“And that's our first priority in in Jim's group, our first priority is the welfare of our franchisees because the point of it is you want to look after customers, you've got to have great people, and you got to keep them. So, everything is designed back. Even customer service is designed to say how can I keep my people busy with great customer service to keep the work flowing in.”
Jim’s Top Five Tips For Running A Successful Business
1. Look after your own people
2. Be obsessive about customers and be close to customers
3. Think long term
4. Technology, take advantage of it.
5. Constant innovation
TIME STAMP SUMMARY
00:08 The man behind Jim’s Franchises
02:19 Customer service flowing into staff support
07:56 Going beyond one franchise, to the next
15:25 Why technology is the most important tool
Where to find Jim?
Website https://jims.net/who-is-jim/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejimpenman
Who is Jim Penman?
Jim Penman started a part-time gardening business while earning his PhD in history at Latrobe University. He launched a full-time mowing business in 1982 with a $24 investment.
He originally aimed only at taking on subcontractors, but his business grew, and he gradually began to specialise in the building up and selling of lawn mowing rounds. By 1989 he franchised his business, and since then Jim’s Mowing has become the largest franchise chain in Australian and the largest and best-known lawn mowing business in the world.
Jim’s Cleaning was launched in 1994, followed by more than 50 other divisions which now operate in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Jim’s Group now has over 3,800 Franchisees and a turnover of approximately $500 million. Jim says, “The key to success in franchising is an overriding concern for the welfare of franchisees, and constant improvement in customer service.” He is still actively involved in the running of the business, is directly accessible to all his Franchisees and to any client with a serious complaint.
He is funding a research program into the epigenetics of social behaviour, a continuation of his PhD work, which he believes could help in the treatment of mental illness and addictive disorders. His books ‘Biohistory’, Biohistory: decline of the West’, and ‘Every Customer a Fan’ are available on Amazon and from his web site www.biohistory.org