How To Build a Tech Stack That Can Scale With My Franchise

Scaling franchises with tech is no small feat, but the right tech stack can turn those growing pains into growing gains. Whether you're just starting out or already managing multiple locations, utilizing franchise-focused technology can help you grow your business sustainably. Working with a franchise marketing agency helps keep your customers happy, franchisees satisfied, and bring in new locations. 

Need to build a tech stack that grows with you? 

Here’s how our franchise marketing geniuses get the job done with Digital Authority Partners:

How Does Technology Affect Franchising?

Technology helps franchises run smoothly by automating tasks, improving communication, and making engaging with customers across multiple locations easier. It allows franchise owners to track inventory, analyze sales, and make better decisions without getting bogged down by manual work. With the right tech tools, franchises can ensure each new location works as well as the first. 

What Is a Franchise Tech Stack?

A franchise tech stack is a set of digital tools and software that support the day-to-day running of your business. These tools work together to manage everything from marketing and sales to staff training and customer service. 

The right franchise tech stack is more than a one-size-fits-all solution; it’s based on your specific industry, biggest roadblocks, and current digital infrastructure. Only 16% of companies scale successfully. While rolling out the best tech stack is just one factor that separates making the Forbes Global 2000 list and failure to thrive, it’s a vital one. 

Why Updating Your Tech Matters

Updating your tech is essential; technology is always evolving, and sticking with outdated methods can leave you vulnerable to competitors, outside security threats, and more.

Keeping your tech updated ensures your franchise stays competitive, works smoothly, and scales effectively. Newer tools often come with useful features like cloud access, real-time updates, and enhanced security, improving efficiency and driving better results as your business grows.

How To Scale a Franchise Business: How To Pick Your Tech

Look at Your Growth Stage

Assess where your franchise stands and where you want it to go. Are you in the start-up phase, or are you looking to scale in the growth phase? Maybe you’re in your maturity era — looking to expand worldwide? The tech you choose will vary depending on your franchise’s growth stage.

• Early-stage franchises need to get operations running smoothly. A Point of Sale (POS) system, IT security and management, and HR functionality are vital. Marketing is critical at this stage as well, including reputation management (social listening platforms) and local SEO work (Google Business Profile, Semrush, and Ahrefs).
• Maturity and expansion-phase franchises require scalable tools that can handle larger volumes of operations, data, and locations. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems, vendor management platforms, and POS-to-HQ reporting systems (and more) are often part of the equation. 

Find out what your pain points are — what challenges are you facing? Is it inventory management? Lack of real-time data? Identifying these pain points helps you choose the right tech solutions.

• Define your objectives: What are you looking to improve: customer experience, automate operations, or expand to new markets? Setting clear objectives will guide your tech decisions and help you focus on what matters most.

• Set a long-term plan: Consider where your business will be in five to ten years. This helps you pick solutions that can grow with you, preventing you from outgrowing your tech too soon.

How To Build a Tech Stack That Grows With Your Franchise: 8 Steps 

Now that we know the why of scaling franchises, let’s look at the how:

1. Keep Marketing Top-of-Mind

Tools like Mailchimp (now owned by Intuit) or HubSpot can help you automate and implement marketing campaigns. Automating marketing is essential, but things should never run on autopilot—a marketing agency, especially one that is a HubSpot Agency Partner. When you outsource this area of your franchise strategy, you free up your team to focus on more strategic tasks.

You can also utilize data-driven marketing platforms like Ahrefs to track SEO metrics and content performance. On the PPC side, several options are available, including Google Ads, Meta Ads, and Google Suite, all of which you can use to run localized and scalable campaigns across your franchise network.

With tools like Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, you gain a deeper understanding of how visitors engage with your site, uncovering drop-off points, high-performing pages, and opportunities for optimization across every location.

2. Look Into Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A CRM system is essential for gaining a deeper understanding of your customers. It tracks interactions, manages loyalty programs, and helps deliver a personalized experience at scale. Its primary role is to improve customer service by creating a centralized database for tracking interactions, loyalty programs, and customer preferences.

CRM tools, such as Salesforce, provide a comprehensive view of your clients and help identify potential gaps in your relationships. Additionally, there is an AI integration that enables you to personalize the customer experience.  HubSpot is another CRM tool that offers enterprise-level CRM capabilities, allowing you to stack your tech. 

Example email marketing for franchises:

A CRM can help you identify loyal customers and automatically send them personalized offers, such as discounts on their favorite products. This increases customer satisfaction and loyalty, driving repeat business. 

Ensure compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), including the right to opt out of email and data collection policies, as well as the CAN-SPAM Act, which regulates email subject line policies, location disclosures, and ad identification. Lawsuits for violating these state and federal laws can be costly and severe.

CRMs are particularly valuable if you’re aiming for hyper-localized PPC success. They enable you to run more targeted ads and optimize campaigns for specific regions, enhancing your local marketing strategy.

3. Consider Franchise Management Software

Franchise management software is essential for scaling franchises with tech by supporting a booming franchise market of nearly 800,000 US stores. 

Franchises tend to scale rapidly, and each new node needs the same setup, support, and reporting structure as the others in the network. This is where franchise management software comes in. It provides technological support across the network, ensuring seamless brand operations. Users have access to: 

• Online documents and forms: Consistent messaging across the brand is crucial, and one key area to focus on is documentation, including application forms, delivery notes, and indemnity forms. 
• E-learning portals: Online learning ensures that all staff have access to critical educational materials. These portals also store data, which allows staff and their management to identify possible education gaps in branches or for individuals. 
• Reporting and analytics: Franchises can collect important sales figures and other financial data to support operations and create financial reports and forecasts. 
• Communication platforms: Brand messaging, important news within the franchise, and contact between the head office and each node are simplified. 

