attention to a company’s values to ensure they align with their own. Last but not least, on social media, micro-influencers are on the rise, and short videos with high added value are driving more and more conversions. That said, of all the trends, one remains constant: the “position zero” in local SEO remains the most effective lever.  To track consumer trends and drive local marketing, we’ve also launched a partnership with DeepReach. Catchment areas are predefined, allowing us to activate a set of local digital ad campaigns tailored to the franchisee’s needs. In summary, we’re very pleased with the year that[…]