CMO Roundtable with Premium Service Brands' Chief Marketing Officer, Madeleine Zook 

"How does your marketing team work with other departments to elevate the guest experience?"

Madeleine Zook 

Chief Marketing Officer 

Premium Service Brands

Gone are the days when corporate teams toiled away in isolation, focusing solely on their individual tasks and departmental deliverables. Particularly within the realm of franchising, it’s imperative that every home office department understands each other’s contributions and actively operationalizes relationships. Cohesive teamwork is vital, but it’s the shared understanding of each other’s roles that truly drives success. When these elements harmonize, we excel in delivering value to our franchisees and customers.

Given marketing’s involvement across various departments and the diverse personalities and expectations at play, it’s crucial to establish an objective road map. This ensures the development and maintenance of operational relationships are clear and effective. Here’s an effective strategy to integrate your departments, fostering a unified environment and groundwork that paves the path for outstanding franchisee and guest experiences:

1) Identify the pillars

1. Operations, marketing, sales, development, etc.
2. Who are the decision-makers?
3. Where are the outliers, and where should they live?

2) Determine the crossover

1. Audit and access your current state.
2. Conceptualize what improved operational relationships look like.
3. Answer why you want this structure.
4. Build a business case.
5. Identify needs and bottlenecks.

3) Consider your culture

1. Does this new structure fall in line with your current culture?
2. If not, what types of cultural changes need to happen for this new structure to work? How do communications need to change for this to become achievable?
3. Analyze if you have the right personnel to implement and effect change.

4) Implementation strategy

1. Start small. Find projects where newly integrated processes can be tested.
2. Form small implementor teams with members from every department who can test new systems, guide new processes, and answer questions.
3. Remember that change doesn’t happen overnight. Don’t stress your system or people as it will have a countering effect.

5) Accountability mapping

1. Create an easily accessible accountability map to help your company visualize where responsibility and resources are housed.
2. Develop a grievance system to handle issues as they arise to protect your newly developing culture of synergy.
3. Develop a communications strategy that includes the franchisor and franchisee networks.

After elevating the operational efficiency of your internal teams to seamlessly collaborate, prioritize nurturing these relationships. Allocate resources and establish a standardized communication protocol, ensuring that team interactions remain aligned with the overarching company goals rather than being confined to individual departments. Don’t forget to celebrate successes, request feedback, and dedicate collectively to continued improvement.

This systematic approach can then be replicated and adapted for your franchisees. Through coaching, based on guidance and experiential learning, you can guide franchisees on how to do this within their locations. Ultimately, this collective effort ensures a harmonized guest experience from initial brand exposure to ongoing service and experience excellence.