Business View - March 2015 81
Houston to Charlotte in the mid-1980s, and all domes-
tic and international locations except one are now op-
erated by franchisees.
That ratio reflects a distinct corporate mindset, Rivera
said, that franchisees in a system are better served if
the franchisor makes a clear choice about which op-
erational path it plans to take.
“We just believe it’s a different business model. Great
businesses pick a business model and execute that
model really well,” he said. “You need a different set of
people, processes, and technologies to run corporate
stores. It’s not more or less difficult than franchising,
it’s just different. We think that we’re very good fran-
chisors, so that’s what we stick to. Our job is to help
our franchisee-partners run great centers that delight
our customers and are profitable, we love what we do.”
Many franchise locations have been with the system
for many years and are in their second generation of
ownership, while others are new construction, so there
are some differences across the system, but Rivera
said the work done and guest services provided are
uniform.
The roster-wide manual – called “The Meineke Way”
– establishes standards on everything from the way
arriving customers should be greeted to how to pursue
follow-up appointments. And, because most Meineke
locations are in traditional retail settings, Rivera said
the other side of the Meineke transformation has
been aligning experiences with ones that typical 21st
century consumers expect.
As it turns out, modern experiences warrant modern
partnerships, too.
Meineke works with AutoNet TV to provide waiting-
room programming to educate and entertain cus-
FRANCHISE
