Dickey’s Barbecue Pit Boosts Efficiencies with Franchise Management System

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is utilizing FranConnect’s  franchise management system to improve its processes and organizational efficiencies. 

The barbecue chain was looking to improve its development process when Chad Cione, VP of real estate for Dickey’s Capital Group, learned more about FranConnect CRM tool at the 2017 IFA conference.

“The addition of FranConnect will be an integral part of our growth. Having a robust CRM system is the key to success in the franchising world. In addition to managing the ROI of our portals, FranConnect gives us the data to track our leads from start to finish. Making sure we ‘touch’ the lead within the first four hours really closes the ratio gap and FranConnect allows us to track all this information very easily,” said Cione. “Additionally, we have added four amazing development sales directors over the past few months to act on these leads and support our growth plans. Finally, the addition of FranConnect allows me the flexibility to focus on the real estate strategy for all of our future Dickey’s locations.”

According to Cione, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit’s decision to utilize FranConnect is already making a positive impact on the brand as it works to grow both domestically and internationally. The biggest factor making that difference is the software’s organizational capabilities.

“The organizational features are second to none,” Cione said. “Now that we have the data we need, we are starting to dive deep into reporting insights that help drive better decision making here at Dickey’s.”

Within the next five years, Dickey’s is aiming to cross the 1,000-unit count milestone. That includes the opening of its first international store this year, which will open the door to even more international expansion in the near future. And going forward, Cione says that FranConnect will be an important partner in Dickey’s long-term global growth plans.

He said, “FranConnect plays a major role in our global growth model. I don’t know what we would do without it.”

Dickey’s is one of 700 brands that relies on FranConnect throughout the franchise sales process. Currently there are 140,000 franchisees that manage their businesses throughout the entire franchise lifecycle on the platform.