Pros
Great company that is invested in their people. You are empowered to own your business and achieve your own goals. You create your team and get the be a part of the growth and development that impacts their future. Your community in store can be whatever you make it. The community outside of the store (fellow boutique leaders, district managers, home office partners) are full of like minded individuals who support you and each other. It's evident that their passion for the brand comes from everyone's genuine love of their team, the product, and their guests in store. I walked away from this brand feeling like the other Leaders in my district were close friends.
The kindness comes from the top. My visit from Andrew and Kris was beyond what I expected. They made me and my team feel seen and that our opinions and feedback were important. The field leadership is dedicated to ensuring that this kindness trickles down to everyone in the store teams.
Yes, they are serious about their customer experience and want to make sure that every guest that walks through the door gets what they need, how they need it, every time. They have backed down from "the Promise" (which was a great way to get first timers comfortable with customer service) and have moved into a more relaxed way to help their guests. They give you tools to train your team so that they can give the best service and be the happiest place in the shopping center. Depending on your team members level of experience they can follow the model or break it apart and use it their own way. I can see how some may take the structure very seriously, but it is not meant to be that way.
Speaking of tools, their training program is very thorough. It is obvious that there has been a lot of time devoted to development of these programs and that the importance of educated teams is the key to their decades of success. Instructions on operations are clear and easy for anyone to understand. If you are struggling you have thousands of other employees that will always pick up the phone and support where they can.
Many other brands can learn from the way they value their people. Lead with Kindness. Invest in your people. Pour into your teams the way that Francesca's does and your retention will start to look like theirs. Investment in people = retention = educated and happy teams = happy customers = financial success.
Cons
Pay for your sales associates and key holder positions.
