This document provides a checklist of 19 items for franchisors to consider when auditing their franchise audit process. Some key points include ensuring questions are not redundant, address single issues, use appropriate question types, and are specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound. It also recommends structuring questionnaires to flow with the audit process, clearly documenting evaluation criteria, tagging questions by relevant processes, and calibrating auditors. The goal is to have an effective audit process that drives improvement rather than being perceived as "busywork".

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AUDITING YOUR
FRANCHISE
AUDIT CHECKLIST
A Resource for Leadership

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Leadership author John Maxwell said:
“Good leaders ask great questions that inspire
others to dream more, think more, learn more,
and become more”
When it comes to your franchise audit, are
you asking the right questions? After over
a decade in the franchising community and
working with hundreds of organizations and
thousands of units, we came up with the
F R A N C H I S E B L A S T
following questions to make sure that your
audit is the best that it can be – or to “audit
your audit.” Outlined below, you can see
sample items that we check, and what they all
mean. Examples are given in many cases to
enhance clarity.
The elements below shouldn’t be perceived as
a complete list of potential issues but rather
a simple checklist for a quick review of the
health of your franchise field auditing process.
AUDIT YOUR AUDIT CHECKLIST
#1 Audit contains superfluous questions.
Having extra questions means unnecessary work for the auditor. In addition to
obvious extra questions, you’ll find more subtle questions that are simply redundant.
Example: “Audit completed by” field then where the auditor manually enters their name
when that information is automatically added by your software tool.
#2 Some questions address multiple concerns.
A question that addresses multiple concerns makes it difficult for the franchisee
to understand what needs fixing. Example: “Walls and floors are clean and don’t
feature any apparent damage and the marketing posters on the wall are recent and
approved.” When faced with a failure on this question, the franchisee would not be
sure what to fix.

3. 3F R A N C H I S E B L A S T
Audit Your Audit Checklist
#3 Inappropriate question type used.
Question type, such as multiple-choice, text-based or yes/no should be carefully
considered when building an audit. Example: Using a yes/no question when
it comes to temperature meeting a standard instead of simply recording the
temperature value itself.
#4 Some questions are not Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and
Time-Bound (SMART).
The questionnaire designer should review the characteristics of each question to
ensure the audits are objective and impactful. If a question is vague or addresses
too many concerns, it’s unclear what is evaluated. If it’s not measurable, then the
audit becomes subjective. If it’s not actionable, then even if you find a problem
there’s nothing you can do to fix it. If it’s not relevant, it’s extra work that isn’t
impactful. Finally, questions which aren’t time-bound are unclear as to what time
period is being evaluated. Example: Using terms such as “a reasonable amount
of time” instead of simply recording how quickly the franchisee should perform the
service in terms of seconds or minutes.
#5 Poor spelling or grammar.
Spelling and grammar errors can cause auditors and franchisees to lose faith in
the system.
#6 The questionnaire is not structured to follow the flow of the auditor.
Matching the audit “flow”, starting outside the front door and ending with the
coaching session at the back can save time and enhance the process.

4. 4F R A N C H I S E B L A S T
Audit Your Audit Checklist
#7 Documentation needs to be added to clarify the evaluation criteria for
the question.
A question that refers back to standards should include a reference to the
franchise manual or online standards guide. Example: “Scheduling appropriate to
sales volume” – the guideline outlining how many employees a franchisee needs for a
given sales volume should be posted.
#8 Need to tag questions with the associated back-end process.
Audit scores are often represented by top-level section scores such as “Back of
house: 80%” or “Cleanliness: 75%”. This is a good way to slice the information,
but additional facets can be reviewed. It is a best practice to tag specific
questions with the relevant process that drives that standard. When a set of
standards fail and they’re all associated to the same back-end process, you can
coach for the root cause rather than each standard. Example: A standard such
as “Smiling and welcoming guests” could be categorized as “Service” but a better way
would be to tag it as “Training: Going above what’s required & wowing the guest”.
#9 The audit length is inadequate.
The audit should only be as long, or as short as it needs to be in order to achieve
its goals. Most long-form format audits in FranchiseBlast contain 200 to 400
questions.
When shorter (ex: 50 questions), it could be perceived that the coach is
performing a cursory visit and not going into detail. It’s normal (and desirable) to
have short-form audits, but if your longest one is only 100 questions, you likely
haven’t formalized your visit/coaching process.
When longer (ex: 600 questions), it could be perceived that the coach performing
busywork and spending too much time filling out forms rather than coaching
franchisees. If you drill down into the data, you’ll normally notice a large cross-
section of the audit never fails. These questions are candidates to be removed.

