From Fan to Franchisee: H?agen-Dazs Uses Facebook for Recruitment

Christie Wells, customer experience and communications manager for H?agen-Dazs Shops, says the brand is using Facebook for its recruitment efforts because of the size of audience it believes it can reach there.

"We knew that there are [H?agen-Dazs] fans out there, and we wanted to find a way to capture them," Wells says. "We also wanted to use it as a development tool to increase awareness of our franchise opportunities, and at the same time provide a fun way for fans of the brand to learn about H?agen-Dazs Shops and franchising in general."

The H?agen-Dazs Facebook page, which is unaffiliated with H?agen-Dazs Shops, has more than 560,000 fans.

Ice Cream Boss, the franchisee recruitment tool that H?agen-Dazs Shops rolled out, was given its own Facebook page. Fans of the page, which is open to everybody, interact with the game, which offers situations that occur in a Shop and asks the player how they would respond.

"There'll be a question about anything from employee relations to what the franchisee fee is," Wells says. "The fan has the opportunity to either answer the question or to see what other people have answered, and then to vote, or agree or disagree, on what someone else has said."

Franchising representatives from H?agen-Dazs Shops then offer feedback on the players' answers. Wells says players can inquire about the franchising process at any time, but that company representatives will also keep their eyes peeled for strong potential suitors.

"If there's somebody that's been playing the game for a couple weeks and they really have the right-on answers, those are the people that we're going to reach out to with an e-mail and say, 'Hey, you really seem to enjoy the game, are you interested in learning some more?'" Wells says. "We'll take it out of the virtual world, into the real world."

Wells says the interactivity that Facebook offers is one of the best advantages to a franchisee recruitment tool on the social media hub.

"We're definitely always looking for new ways to find good leads and find where the right leads are for us," she says.