If your franchisees pick AI vendors on their own, you have no say over what those agents tell your leads. One wrong price in a text, and your brand takes the hit.
That is why the vendor decision belongs at the franchisor level. You set the standard once, and every location gets a vendor you have checked.
Use the questions below in your approval process. They work for any vendor, including us.
Integration: does it work inside your stack?
An agent that cannot read your schedule cannot book. An agent that cannot write back to your CRM leaves your staff copying data by hand.
- Which booking and CRM systems does it connect to today? Ask for live customers on your exact systems, not "on the roadmap."
- Is the connection two-way? The agent should read open times and write the booking, the lead notes and the conversation back to your CRM.
- Do staff need a new tool? If the conversations live outside the CRM your locations use, add the training time and the missed messages to the cost.
- Who checks compatibility, and when? You want a stack check before anyone signs, not after.
- Is there an API for the systems you built yourself?
AI Front Desk runs inside ClubReady (native, two-way), Mindbody, ServiceTitan and Jobber, with API access for enterprise brands. We check compatibility during the assessment, before an agreement.
Data and security: what happens to your customers' information?
- Is the vendor SOC 2 Type II certified? Ask for the report, not a badge on the website.
- Is customer data used to train models? The answer you want is no, and in writing.
- Is data shared across customers? One franchisee's leads should never inform another brand's agent.
- How is data encrypted, at rest and in transit?
- Can you get your data out if you leave?
Control: can you govern it across locations?
- Can you see every conversation? You need a full log you can audit, by location.
- How does the agent hand a conversation to staff? Ask what triggers a handoff and how staff get notified.
- Can you set brand rules once and push them to every location? Offers, tone and disclosure should not vary by franchisee.
- Is there a dashboard by location? Reply time, handoffs and bookings for each location, in one view for brand HQ.
- What happens when it breaks? Ask about uptime terms and how errors get caught and rolled back.
Results claims: how to test what the vendor tells you
Every vendor has a case study. Test it before you believe it.
- Are the before and after windows the same length? A 90-day "after" against a 30-day "before" will show growth that is only more days.
- Do the windows match by season? January in fitness looks nothing like July. Ask for the same months, or matched windows.
- Are any rates impossible? A show rate above 100% or a conversion rate that doubles overnight means the data is broken somewhere. Ask how it was calculated.
- Is the result from every location or a selected few? Ask how many locations the vendor runs and how many are in the case study.
- Can you talk to an operator? A reference call with a franchisee on your systems beats any slide.
We hold our own numbers to this test. Our August numbers cover every conversation across 218 locations in a single month, not a sample.
Rollout terms
Before approval, get these in writing:
- Price per location, plus every setup or integration fee
- Contract length, and whether franchisees can start with a few locations
- Time to go live. AI Front Desk takes two weeks from a signed agreement to live agents.
- Who supports the franchisees after launch, and how fast they respond
Book a free assessment
In one call, we review the booking and CRM systems your locations run on, how your locations handle leads today, and what a rollout would look like, including the return you can expect.