Standardising Operations Across Multiple Branches

The first branch works because the founder is there every day. The second works because its manager trained in the first. By the fifth branch, each one has its own way of ordering stock, handling refunds and closing the till, and head office can no longer compare them, let alone fix them.

This is a normal stage of growth, but it gets more expensive with every new site. Standardising branch operations is how you turn a collection of shops, clinics or offices into one business.

Why branches drift apart

Branches drift for understandable reasons. Each manager solves the problems in front of them, usually sensibly. A branch with a small stockroom orders more often. A branch with experienced staff skips checks that feel unnecessary. A branch in a busy area invents a faster way to handle peak hour.

Over time those local solutions harden into local procedures. Nobody wrote them down, and nobody at head office approved them. They work for that branch, until the manager leaves or a customer receives different treatment in two branches of the same brand and complains.

The cost shows up in less obvious places too. Reports are hard to compare because each branch records things differently. Training a new employee takes longer because they have to learn their branch’s version. Moving staff between branches becomes harder than it should be.

Decide what must be the same, and what can differ

A common mistake in standardisation is trying to make everything identical. That produces thick manuals that branches ignore, and it removes the local judgement that often makes a branch successful. The better approach is to be strict on a few things and relaxed on the rest.

Things that usually must be identical

• Anything involving money. Pricing, discounts, refunds, cash handling, till closing and banking. Variation here creates risk and makes fraud harder to spot.
• Anything a customer experiences as a promise. Return policy, warranty handling, appointment rules, service standards. Customers expect the brand to behave the same way everywhere.
• Anything regulated or safety-related. Food handling, medicine storage, health and safety checks, record-keeping that a regulator or auditor might inspect.
• How data is recorded. Product codes, transaction types, reasons for adjustments and returns. If branches record differently, head office cannot see the business clearly.

Things that can often vary

• Staff rotas and break patterns, within agreed labour rules, because footfall differs by location.
• Order frequency and quantities, within agreed stock policies, because storage and demand differ.
• Local marketing and community activity, within brand guidelines.
• Layout details that depend on the building.

Choosing the reference way of working

Once you know which processes to standardise, you need to decide what the standard is. The tempting shortcut is to take the best-performing branch and copy what it does. That can work, but it can also copy habits that only work because of that branch’s manager, location or customers.

Take a café and bakery chain with seven branches, five in Amman, one in Irbid and one in Aqaba. The operations manager wants one way of handling end-of-day waste. The busiest branch in west Amman has the lowest waste, so the first instinct is to roll out its method. On a closer look, the branch has low waste mostly because it sells out early. Its method, which relies on the manager’s daily judgement, would not travel well to a quieter branch. The reference method ends up combining that branch’s recording sheet with a simple production plan based on each branch’s own sales history.

A good way to build the reference is to map how three or four branches actually do the process, side by side. Look for where they differ, ask why, and keep the steps that serve the controls and outcomes you care about. Branch managers should be part of this; they know the reasons behind their local versions, and they will be the ones defending the standard to their teams.

Rolling out the standard

Writing a standard is the easy part. Getting it adopted in every branch is where the effort goes. A rollout that sticks generally follows this order.

1. Write each process on one or two pages. Steps, who does them, what records are kept and what to do when something goes wrong. Long manuals are not read in a branch on a busy day.
2. Pilot in two branches, one strong and one average. If the standard only works in the strong branch, it is not ready.
3. Adjust, then roll out in waves. Two or three branches at a time lets head office support each one properly and fix problems before they spread.
4. Align the system with the process. If the standard says refunds need a reason code, the till or the ERP (enterprise resource planning) system should require one. Systems that allow the old way quietly undo the standard.
5. Train the branch manager first. They will train and correct their own staff long after the head office team has left.

Keeping branches standard over time

Drift returns as soon as attention moves elsewhere. Two habits keep it under control. The first is regular comparison: the same few measures for every branch, reviewed monthly, such as waste, refunds, stock adjustments and complaints. A branch that is far from the others is usually doing something differently, for better or worse, and either way you want to know.

The second is a short, regular branch check, done by an area manager or a peer manager from another branch, against a simple list of the processes that must be identical. Keep it constructive. The aim is to find where the standard does not fit reality and to fix either the branch or the standard.

Growing without each branch becoming its own company

Done well, standardisation lets head office compare branches on the same terms, open new sites faster and move staff between branches without retraining them. It also makes each branch less dependent on its current manager, which matters when people move on.

Our Operations Transformation service helps organisations map how branches really operate, design the reference processes and standard operating procedures (SOPs), clarify ownership between head office and branches, and set up the performance tracking that keeps everyone aligned. The approach follows the KEMLAT Method: understand the reality in each branch before deciding what the standard should be.