How FACE FOUNDRIÉ Keeps a National Franchise Connected and Engaged
Founded in March 2019 by Michelle Henry with an aim to make accessible and approachable skincare an industry standard, FACE FOUNDRIÉ has grown rapidly from a single location to a national institution. With 57 franchised locations spanning coast to coast across the United States, and over 120 additional units opening nationwide, this beauty industry phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down.
Bringing this unique vision to life requires a remarkable level of coordination and an extraordinary team of dedicated corporate team members and franchisees working together seamlessly. We met with Chief Revenue Officer Cheyanne Thurston to learn what keeps her and her colleagues connected to one another and the mission that drives them forward.
Thurston’s motivation for joining FACE FOUNDRIÉ was sparked by its unique approach, and rooted in its mission.
“I’ve always been fascinated with makeup, skincare, and the entire beauty realm,” she explained. “I knew I wanted to work in the industry, and I was drawn to FACE FOUNDRIÉ because it approaches accessibility at a level I’d never seen. Facials are traditionally something that people don’t feel like they can enjoy regularly, and I love how FACE FOUNDRIÉ’s model is changing that.”
With such a massive upswell in franchise locations, it was evident that Thurston was not the only one who felt energized by FACE FOUNDRIÉ’s fresh perspective.
“Our mission and our values are so much more than a plaque on the wall. Everything we do is grounded in them. We’re working to be the best every single day, and you feel it in the work you do—that you’re truly making an impact at every level.”
FACE FOUNDRIÉ is an all-inclusive focused facial bar, offering services for all things face: lashes, brows, facials, and skincare. But as Thurston shared, a trip to FACE FOUNDRIÉ isn’t just about the service.
“We’re so much more than facials. You can come in for any reason. For some people, this is the 40 minutes of peace and quiet they need in their day. For others, it’s a place to center themselves through both good and challenging times.
It’s about having a moment for yourself with someone who can hold that space for you. People leave FACE FOUNDRIÉ feeling better. Whether they’re smiling brighter, or feeling lighter, it’s a source of confidence and self care.”
It’s no surprise that scaling at an exponential rate presented many challenges, but as Thurston shared, it offers expansive opportunities to learn, grow, and hone the FACE FOUNDRIÉ experience.
“With 57 locations open and counting, we have at least 57 sources of new learnings every single day. It’s our goal to share those learnings to ensure we’re always getting better, together.”
FACE FOUNDRIÉ is known for its consistent quality, accessibility, striking brand, and cohesive in-store experience. Maintaining all these aspects across a growing list of locations is no small task.
“Consistency is crucial for us. If you step into a store in Sarasota, Florida, the experience should feel the same as when you step into a store in Meridian, Idaho. It’s our goal for franchises and the system as a whole to be united.”
“With 57 locations open and counting, we have at least 57 sources of new learnings every single day. It’s our goal to share those learnings to ensure we’re always getting better, together.”
As FACE FOUNDRIÉ’s growth continued to accelerate, it became evident to Thurston and her team that a more comprehensive toolkit for communication and knowledge sharing would be essential.
“We were using a SquareSpace website that was not designed to house all that information. That made it really challenging to share information seamlessly,” she said.
The team was on the lookout for a platform that could foster this crucial knowledge exchange, connecting corporate employees and franchisees across dozens of locations in a seamless, cohesive environment for the first time.
“Since we were migrating from a single password-protected website, even features like individual logins were meaningful improvements we were looking for.”
While most intranets provide a set of features that include things like individual logins, search, and posting capabilities, Thurston and her team were looking for more than a set of features. They were looking for partners in their success, who could help them deliver a standout experience for their unique community.
“We’d eventually narrowed our shortlist down to four vendors. From there, it really mattered how willing they’d be to work with us,” she explained.
“As a franchise, we were a bit of an edge case for most intranet vendors. Haystack was able to work with us on that, and help us feel really comfortable before signing the contract. Our CEO was thrilled with the pricing. As a self-funded organization, we weren’t sure we’d be able to get a system we could really be excited about, but Haystack’s pricing made that accessible to us.”
In the spring of 2024, FACE FOUNDRIÉ rolled Haystack out across all of its locations, and from day one, it was a resounding success.
“I announced it at our convention, and did a keynote speech around the whole system,” Thurston recalled. “We had a lot of excited early comments from franchisees about individual logins and the search capabilities.
And while the buzz around the new system was encouraging for Thurston and her team, the post-implementation experience truly brought it home. FACE FOUNDRIÉ found the perfect match for its unique community of stakeholders.
“It has been life-changing,” Thurston said. “I have a hard time even describing how much of a difference it’s made to switch to a platform that’s built to hold and share information.
With our old portal, we heard complaints and requests every month, and since rollout it’s just been smooth sailing.”
More than just a storehouse for information, Haystack became a reliable hub that everyone in the organization can turn to for access to the knowledge, people, and resources they need to thrive.
“I know Haystack is my single source of truth,” Thurston shared.
“I can go there to reference anything I need, and franchisees see it the same way.
