FROM MANUAL TO DIGITAL

When Andrew Kirkpatrick took the helm as General Manager of Driving Miss Daisy New Zealand in 2022, he saw both tremendous potential and clear operational challenges. The beloved companion driving service had grown from a single vehicle in Havelock North to 84 franchises nationwide, with over 300 vehicles and 450 drivers. But behind this success story lurked a manual administrative burden that was holding the business back.

“When I looked strategically at some of the challenges and opportunities for the way franchisees worked, and the way they worked with their employees, it was obvious to me there was a digital solution to streamlining all of that and making it more efficient,” Andrew explains.

Growing pains

Like many successful franchises, Driving Miss Daisy had built its reputation on exceptional customer service – providing elderly clients, people with disabilities, and dependent children with dignified, personalised transport assistance. But the back-end systems hadn’t kept pace with the business’ rapid expansion across New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

The onboarding challenges were significant. New franchisees received 13 separate emails with text-heavy instructions and 11 different PDF forms to complete, often in an inefficient order. In addition, outgoing franchisees were partly responsible for training incoming franchisees, creating an information degradation effect, with standards becoming diluted or distorted.

Driver onboarding presented equally daunting hurdles. Franchise support staff spent countless hours chasing franchisees for copies of driver licences, qualifications, and certifications. The manual system offered limited visibility into whether drivers had completed proper training or provided required documentation. With key partners like ACC demanding increasingly rigorous compliance records, the reactive approach was becoming unsustainable.

“We regularly had to email and contact franchisees not once but numerous times to get a response from them,” recalls a member of the leadership team. For a business onboarding roughly 170 new drivers annually across 84 franchises, this represented an enormous drain on resources.

Finding the right solution

After evaluating several learning management systems without conviction, the leadership team discovered The Induction App at the Franchise Association of New Zealand conference in August 2024. What set this platform apart was its combination of digitised onboarding, compliance paperwork management, and streamlined training – all delivered through a user-friendly app.

Equally important was the partnership approach. The Induction App, backed by 30-year-old learning and development company Optimism and fronted by founding director Sussan Ockwell, demonstrated deep understanding of franchise-specific challenges.

The transformation

The Induction App platform customised specifically for Driving Miss Daisy delivered comprehensive functionality across all stakeholders. New franchisees now navigate a sequenced, visual journey with one online form that populates multiple setup documents with e-signing capability. Franchisees managing their teams benefit from automated workflows, real-time progress reporting, and a central repository for all HR information.

Drivers experience a mobile-friendly app with rich interactive content, self-paced learning through on-job tasks and quizzes, and automatic reminders for expiring qualifications. 

Meanwhile, the franchise support team gained complete visibility across the entire franchise network for compliance tracking and consolidated reporting.

All existing forms, guides, and driver manuals were transformed into interactive content with rich media, scenario-based assessments, and special attention to challenging concepts like logbook completion. The result? A standardised training experience ensuring every driver across Driving Miss Daisy receives identical high-quality preparation.

Quantified success

The numbers tell a compelling story. After initial investment in setup and customisation, Driving Miss Daisy achieved approximately 394% ROI in the first year. In subsequent years, ongoing ROI is projected at 633-788% annually – calculated purely from time savings through streamlined processes and automated workflows.

The qualitative impact has been equally dramatic. “It has allowed us to centralise and automate the driver administration process,” Andrew explains. “We’ve been able to free up time for franchisees to focus on the business, to focus on the drivers and, most importantly, to focus on their clients.”

Franchisee and driver response

Franchisee feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with comments highlighting operational efficiency, improved tracking, and enhanced quality control. One franchisee summarised it perfectly: “Takes away a lot of admin from me… and gives drivers ownership over their training. Mainly takes away the stress of remembering stuff!”

Driver engagement across the network sits at an impressive 92%, with feedback praising the straightforward, well-organised modules. “Well set out online training modules. Simple to follow and finish the set tasks. Enjoyable and informative,” wrote one driver.

The strategic imperative

For Andrew, this transformation represents more than operational improvement – it’s about competitive positioning. “I want people to look at Driving Miss Daisy as a great franchise to buy into because of the fact that we’re leading the field,” he says.

And Driving Miss Daisy’s founder Melanie Harper sums up the sentiment in the franchise, “I LOVE what you’re doing. I absolutely LOVE the apps and the impact on our business!”

For franchisors grappling with manual onboarding processes, Driving Miss Daisy’s journey with The Induction App offers a clear roadmap: the right digital solution, implemented strategically with strong partnership support, can deliver transformative results measured in both time saved and business value created.   

See this advertorial on page 39 of Franchise New Zealand magazine Year 34 Issue 04

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