Key takeaways
- Check five leaks at every location before you add spend: missed calls, profile gaps, slow web replies, no review routine and lapsed customers.
- The five moves, in order: answer every lead, fix every profile, ask every customer for a review, win back lapsed customers, then add local paid media.
- Plan the year backward from each opening date and from the brand's annual planning deadline.
- Budget from the local spend your agreement requires, then move money toward the lowest cost per new customer.
To get more customers for a multi-location franchise, fix the leaks at each location before you add spend: unanswered calls, thin Google profiles, slow replies to web leads and lapsed customers nobody contacts. Then add local spend where the ad fund leaves gaps, with a date to judge each move and a number per location to judge it by.
Fix leaks before adding spend
Fix the leaks first, because new spend poured into a location that misses calls or has a weak profile buys the same losses at a higher volume. Each check below takes less than a week, and each one is run per location, because the leaks differ.
| Leak | How to check it this week | What a bad result looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Missed calls | Pull a week of call logs for each location's numbers | Calls ringing out at the same hours every day |
| Profile gaps | Compare each location's Google profile with the strongest competitor near it | Fewer photos, missing services, wrong holiday hours |
| Slow web replies | Submit a test form on each location page and time the reply | Hours, or a reply from the wrong location |
| No review routine | Count new reviews per location over the last three months | One location gathers reviews and the others stall |
| Lapsed customers | Count customers past their normal return interval | A long list that nobody has contacted |
Where franchisees and multi-location brands lose customers
- Found Local SEO, Google profile, AI search Where it leaks: Not showing where they look
- Chosen Reviews, photos and the website Where it leaks: Weak proof or a slow site
- Contacted Calls, forms, booking and ads Where it leaks: Missed calls and long forms
- Answered CRM follow-up and missed-call text-back Where it leaks: Slow or no follow-up
- Booked new customer Then reminders, reviews and repeat customers
The five-move plan
- Answer every call and lead at every location. Set up missed-call text-back and routed lead replies first, because every later move sends more people to the phone and the forms. Judge it by: missed calls and first-reply time per location, a few weeks after launch. The missed-call text-back guide covers the setup.
- Complete each location's Google profile. Keep the same primary category across locations, list the services each location really offers, add current photos and correct hours. Each profile competes on its own relevance, distance and prominence (Google's ranking factors), so the brand's strongest location cannot cover for its weakest. Judge it by: calls, direction requests and website clicks from each profile over the following months.
- Start a review routine at every location. Ask every customer after the visit, with a direct link to that location's profile, and never offer a reward or ask only the satisfied ones (Google's review policy). Judge it by: new reviews per location per month.
- Win back lapsed customers. Send a short, personal message from the location they used, in small waves the front desk can handle. Judge it by: bookings from the campaign within a month of each wave.
- Add local paid media where the ad fund leaves gaps. Put paid search and Meta budget behind the location falling behind or the one about to open, aimed at its territory. Judge it by: cost per new customer at that location, compared with the others.
The order matters. Paid media goes last because it multiplies whatever the first four moves have fixed, or failed to fix.
Planning around new-location launches and annual planning cycles
Plan the year backward from two kinds of dates: each new location's opening day and the brand's annual planning deadline, when budgets and the promotion calendar get set.
For a new location, the five moves happen in a compressed order before and just after opening. The phone and lead routing are ready before the number is published. The location page and interest list go live early. Google verification often asks for proof such as signage and the workspace (verification), so book it for when the sign is up, not the week the doors open. The review routine starts with the first customer, because a new location's profile starts with nothing.
For the planning cycle, bring per-location numbers to the meeting: new customers, cost per new customer and repeat rate for each location. That turns next year's local budget from a flat split into a decision about which locations need help and which have earned more.
Budgeting
Budget from the local spend your agreement requires, then add to it only where a location's cost per new customer says it pays. The minimum is a floor, not a plan.
Here is how that can look for a hypothetical owner of four locations whose agreement sets a required local spend per location:
| Location | Where it stands | How its budget is set |
|---|---|---|
| A, the oldest | Strong profile, steady reviews, schedule mostly full | The required minimum, spent on the channel with its lowest cost per new customer |
| B, established | On plan | The minimum, plus a reactivation wave before its usual slow month |
| C, behind plan | Leak checks done, calls now answered | The minimum plus a three-month boost in paid search, reviewed at each month's end |
| D, opening in spring | No profile history yet | A launch budget that starts weeks before opening and tapers after the first quarter |
Nothing here moves until the leak checks are done at that location. Revisit the split at each planning cycle and each opening, and keep a record of what each location's spend produced, because that record is what you bring to the franchisor when the required spend is reviewed.
How VETS Growth Marketing helps
We run the leak checks at every location, then put the five moves on a calendar with an owner and a date for each. The accounts and tracking we set up are registered to your company, inside what your agreement allows. Each move is reported against the number it was meant to change, at every location, so you can see which ones worked before the next planning cycle. Book a growth consultation and leave with your five moves, ranked for your locations. For the wider picture of how customers choose a location, see the franchise industry overview.
Sources
- Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Verify your business on Google, Google Business Profile Help
- Prohibited & restricted content (Maps user-generated content policy), Google Maps Help