Hunter Stokes is the President of Franchise.com, the most comprehensive franchise research platform connecting aspiring business owners with growing franchise systems across the United States and Canada. We sat down with him to talk about trust, local credibility, and why community-voted recognition like Voted Number One is becoming an increasingly valuable asset for franchisees.
Q: Franchise.com exists to connect entrepreneurs with franchise opportunities. What’s the single biggest thing that separates a franchisee who thrives from one who struggles to gain traction?
Hunter Stokes: Speed to trust. A franchise system gives you a brand, a playbook, and a support structure, but none of that automatically makes a local community feel like you’re their business. The franchisees who grow fastest are the ones who crack that code early. They show up at local events, they earn great reviews, they get involved. The brand opens the door, but the operator has to build the relationship.
It sounds straightforward, but it’s actually one of the harder parts of the franchise model. You’re asking someone who just invested significantly in a business to also be a community ambassador from day one. The ones who prioritize that investment in local reputation see it pay off.
Q: Franchise.com helps people evaluate and choose franchise opportunities. What role does social proof play in that discovery process?
Hunter Stokes: It’s enormous, and it’s only growing. When a prospective franchisee is researching a concept, they’re not just looking at the FDD and talking to the franchisor; they’re reading reviews, checking ratings, and looking at how existing locations perform in their markets. They want evidence that this works in real communities, with real customers.
That same dynamic plays out in reverse once someone becomes a franchisee. Their potential customers are doing the same due diligence. They’re asking, “Is this business actually good, or is it just a chain?” Anything that demonstrates genuine local approval changes how a new business is perceived. No corporate marketing claim is as strong a signal as positive community reviews.
Q: That connects directly to what Voted Number One does. How do you see a platform like that fitting into a franchisee’s growth strategy?
Hunter Stokes: It fits beautifully because it solves a real problem. The challenge for any new franchise location is differentiating itself within the brand. You’re not just competing with other local businesses; you’re also trying to stand out among other franchisees of the same system. Winning a community-voted award is a way to do that authentically.
What I appreciate about Voted Number One’s model is that the recognition originates with customers. The nominations come from satisfied people in the community, and the votes follow the same path. That’s very different from a paid listing or a self-submitted award. When a franchise location can display that they’ve been voted number one by their neighbors, it’s a credential that carries real weight, and it’s one that a competitor down the street can’t simply buy or replicate.
Q: You’ve talked before about discovery being a bottleneck in the franchise buying process. Do you think the same bottleneck exists for customers trying to find trustworthy local businesses?
Hunter Stokes: Absolutely, and it’s an underappreciated problem. Consumers have more options than ever and less time to evaluate them. They’re defaulting to social proof at every step, looking at reviews, ratings, word of mouth, and increasingly, community recognition. The businesses that make it easy for people to conclude “this place is trusted and respected here” win a disproportionate share of attention.
That’s why platforms like Voted Number One serve a genuine function. They’re not creating artificial credibility; rather, they’re surfacing and formalizing the reputation that already exists in the community. For a franchisee trying to establish themselves quickly, that kind of visible validation accelerates the trust curve significantly.
Q: Final thought for a franchisee who hasn’t thought about community recognition as part of their marketing strategy yet: where do they start?
Hunter Stokes: Start by asking whether your satisfied customers have a way to publicly express that satisfaction beyond a Google review. Reviews are essential, but they’re also expected. A community-voted award is unexpected, and it’s something a customer can point to and feel like they contributed to. That’s a different kind of engagement, and it creates a different kind of loyalty.
Get nominated. Mobilize your happy customers to vote. And when you win, display it proudly, both physically and digitally. In franchising, we talk a lot about leveraging the brand. Community recognition like Voted Number One gives franchisees something equally powerful: a local brand identity that is entirely their own.
To learn more about Franchise.com and the work they are doing to help match franchises with franchisees, visit their website.