5. 5F R A N C H I S E B L A S T
Audit Your Audit Checklist
#11 Utilize question severity where applicable.
There are some audit questions which are so core to the brand that they should
have a “critical” marking – such as using unapproved suppliers. If questions are
marked with severity, additional business rules such as “the audit should fail if
any critical questions fail” can be easily put into place instead of a convoluted
question weighting system.
#10 Average scores are too high to drive change.
While at first it may seem like a good thing to have strong audit scores that are
too high will not drive change in the organization. An average score of over 90%
will lead franchisees to lose motivation in terms of corrective actions as they see
themselves as performing at an A+, where the franchisor’s view may be different.
Solutions to this issue are complex but include:
• Calibrating coaches to be stricter
• Changing the standards to be stricter
• Shortening the audits by removing questions which always succeed
• Changing weights of certain questions/sections/failures.
• Adding new questions aligned with the system weaknesses you know are
present but aren’t fully reflected
#11 Utilize question severity where applicable.
There are some audit questions which are so core to the brand that they should
have a “critical” marking – such as using unapproved suppliers. If questions are
marked with severity, additional business rules such as “the audit should fail if any
critical questions fail” can be easily put into place instead of a convoluted question
weighting system.

6. 6F R A N C H I S E B L A S T
Audit Your Audit Checklist
#12 Use tasks when appropriate to define the corrective action plan.
When a weakness is recognized, it is a best practice to use a corrective action
to get it followed-up on by the appropriate person. It’s typical to not start using
the task system immediately when adopting a platform such as FranchiseBlast
as it does require a bit of change management and expectation management
with the franchisees. Once established, however, leveraging tasks can increase
accountability. Having a backlog of tasks indicates a lack of process or of training –
it is a good idea to discuss expectations with the franchisees and coaches.
#13 Review processes and standards related to system-wide weaknesses.
When exploring system-wide weaknesses, sometimes there is a core process that
is consistently not being followed. To solve system-wide weaknesses it sometimes
makes sense to include new practices such as recurring self-assessments.
Example: A consistent failure on exterior cleanliness may require a system-wide training
or process reminder, perhaps complemented by daily self-assessments where pictures
are submitted.
#14 Be a coach, not a cop.
The franchise consultant role is evolving beyond simply being a “cop” who
maintains standards. It is also a “coach” who helps the franchisee achieve their
goals. The questionnaire should reflect this change. Example: Having a “coaching”
section in the audit is a fantastic first step towards creating at coaching culture.
#15 Use automatic KPI collection when possible to reduce the coach’s workload.
We sometimes see questionnaires which include various number questions which
need to be punched in by the coach. For example, what were last month’s sales, labor
costs, etc. Automating this collection outside of the coaches visit, via an integration
with the Point of Sale or other source system, can save the coach time plus enable
them to have time to research ahead of the visit and prepare a proper action plan
with the franchisee.

7. 7F R A N C H I S E B L A S T
Audit Your Audit Checklist
#16 Auditors are not well calibrated.
When reviewing average scores among auditors, you may notice dramatically
different scores. One root cause of this is an inconsistent understanding of what
the standards are for each auditor.
#17 Completed audits have not been approved and/or incomplete audits are
pending within the system.
Having a backlog of pending audits could mean that completed work is not being
used. Make sure to have an approval “rhythm” set up within the system and the
appropriate auditor manager is aware of your expectations. Alternately, some
questionnaires may benefit from being automatically approved.
#18 Not visiting all locations consistently
Having locations “fall through the cracks” could be detrimental to the brand on
many levels. Ensure that your visits are up to date as an important, but sometimes
forgotten, check. We’ve often seen this in contexts where a franchisor expects
each coach to visit each location quarterly but doesn’t effectively make the coaches
accountable to do so.
#19 Consider adding new questionnaires.
The average franchisor in FranchiseBlast has 6 different questionnaires – is the set
for your franchise complete? Sample questionnaires include:
• Quarterly or Annual Business Plan
• Weekly/monthly phone call business check-in
• New store opening checklist
• Food safety audit
• Daily store logs self-assessments (openings/closings)
• New marketing roll-out assessment
• New product readiness self-assessment

8. 8F R A N C H I S E B L A S T
Thank you for downloading our eBook. If you
found this valuable, you may enjoy our other
resources including:
• 357 Franchise Field Audit Questions
• 5 Boosts for Your Franchise Field Audit
• The Ultimate Guide to Franchise Scorecards
See: franchiseblast.com/resource-library
Are you ready to add these questions with picture
capability, and the ability to create follow-up
tasks? Contact us at info@franchiseblast.com!
Last Word