franchise.co.nz – PUTTING PEOPLE IN BUSINESS
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for expiring qualifications. Meanwhile, the franchise support team gained
complete visibility across the entire franchise network for compliance
tracking and consolidated reporting.
All existing forms, guides, and driver manuals were transformed into
interactive content with rich media, scenario-based assessments, and special
attention to challenging concepts like logbook completion. The result? A
standardised training experience ensuring every driver across Driving Miss
Daisy receives identical high-quality preparation.
Quantified success
The numbers tell a compelling story. After initial investment in setup and
customisation, Driving Miss Daisy achieved approximately 394% ROI
in the first year. In subsequent years, ongoing ROI is projected at 633-
788% annually – calculated purely from time savings through streamlined
processes and automated workflows.
The qualitative impact has been equally dramatic. “It has allowed
us to centralise and automate the driver administration process,” Andrew
explains. “We’ve been able to free up time for franchisees to focus on
the business, to focus on the drivers and, most importantly, to focus on
their clients.”
Franchisee and driver response
Franchisee feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with comments
highlighting operational efficiency, improved tracking, and enhanced quality
control. One franchisee summarised it perfectly: “Takes away a lot of admin
from me… and gives drivers ownership over their training. Mainly takes away
the stress of remembering stuff!”
Driver engagement across the network sits at an impressive 92%, with
feedback praising the straightforward, well-organised modules. “Well set out
online training modules. Simple to follow and finish the set tasks. Enjoyable
and informative,” wrote one driver.
The strategic imperative
For Andrew, this transformation represents more than operational
improvement – it’s about competitive positioning. “I want people to look at
Driving Miss Daisy as a great franchise to buy into because of the fact that
we’re leading the field,” he says.
And Driving Miss Daisy’s founder Melanie Harper sums up the sentiment in
the franchise, “I LOVE what you’re doing. I absolutely LOVE the apps and the
impact on our business!”
For franchisors grappling with manual onboarding processes,
Driving Miss Daisy’s
journey with The Induction
App offers a clear
roadmap: the right digital
solution, implemented
strategically with strong
partnership support, can
deliver transformative
results measured in both
time saved and business
value created.
When Andrew Kirkpatrick took the helm as General Manager of Driving Miss
Daisy New Zealand in 2022, he saw both tremendous potential and clear
operational challenges. The beloved companion driving service had grown
from a single vehicle in Havelock North to 84 franchises nationwide, with over
300 vehicles and 450 drivers. But behind this success story lurked a manual
administrative burden that was holding the business back.
“When I looked strategically at some of the challenges and opportunities for
the way franchisees worked, and the way they worked with their employees,
it was obvious to me there was a digital solution to streamlining all of that and
making it more efficient,” Andrew explains.
Growing pains
Like many successful franchises, Driving Miss Daisy had built its reputation
on exceptional customer service – providing elderly clients, people with
disabilities, and dependent children with dignified, personalised transport
assistance. But the back-end systems hadn’t kept pace with the business’
rapid expansion across New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
The onboarding challenges were significant. New franchisees received 13
separate emails with text-heavy instructions and 11 different PDF forms to
complete, often in an inefficient order. In addition, outgoing franchisees were
partly responsible for training incoming franchisees, creating an information
degradation effect, with standards becoming diluted or distorted.
Driver onboarding presented equally daunting hurdles. Franchise support
staff spent countless hours chasing franchisees for copies of driver licences,
qualifications, and certifications. The manual system offered limited visibility
into whether drivers had completed proper training or provided required
documentation. With key partners like ACC demanding increasingly rigorous
compliance records, the reactive approach was becoming unsustainable.
“We regularly had to email and contact franchisees not once but numerous
times to get a response from them,” recalls a member of the leadership team.
For a business onboarding roughly 170 new drivers annually across 84
franchises, this represented an enormous drain on resources.
Finding the right solution
After evaluating several learning management systems without conviction,
the leadership team discovered The Induction App at the Franchise
Association of New Zealand conference in August 2024. What set this
platform apart was its combination of digitised onboarding, compliance
paperwork management, and streamlined training – all delivered through a
user-friendly app.
Equally important was the partnership approach. The Induction App, backed
by 30-year-old learning and development company Optimism and fronted
by founding director Sussan Ockwell, demonstrated deep understanding of
franchise-specific challenges.
The transformation
The Induction App platform customised specifically for Driving Miss
Daisy delivered comprehensive functionality across all stakeholders. New
franchisees now navigate a sequenced, visual journey with one online
form that populates multiple setup documents with e-signing capability.
Franchisees managing their teams benefit from automated workflows, real-
time progress reporting, and a central repository for all HR information.
Drivers experience a mobile-friendly app with rich interactive content, self-
paced learning through on-job tasks and quizzes, and automatic reminders
FROM
MANUAL
TO DIGITAL
Opportunity: Franchise Management
How the Induction App helped
Driving Miss Daisy transform
franchise onboarding
The Induction Company
www.inductionapp.co
Contact
Sussan Ockwell
Director
021 355 150
sussan@inductionapp.co
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