An in-depth look at the CFA’s Franchisees’ Choice Designation and what it represents
If you’re in the process of looking for a franchise investment, you may have seen a logo on a brand’s website or LookforaFranchise.ca listing that reads “Franchisees’ Choice Designation.” Each year, dozens of CFA member brands receive this honour. Some of these brands have even gone on to earn the designation for 15 consecutive years, demonstrating their continued dedication to the wellbeing of their franchise owners.
Whether you’re a franchisor interested in your franchisees’ satisfaction, or a prospective franchisee looking to find your ideal franchise investment, this designation functions as a valuable research tool. That’s why we’re taking a deep dive into the Franchisees’ Choice Designation, the Benchmark Report used in the awarding process, and the meaning behind this classification.
An overview of the Franchisees’ Choice Designation
As anyone looking to buy a franchise knows, positive referrals from current franchisees are one of the best markers of a franchise system’s success. The Franchisees’ Choice Designation showcases franchise brands who are highly regarded by their own franchisees by collecting feedback from across each brand’s system.
CFA member brands volunteer to take part in an independent survey to learn more about the opinions of their franchisees. Through the survey, franchisees assess their franchisor across key areas of the business model, including the selection process for new and existing franchisees, initial and ongoing training and support, leadership and guidance, business planning, marketing, operations and improvement, and franchisor-franchisee relations.
In ensuring fair and accurate feedback, a third-party organization, The Portage Group, administers the survey and analyzes the findings to determine the highest rated franchise systems and those who’ve earned the Franchisees’ Choice Designation.
Setting up a survey system
The process begins each fall as franchise systems register their brand for participation, explains Geoffrey Thacker, executive partner—research and strategy at The Portage Group. When they register, brands pick one of five “waves,” or rounds of surveys, available. “We run the program on a structured schedule. Franchisors pick which wave they want to run in, and from there, they’ll provide us with the list of their franchisees,” Thacker explains.
The Portage Group has developed a methodical and organized system in overseeing the process. Surveys are completed per business owner, rather than per location. Those eligible to complete the survey include a single owner of a single franchise, a partnership group owning one or more units, or a single owner with multiple units. “If you own 10 franchises,” explains Thacker, “you don’t participate 10 times, you participate once.”
Using lists of contacts provided by the participating systems—which must include all franchisees, and not just a selected few—The Portage Group administers the surveys over a two-to-four-week period.
While franchisors are encouraged to let their franchisees know that the survey is coming, franchisees receive invitations and prompts to participate directly from The Portage Group, including an initial notice that they can now complete their assessments and several follow-up reminders.
Continuing their emphasis on fair practices, Thacker explains, “We set up a microsite where franchisees can go and enter their email address, and [it will] send them their link on demand.” The Portage Group provides the link to the microsite to participating franchisors so they can help promote participation. The reason for the set up, Thacker explains, is so that the franchisor can’t complete the link themselves—surveys go directly to franchisees’ inboxes.
This entire process has been designed to ensure that the surveys themselves are securely passed between The Portage Group and the franchisees directly. The emphasis is ultimately on genuine feedback.
Franchisee feedback
“At its core, it’s a satisfaction survey,” Thacker says. “It’s not a vote. It’s an evaluation.”
Each survey includes around 55 questions, and depending on the question, franchisees provide a rating on a 10-point satisfaction or agreement scale. Touching on everything from franchisee recruitment to continuing operations support, the survey is meant to be “a broad assessment of the entire franchise system and how the franchisor is doing,” Thacker says.
But how are these survey responses translated to the Franchisees’ Choice Designation?
All the information and data gained from the assessment process flows into the creation of what is called a Custom Benchmark Report for each brand.
The Portage Group calculates this report based on averaging the scores (out of 10) of each question. For each key area—such as franchisee recruit¬ment and selection or startup training and support, for example—Thacker explains that a score is calculated by adding all questions relating to that group. “For the overall score, the one single number, we take all 55 questions and do exactly the same thing,” he adds.
Response rate also factors in. A portion of the brand’s score is dependent on the percentage of their franchisees that took the survey. “If you have 500 franchisees and you only have 10 people respond,” says Thacker, “we don’t want that score to [reflect] just the 10 happiest franchisees.”
If a brand scores an overall rating of 6 or higher, after the response rate adjustment, it qualifies for the Franchisees’ Choice Designation.
Receiving a report
At the end of the process, a Custom Benchmark Report is created for every registered brand. These reports include the scores across each question, each section, and across the entire survey, and also provide category and overall benchmarks for other franchises that participated so the brand can see how they stack up in comparison. The Custom Benchmark Report also includes the verbatim comments franchisees provide at the end of the surveys, which can be very enlightening.
Brands are welcome to purchase their full Custom Benchmark Report, which Thacker highly recommends.
For prospective franchisees themselves, the results of this survey are incredibly valuable, as many of the questions address topics one might ask a current franchisee on a validation call. But the results are equally important for the franchisors, who can use their franchisees’ responses to accurately gauge how satisfied their franchisees are and what improvements can be made within the system.
Brands can use the report to gather honest feedback on how to grow their franchisee satisfaction, but they can also use it to demonstrate the contentedness in their system. “If you’re a franchise system that’s doing really well, to be able to drop the report down in front of a potential franchisee and say, ‘Hey, look, our franchisees love us”—I think that’s very powerful,” says Thacker. “You can back it up with numbers.”
Choice brands
Each year, the CFA Awards Program recognizes all Franchisees’ Choice designees. In 2026, 52 brands earned the designation, demonstrating the quality of the supports they provide and the relationships they have with their franchisees. At the end of the day, it’s the feedback from franchisees that guides the designation, and the high-scoring brands are shared for all to see.
Thacker says, “I think if you ask every single franchisor how important it is to hear from their franchisees, what they want or don’t want or what they like or don’t like or how satisfied they are, I would imagine they’d say it’s extremely important. The process, and the Custom Benchmark Report, provide that feedback.”
For those looking for a franchise opportunity, it’s also important. In fact, you can think of it as a shortlist of brands you may want to consider investing in! After all, franchising is all about support and mutual success—and the ultimate marker of this is franchisee satisfaction.