Published in October on the Conseil Québéquois de la Franchise (CQF) blog
To benchmark is to compare. Whether between companies, administrations, departments or offices, benchmarking enables us to evaluate the performance of organizations in relation to each other.
What's in it for us? Sharing knowledge. The aim of benchmarking is to improve the initial situation by drawing inspiration from the success of others. Within a banner, the method creates emulation and the sharing of best practices between franchisees, and also capitalizes on what the competition is doing.
Unlike marketing, benchmarking does not provide a static snapshot of the market. Instead, it enables us to observe winning processes on an ongoing basis and understand how they work. Benchmarking is based on the notion of comparability. It makes the figures talk to each other, rather than being satisfied with an isolated result which in itself says little. The benchmarking approach is all the more relevant to the retail world, which is constantly changing - and so are its figures.
Benchmarking helps to decipher a company's activity, which is essential for any management system. It has proved its worth in meeting a variety of objectives: increasing customer satisfaction, staying competitive, facilitating change management, analyzing strengths and weaknesses... In short, benchmarking helps to define the strategic areas to be prioritized by the company.
In the world of franchising, the concept is ideally suited to driving a network forward.
To apply it properly, you first need to define a benchmark that corresponds to a precise description of the network and the relevant analysis criteria. While this is a complex exercise in a commercial network, it is also a highly structuring one.
If benchmarking is to live up to its promise, it's important to choose a methodology, or even a solution, that's capable of finesse. For example, a benchmarking tool must be able to compare, between two periods or entities, what has or has not changed within the network itself or with its competitors, in the same catchment area (increase in the surface area of a sales outlet, new concept or presence of a new banner, etc.).
To take France as an example, if there's one sector that has taken advantage of the benefits of benchmarking in franchising, it's DIY and hardware retailing. This sector is therefore a privileged field of application. Growth is on the up. While the public's enthusiasm for "Do It Yourself" has a lot to do with it, the innovative methods adopted by networks to make their mark also contribute. Benchmarking is one of them, and some leading brands have been practicing it for a decade, with solutions dedicated to franchising that have proved their worth.
In concrete terms, networks such as M. Bricolage or Tout Faire Matériaux compare their performance on criteria such as sales, number of customers or average shopping basket, thanks to AGT RETAIL.
For the past 18 years, AGT has been developing management and decision-making solutions to improve the performance of retail and service networks. Its AGT Retail solution stands out in particular for its Benchmarking module, which enables banners to benchmark themselves using simple, shared indicators.
Just like in France, franchising in Canada has everything to gain from benchmarking. After all, there's no reason to do without detailed analyses that help managers make the right decisions and improve the responsiveness and performance of a retail or service network.
Laurent Dubernais, AGT CEO
