Weed Man Named Fourth In Franchisee Satisfaction

"When you see a ranking like this, it’s nice because it verifies your judgment, number one," said Phil Fogarty, subfranchise partner for the Weed Man group in Ohio, western Pennsylvania and western New York. "And number two, it really shows the dedication that the organization has to providing the franchises with a profitable model and ongoing support of their efforts."

SUCCESS ranked franchise companies last fall based on the franchisors’ vantage point in its Franchise Gold 200 Ranking. The magazine has now re-ranked these franchises based on the franchisees’ perspective. In addition to Weed Man, the lawn care industry was also represented with three other companies in the array of ranked franchise companies - Scotts Lawn Service, NaturaLawn Of America and Lawn Doctor.

In the initial Franchise Gold 200 Ranking, companies were ranked on financial performance; corporate management, growth and stability; franchisor/franchisee relationship; and opportunities for growth. The initial ranking involved a New York City research firm interviewing more than 2,500 franchisors and related professionals. The results were then weeded down to the top 200.

With the Franchisee Satisfaction Ranking, franchisee owners from the top 200 franchises were chosen at random to provide their overall satisfaction and satisfaction in the areas of finances, training and field support. SUCCESS based the responses on a scale of 1 to 5 (dissatisfied to most satisfied), awarding points for each answer. Companies received a star for each increment of 20 points toward a perfect score of 100 in each category. While many companies received perfect point scores, actual percentages from the surveys were used to determine rankings - some of which were almost too close to call, according to SUCCESS. Overall satisfaction was weighted at 40 percent in the rankings, while the other three areas accounted for 20 percent each of the total score.

"That survey is especially gratifying because you’re ranked based on your franchises’ feeling about you, not from someone from Wall Street or some business analyst," explained Fogarty. "This is how our franchises feel about us, and there’s no better report card than that."

To see how all four of the lawn care companies ranked in the top 200 Franchisee Satisfaction Ranking see the results below:

The author is Internet Editor of Lawn & Landscape Online.