What documents would we test?
The assistant would use only what you give it. For a franchisor, that usually means five kinds of document.
- The operations manual. It holds the day-to-day procedures: opening and closing, ordering, cleaning, handling complaints, reporting. This is where most answers live.
- Brand standards. They hold the rules on how the brand must look and feel: uniforms, signage, layout, logo use, local marketing approval. Franchisees ask about these often because the rules are strict.
- Training guides. They explain how to do a task, step by step. The assistant would use them when the manual says what to do but not how.
- FAQs. They hold the questions head office has already answered. They are short and written in plain words, so they often match how people ask.
- Onboarding materials. This means the new-owner onboarding pack and the opening checklists. New owners ask about these constantly in their first weeks.
Two things make franchise manuals harder than most. The manual is often long. And it is usually updated in pieces: a bulletin here, a revised chapter there. The assistant has to cope with both. That is the first failure mode below.
What would people ask it?
Different people ask different things. Below are 10 sample questions in four groups, with where the answer should come from. Your real questions will be messier, and that is the point of testing with them.
| Who asks | Sample question | Where the answer should come from |
|---|---|---|
| Franchisee / owner | Can I move the display shelves, or does head office have to approve a new layout? | Brand standards, layout section |
| Franchisee / owner | My usual supplier is out of stock. How do I order from another approved supplier? | Operations manual, ordering chapter, plus any current bulletin |
| Franchisee / owner | Do I need approval before I run my own local social media offer? | Brand standards, local marketing approval section |
| New owner (in onboarding) | What has to be finished before the opening checklist can be signed off? | New-owner onboarding pack and opening checklist |
| New owner (in onboarding) | Which signs and window graphics must be up on opening day? | Brand standards, signage section (local sign rules: check with head office) |
| Store manager | What is the uniform for the closing shift? Can staff wear their own shoes? | Brand standards, uniform section |
| Store manager | How do I fill in the daily report, and who gets it? | Operations manual, reporting chapter |
| Store manager | A customer complained that their order was late. What does the manual say I should do? | Operations manual, customer service chapter, and the FAQs |
| Field / franchise business consultant | What should I check first when I visit a store that has slipped on brand standards? | Brand standards and the store visit checklist |
| Field / franchise business consultant | The cleaning procedure changed recently. Which version applies now? | The latest bulletin, then the cleaning chapter |
Where could it go wrong, and how would we test that?
There are two failure modes that matter most for a franchisor. Both come from how franchise documents work. We would test for both on your manual.
It uses an old chapter when a newer update applies
Your manual changes over time. A chapter may say one thing while a later bulletin says another. If the assistant quotes the old chapter, a franchisee follows a rule that no longer applies. The assistant must cite the current version. And it must flag it when a newer bulletin changes a section.
How we would test it: Include questions where an update changed the answer. Check that the reply cites the current version and not the older one. Open the source it shows to confirm.
It gives a brand answer when a local or state rule decides
Your brand standards say how things should look and run. They do not override local health, signage or employment rules. Some questions depend on those rules, and the manual cannot answer them for every town. Here the assistant must say "check with head office". It must not guess, and it must not make up a rule. The same goes for questions about what the franchise agreement itself allows: those belong with head office, not the assistant.
How we would test it: Include questions where local rules decide the answer. The right result is "check with head office". Any invented answer is a fail.
For the general method, see how to stop an AI assistant making up answers.
How would the test be marked?
A person who knows your brand reads every answer. Each one is marked right, wrong or "I don't know". The person also opens the source the assistant shows and checks that it says what the assistant claims. We would also check that the page or section it names is the current one.
You agree the pass mark in writing before the test starts. For a franchisor, it is worth deciding now that a wrong answer on a local or state rule is a deal-breaker. For the full method, see how to test an AI assistant before you buy.
What would you send us for a Hundred Questions test?
Franchisors keep the operations manual confidential, and that is sensible. You do not have to send all of it. The test can start with a small set, under an NDA.
Send us 2–3 sample chapters, an excerpt of your brand standards, a few FAQs, and 100 real questions from franchisees and field consultants.
- 2–3 sample chapters of the manual. Choose chapters people ask about often. If you have a recent bulletin that changed a chapter, include both the chapter and the bulletin.
- A brand standards excerpt. For example the uniform, signage or local marketing approval sections.
- A few FAQs. Whatever head office already answers most.
- 100 real questions, exactly as typed. Pull them from emails, support tickets and messages from franchisees and field consultants. Do not tidy them up. Spread them across owners, new owners, store managers and consultants.
Mark which questions the sample chapters do not cover. For those, the right result is "I don't know" or "check with head office". Marking them in advance lets a person score those replies fairly.
Your documents stay in accounts you own. Hundred Questions costs $750 and takes 1 week. If you then go on, the full build is from $3,000, about 3 more weeks. Your fixed build price is in your Hundred Questions report. It is fine to stop after the test.
Free. No sign-up. Get the franchise question pack, or download the PDF directly.
Has Northstr built one for franchises?
We haven't built one for franchises yet. Our proof so far is an AI assistant for an education company in a regulated industry.
- Across 150 test messages, each read by a person, we saw no made-up answers.
- Wrong "I don't know" replies went from 6 to 0 on 35 test messages about terms in the material.
- The AI fees were $2.52 for 684 AI answers, about $0.004 each.
The details are in the AI tutor case study. One assistant on one set of documents is not a guarantee for yours. That is why we would test on your own manual first.
Next step
Want to see how an assistant behaves on your own operations manual? Hundred Questions is a one-week test: we build it on a sample, your team sends 100 real questions, and a person checks every answer.