4. Plan for Reputation Management

Your franchise’s reputation matters and can significantly impact whether you establish a solid customer foundation. Users often head online to check reviews about a business before making a purchase decision. It’s also worth noting that 88% of consumers expect businesses to provide feedback on reviews. 

You must also handle negative reviews. Only some bad views impact user intent. A massive 33.1% of consumers say that they will support a company again if their complaint is resolved. 

Franchise reputation management ensures a bird's-eye view of the brand's customer sentiment. It uses the following information to improve service delivery and build trust with consumers: 

• Online Reviews: An aggregation of reviews across different platforms. These include search engines, travel websites, and review sites. 
• Brand Messaging: Location-specific audits to ensure that each franchise unit maintains the franchise brand image through its promotional materials, store image, and staff appearance, including corporate attire. 
• Social Media: Businesses that ignore social media will miss out on many potential customers. Franchises can monitor their social media presence to better understand how a large portion of the market responds to the brand. This includes ratings and consumer interactions with the brand across various platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and X. 
• Customer Service Metrics: An effective way to measure customer satisfaction with a brand is through customer surveys. This can be done online through the website, newsletters, or on-site with the help of customer service kiosks that route data to central dashboards. 

5. Integrate and Automate When Possible

Technology and automation already play a significant role in how businesses manage daily functions. 95% of small businesses use at least one technology platform, and one in four firms have adopted AI. The results? Growth in sales, employment, and profit. 

Tools for payroll, scheduling, and inventory management reduce repetitive work, while customer communication workflows — such as automatic follow-ups or satisfaction surveys — streamline interactions. The goal is to remove friction from business processes while delivering exceptional, personalized service. 

Tools like Google Business Profile and Yext help franchises maintain consistent, accurate business information across directories and search engines. This streamlines your local marketing efforts with less manual input. 

You can use integrated financial software to automate royalty calculations and monitor store-level profit and loss statements (P&Ls). It can include updates to meet compliance standards and assist with fraud prevention. FlowForma and Stampli offer these services at an enterprise level, while Tipalti and Kissflow are geared towards small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

Recruitment automation tools and applicant tracking systems (ATS) ensure a more efficient recruitment process. These tools screen resumes, automate job postings, and reduce time to fill. 

Inventory Management Software Tip: Select software that integrates with your POS and reporting tools to provide real-time data, reducing the risk of stockouts or overstocking. It enhances vendor management relations, ensuring that you receive your shipments on time and that your industry partners are paid promptly.

6. Scale Data and Reporting Systems for Multiple Locations

Franchises need to manage data across multiple locations, which can be challenging. Cloud-based reporting tools centralize data from various franchise locations, offering real-time insights to refine an overall franchise experience while still supporting each franchise unit individually.  

These tools should handle large amounts of data and provide key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress and optimize your strategy. For franchises, it’s all about maintaining a standard information format across the board to ease operations and reporting. And this is how: 

• A Cloud-Based POS System: This is one of the primary tools for scaling franchises with tech. A cloud-based POS system streamlines sales tracking, ensures consistent pricing, and facilitates effective inventory control across multiple locations. This also includes the use of POS-to-HQ reporting systems, which provide a more effective way to monitor and control various outlets. 
• Automated Reporting: Dynamic reporting provides franchises with a streamlined solution for managing data across their entire portfolio. For marketing, there is software such as Swydo, while Kohezion and Reportei offer insights into financial data. 

The use of AI is also gaining traction, and franchises are starting to recognise the value add. It streamlines reporting and data collection, can integrate different platforms, and provides instant access to up-to-date information that would typically take weeks or months to prepare, including legacy data. 

AI takes over low-value, high-volume tasks, freeing resources that can be better utilized for high-value assets and operations. Areas where AI makes an impact for franchises are: 

• Customer Service: Utilizing chatbots and self-service kiosks frees up the workforce, enabling businesses to scale more efficiently. 
• Marketing: AI tools assist with lead generation and qualification, which can be a tedious process for marketing teams 
• Operations: Inventory management and resource allocation are labor-intensive and prone to errors. 

These data systems enable you to make quicker, data-driven decisions, thereby improving your strategy and overall performance. To dive deeper into how data can transform your marketing efforts, check out the guide to data-driven marketing for expert insights and strategies. 

7. Constantly Monitor Security and Compliance

As you continue scaling your franchise with tech, maintaining security and compliance becomes even more critical. Invest in systems that ensure your data is protected and your franchise adheres to all relevant legal requirements. Regularly updating software and conducting security audits are essential to safeguard your business and secure customer trust.

Best practices for security and compliance:

• Use encryption to protect sensitive customer data.
• Set employee access controls to restrict access to sensitive data.
• Conduct regular software updates to patch vulnerabilities.
• Perform periodic security audits to identify any weaknesses.

Scale Your Franchise Effectively With Digital Authority Partners

Rapid expansion without a solid strategy can lead to challenges when scaling a franchise. That’s where tech stacks come in. Select tools that align with your business objectives to streamline operations and boost customer engagement. Start by selecting the right tech solutions to fit your growth plans. 

Contact us to continue scaling your franchises with tech. Let’s make your franchise future-ready together.