The Cat Butler

Introduction

The Cat Butler was established in 2015 by Sandra James to provide home-based cat sitting services across Hertfordshire.

From the early stages of The Cat Butler’s development, the company has carved a niche in providing a cat sitting service that provides comfort, reassurance and security for customers and their cats – by providing quality cat care at home. Complimentary services such as home security and updating customers with photos and videos of their cat whilst they’re away all contribute towards making The Cat Butler a unique service with an attractive franchise model, having worked with The Franchise Company to define the franchising structure, processes and manuals to prepare for the franchise launch.

Sandra approached FranchiseBase & Outward Digital in mid-2020 to take The Cat Butler to the next level in its franchising journey by designing a brand-new presence, and developing a solution that transforms The Cat Butler from a local, trusted business into a recognised nationwide franchise for high quality cat care.

In addition to essential features for any franchise that interact directly with the customer – such as postcode search, franchisee mini-sites and an SEO optimised presence – The Cat Butler integrates directly with FranchiseBase for processing of all franchise enquiries.

FranchiseBase also worked with The Cat Butler to devise a brand-new franchising brochure that utilises the unique branding of The Cat Butler to set it apart from its competitors, as well as getting to the heart of what The Cat Butler is all about for its prospective franchisees.

Finally – we worked with The Cat Butler to produce a branding pack for its new franchisees, all stored securely within FranchiseBase.

The Setup

As a new franchise, The Cat Butler needed a means to share important information with soon to be recruited franchisees; operations manuals, training guides and various documents needed to be stored in a secure, central place.

We worked with The Cat Butler to transpose their franchising documents into the Manuals system of FranchiseBase, making their manuals quick to update, share and control.

The Cat Butler Team (and their franchisees) can bookmark sections, send links to specific information, add comments and even export to PDF in a pinch, so there’s no confusion around which is the latest manual version.

Next, we worked to make the branding pack accessible, so when Franchisees need a re-order of business cards or flyers, they can access them quickly.

Making sense of franchise recruitment

Before FranchiseBase, there were e-mails – a lot of them. Managing prospects that came through from multiple franchise portals as well as the website was difficult. Every lead needed the brochure, then a follow-up, good leads could be left cold by just forgetting a quick e-mail back.

With FranchiseBase, all leads live in location, imported automatically, and they receive a schedule of e-mails and text messages over time, to keep them interested in the opportunity.

The Result

The Cat Butler officially launched its franchise opportunity in March 2021, and they’ve already recruited their first franchisee with several more in the pipeline, bringing quality home-based cat sitting to new towns and cities across the UK.

Sandra James, Founder & Managing Director of The Cat Butler said:

"Last year we (The Cat Butler) decided to franchise the company and needed a new website. After a recommendation, we approached Outward Digital and found they were able to offer us what we needed. They took the time and effort to understand our business and brand and built a fabulous, bespoke website that exceeded our expectations! 

James was brilliant the whole way through the process, keeping us updated, and made sure we were involved as much as possible and always being very responsive to any questions we had.

As well as designing a fully functioning website for our clients and franchise, James produced a high-quality franchise brochure as well as marketing materials and stationery that we're proud to share with our clients and franchisees.

The cherry on the top is having access to the FranchiseBase software, designed and implemented by James himself. This is a base for our franchisees, enabling them to conveniently access the latest version of the operations manual, brand assets and all the documents, templates, and materials needed in their day to day operations. 

Our franchisees also have access to an online discussion forum via FranchiseBase, a great way to keep in touch and collaborate with other franchisees in the network. 

As well as managing our staff and franchise network, FranchiseBase also enables us to manage our franchise recruitment process effectively and leads in one place, saving a lot of time and frustration. It's a brilliant concept!

We have been so pleased with FranchiseBase and their ongoing support throughout our Franchise journey. James and his team are responsive, professional, efficient, easy to work with, and always on hand when we have a new project. I cannot recommend FranchiseBase enough - thank you!".

At FranchiseBase, we can't wait to see how The Cat Butler progresses with their Franchise over the next few years and look forward to our continued work with Sandra and her team!