How SoBol's Expert Operations Team Provides Its Franchisees with Industry-Leading Support

In the ever-growing, health-focused fast-casual restaurant space, SoBol has carved out a promising niche for itself. Since its founding in 2014, the açaí bowl franchise concept has experienced steady growth as a result of thriving consumer demand, qualified franchise partners, streamlined operations and an expert corporate team.

From day one, SoBol has created a culture of open communication between customers, employees, management and franchisees with a goal of cultivating a clear system where everyone has a complete understanding of the processes and best practices. In order to achieve this goal and maintain the company’s culture, SoBol has built an impressive team of leadership professionals to ensure that franchisees are achieving their maximum potential.

“We have a larger corporate team than many of our competitors in order to help SoBol franchisees from the moment they sign the franchise agreement through Grand Opening and beyond,” said Brand President Paul Gucciardo. “That team provides a tremendous amount of support for franchisees, including help with initial sign-up, build-out, inventory, training, in-store assistance, marketing and professional consultation.”

Franchisee support system

Gucciardo joined the SoBol team in May 2017 as the brand president and director of operations. “Our operations are simple, focused and repeatable, largely due to the support of our corporate support,” he said. “Each of our four operations advisors bring their own specialties and expertise in order to provide the highest quality of service when getting stores up and operating.”

When it comes to onboarding prospective franchisees, the support starts with Discovery Day, in which the brand provides a broad view of the brand and “day in the life” of a franchise owner. After that, each franchisee spends four to six weeks with the operations team and the project management team working through the building and site-selection process. SoBol also has an online learning management software so prospects can take online courses. This rigorous onboarding program is not just about the delicious product, it is also about immersing each owner in the culture of SoBol.

According to Gucciardo, one operation advisor oversees franchisee support on everything technology-related, including the POS platform, back-end system and reporting infrastructure. After rolling out a brand-new POS-integrated online ordering system two months ago, SoBol is experiencing groundbreaking levels of success. With online ordering more popular than ever, the açaí bowl franchise is making sure to stay ahead of the curve.

“The online-ordering portion of SoBol has been in the works for many months,” said Gucciardo. “Franchisees and consumers alike have been asking for a streamlined, POS-integrated online ordering system at SoBol for a long time. In response to the massive popularity of third-party delivery aggregators, SoBol is taking the offering one step further, providing franchisees with a POS-integrated system to ensure that they are optimally positioned for success.”

Ongoing training and support

Another operations advisor acts as an in-house trainer, primarily working in the corporate stores to train new franchisees and managers in the system. Since multiple members of the corporate team have personally invested in locations of their own**, the SoBol leadership is experienced in the everyday workings of the franchise at the store level. This creates the opportunity for an inside look at the effectiveness of processes otherwise unattainable from elsewhere in the business.

The insight gained from this hands-on involvement helps the brand have better conversations with store owners and managers to arrive at mutually beneficial efficiencies, positively impacting franchisee relations and adding value to every area of the SoBol franchise system.

The support doesn’t stop after the store is opened. For established franchisees, one operations advisor is responsible for hitting the streets and visiting the stores, especially focusing on each location's staff and team members as opposed to management. Local site visits by operational advisors are leveraged to routinely help coach franchisees and staff in best practices and review operations and to offer suggestions.

Lastly, another advisor offers in-house support to field all franchisees' questions through an online ticketing system. SoBol store owners email questions and concerns, and an advisor manages each request in order to efficiently and accurately point franchisees in the right direction. In addition, SoBol franchisees submit profit and loss reports to corporate offices on a monthly basis, and the executive team reviews these to ensure that owners have all the tools and support they need to improve their profit margins on a local level.

When it comes to ongoing support, the SoBol team provides continuing education to teach franchisees about new processes and products. The SoBol team prioritizes new products and bowls to position franchisees for additional revenue streams and to keep up with consumer demand. The brand also hosts workshops at its corporate stores where existing franchisees can come in and work with vendors or other partners, in order to provide the tools they need to be successful.

“When an entrepreneur invests in SoBol, they are entering a partnership with us,” said Gucciardo. “Both parties have responsibilities, and as the franchisor, we know that if we hold up our end of the bargain, that gives the franchisee an opportunity to hold up their end. We would not be able to grow at the rate that we have if we didn’t have good people working hard on both sides of the operation and both sides supporting each other.”