Franchising executives need to be careful to hand terminated and disgruntled franchisees with special care because a franchisee who feels that they have been wronged or decides to act on revenge can cause a franchise system a whole lot of problems. Often they will start calling up State and Federal Regulatory Bodies and complaining about the company. Harassing current franchisees and bad mouthing the company in the industry are also extremely common.

Why does this occur? Well, I have given this some thought over the years and it appears to be an innate characteristics of mankind actually that people who are disrespected often seek revenge. This of course can be completely unfortunate for a brand name although allowing a non-performing, under capitalized or defaulting franchisee can also hurt the brand name. The better move is to help the franchisee come into compliance any way you can. Nevertheless, be ready for the rogue franchisee who goes postal.

They will say things like I want to teach them a lesson when speaking of the franchising company or My biggest fear is that I won't be able to stop them before they hurt any one else. They make it a moral mission and crusade and refuse to take fault for any of it somehow convincing themselves that they have a right to misrepresent the situation, slander the franchisor and modify the truth of events. Franchisors must protect their brand name from these people and be careful to lay all the facts out for the State and Federal Regulators when they file complaints. Franchisors are always considered guilty until they prove themselves innocent even though it is a proven fact that 85% of all complaints in franchising to government agencies are falsehoods, misrepresentations of fact or out right fraudulent. That is the true percentage and franchisors need to consider this fall-out from terminated franchisees. Think on this in 2006.