Few businesses are more local than a haircut — and few brands understand local scale better than Great Clips. With thousands of neighborhood locations operating under a single brand, franchise organizations sit at the intersection of national visibility and hyperlocal execution.
In this Visibility Brief Deep Dive, Steve Hockett, CEO of Great Clips, joins Rebecca Colwell, SVP of Marketing at Yext, to share insights from nearly four decades in franchising. The conversation explores how franchise systems support small business owners, how brand consistency is maintained at scale, and how digital platforms — including AI-powered search — are reshaping how customers find and choose local services.
What You'll Learn
Why franchises operate like small businesses at scale
Every franchise starts with a single owner, a single location, and a local community to serve. Understanding this small business mindset is essential for building systems that help franchisees grow while maintaining brand standards.
How franchisors balance brand control and local autonomy
Franchise success depends on a clear operating playbook paired with room for local execution. While brand fundamentals remain fixed, innovation often comes from franchisees themselves, driving continuous improvement from the ground up.
Why "working together" drives adoption and change
New initiatives aren't rolled out overnight. Instead, franchise systems rely on collaboration, testing, and feedback from franchisees to ensure changes work in real-world environments before scaling broadly.
How accurate local data fuels customer discovery
Customers searching for nearby services expect fast, reliable answers — from hours and pricing to wait times. Maintaining consistent, up-to-date information across websites, listings, and search platforms is critical to driving foot traffic to local locations.
What AI search means for service-based franchises
While AI can't deliver a haircut, it increasingly determines which businesses customers choose. Ensuring franchise locations are discoverable in AI-driven search experiences is becoming just as important as traditional search visibility.
Why Watch
If you lead marketing, operations, or digital strategy for a franchise or multi-location brand, this session offers a clear look at what it takes to scale local visibility without losing the community connection that drives success.
Why It Matters
Franchise brands succeed when national strategy and local execution work together. As discovery shifts toward AI-powered solutions, maintaining accurate and accessible location data becomes even more crucial — not just for brand visibility, but also for franchisee success.
This deep dive highlights why strong systems, trusted partners, and a collaborative operating model help franchise brands remain resilient, relevant, and discoverable in an evolving search landscape.
