Smartline named franchising winner for eighth straight year

Smartline Personal Mortgage Advisers has been named as Australia’s top franchise for the eighth consecutive year.

Topfranchise.com.au ranked Smartline number one in its latest top 10 list released today (Monday, September 26), following a comprehensive survey of franchisees from franchise systems across the country.

Smartline has held the number one ranking since 2009.

Smartline took out the overall award having been ranked first in four of the six survey sub categories:

• Support: examining levels of support offered by the franchisor
• Lifestyle: whether franchisees are satisfied with the lifestyle their franchise affords them
• Passion: the passion franchisees have for their product/service and customers. Also whether friends and family believe in the business
• Marketing: The strength of the marketing strategy and the support provided for franchisees to undertake their own marketing activities

Smartline Managing Director Chris Acret said winning the Topfranchise award was a great accolade.

“While it’s great to be recognised within the mortgage industry, we’re very proud of the fact that this award recognises Smartline as the benchmark in franchising across all industries, and is based on the feedback of our own people,” he said.

“Mortgage broking is a great business to be in and can be very rewarding both personally and financially. It’s rewarding to be helping people with such an important life transaction as buying a property.

“We don’t do a lot of advertising and would rather put our energy into supporting our franchisees and our technology and providing our clients a great service. We get exceptional client feedback and the business has grown off the back of referrals from happy clients.

“Smartline has a unique approach and business philosophy. We have geared the whole business around helping our franchisees be successful.

“It’s a team approach with a very strong team culture and camaraderie and high levels of collaboration amongst franchisees. It’s a key reason for people’s success.

“Every decision we make as a business is based on whether it’s best for the client and whether it’s best for the franchisee. If something we are considering doesn’t tick both those boxes, we don’t do it.

10 THOUSAND FEET and topfranchise.com.au’s Head of Intelligence Ian Krawitz said Smartline continued to impress and evolve.

“In most areas their franchisees are the most satisfied they have been since Smartline first won the awards in 2009,” he said.

“Some of the reasons for their continued success include the style of coaching and mentoring they provide to their franchisees, the collaborative, inclusive company culture and their discipline to keep their franchisees’ businesses lean and geared for growth and profitability”

Over 1000 franchisees were surveyed by 10 THOUSAND FEET across the franchise Industry. Each franchisee is asked 43 questions in key areas, with the feedback used to benchmark performance in comparison to other franchise systems.