When you walk into a McDonald’s, what are your expectations? You may be expecting a burger with finely chopped onions in it, a Coke, or maybe it’s even their chicken nuggets with your favorite dipping sauce. But, one thing is for certain, you expect a similar experience at every location. It doesn’t matter if you are in Istanbul or New York City, you expect a similar experience.

Franchising does that, it creates a consistent brand, experience, and product that locations all around the world provide for their customers time and time again. Consistency is important in any business; therefore, we all look to have consistency in our lives and business. In a lot of ways, consistency equals certainty. You want to be certain that you will get a certain level of product or service, you want to be certain that you get what you are expecting.

Inconsistency in the business marketplace (stock markets, political unrest and more) make people hold onto investment dollars, not spend them. So, as a business owner, consistency is key for converting sales. If your customers talk, are they all sharing a consistent message? Is your marketing saying the same consistent message as the rest of your brand? Are your products and service consistent with your core values?

Consistency is about confidently assuring your customers that you will deliver what you are saying you will and furthermore, that you will repeat that over and over again even under different circumstances and at various times. Are you doing that for your customers today? Are you being consistent with your staff today? How can you be more consistent in your daily life?

Give some serious thought to how you feel when something is not what you expect it to be based on previous experiences and how that would impact a brand, employee morale, customer reviews, etc. Consider the words of the former Governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee, “Trust is built with consistency.”