Haystack is how we grow, communicate, educate, and onboard new franchisees as the system scales. Whether it’s the post feature, which I feel like we’re using every thirty seconds, or easily accessing things and using search. It keeps our system moving forward.”
“It has been life-changing. I have a hard time even describing how much of a difference it’s made to switch to a platform that’s built to hold and share information.With our old portal, we heard complaints and requests every month, and since rollout it’s just been smooth sailing.”
Since launch, FACE FOUNDRIÉ continues to expand on both the volume and scope of its usage. As to which factors drive engagement the most, Thurston was able to point out several.
“For one, it’s the user friendliness,” she began, “and how easy it is to make everything happen—whether it’s promoting the shoutout card in the dashboard, or just getting a notification and responding to a post.”
Ease of use can take many forms, and in many cases, an intuitive interface is only part of the user friendliness equation. For Thurston and her FACE FOUNDRIÉ colleagues, this quickly became clear.
“Meeting people where they’re at is a big part of being accessible and approachable, and the mobile app has also been crucial for us. I didn’t realize at first how important having that piece would be.”
Having instantaneous access to FACE FOUNDRIÉ’s entire ecosystem of people, knowledge, and resources has had a great impact on the franchisee experience.
“Being able to find important information quickly was a huge thing franchisees were requesting. There’s so much information they can access now.
Haystack is an operations manual everyone has at their fingertips, in an easy way, at all times. People get a notification on their phone when a post goes out, so they’re more likely to see it or revisit it later on down the line when they’re free.”
“Meeting people where they’re at is a big part of being accessible and approachable, and the mobile app has also been crucial for us. I didn’t realize at first how important having that piece would be.”
It didn’t take long for the entire FACE FOUNDRIÉ organization to see the value and embrace this new and improved system wholeheartedly.
“Haystack has replaced all our general communications with franchisees,” Thurston shared.
“We used to send a weekly email update, but it wasn’t optimal. Not everyone would see it. Then there would be one-off situations that needed their own email, or the timing was off and something important didn’t make it into the weekly email. We’d end up sending multiple emails out, and people hated that.
Now it’s all posts in Haystack and people love it.”
While the communication cadence continues steadily, the level of engagement has only increased.
“We still publish the weekly update every Thursday morning. When those one-off events and initiatives do come up, they’re posted to Haystack.
When I know I need people to see something, I’m so much more confident posting in Haystack. They’ll get notified in their email; they get notified in the app; and they get notified on mobile, and down the line, they can easily find it through search. That’s been a huge improvement for us.”
As a top-down communication tool, Haystack was already a success, but its ability to expand the conversation to include everyone brought its own major benefits.
“Commenting has also been a big improvement,” Thurston began. “People can ask questions that other people are definitely wondering about. With email, that’s usually just a one-to-one interaction. Now everyone gets to benefit from these questions being addressed as a group.”
As dynamic communications like update posts enjoyed a major upgrade, FACE FOUNDRIÉ’s evergreen organizational knowledge also got a new more accessible and reliable home.
“Brand consistency is really important to us, and to our customers,” Thurston explained.
With this new central source of truth, every corporate employee and franchisee has instant access to a trustworthy operating manual and a community of experts anytime they need them. Branding and messaging are laid out clearly, and when there are changes, everyone can see them in real-time.
“It speaks to the level of streamlined communication we’re able to have now,” she said. “The permissions settings allow us to have both our franchisees and managers in the same place. That helps us maintain consistency across branding and messaging.
It also helps us link outside resources seamlessly to help everyone follow those brand guidelines. For example, we have an internal content creation program that we share on the main dashboard. Every time we make updates, it posts to Haystack.”
"When I know I need people to see something, I’m so much more confident posting in Haystack. They’ll get notified in their email; they get notified in the app; they get notified on mobile, and down the line, they can easily find it through search. That’s been a huge improvement for us.”
Making those guidelines so easily accessible empowers franchisees to operate and promote their locations with greater confidence that they’re always up-to-date with the latest developments across the organization.
In addition to unlocking potential for franchisees, FACE FOUNDRIÉ’s portal opens up new avenues for corporate team members to take on more responsibility and grow in their roles. As Thurston shared, even members of the executive team are able to find new opportunities to grow through greater efficiency.
“The controls around access and permissions enable me to delegate a lot more than I could previously, giving my team the space they need to step into their roles and really own them. That also frees me up from needing to manage every change and update.”
Thurston continues to layer more of her new toolkit into FACE FOUNDRIÉ’s internal communication strategy, with the goal of improving not only the digital experience for members of the entire organization, but their experience as a whole.
“Analytics are really helpful in a few different ways,” she said. “For one, it can be a really helpful accountability tool. We’ll sometimes use the forced broadcast or mark as read feature when we share an important update, which helps eliminate any doubt as to whether someone received a critical piece of information.
And also really importantly, analytics on those posts that aren’t force-broadcasted give us insight into engagement rates, and what’s resonating most with our community.”
“The controls around access and permissions enable me to delegate a lot more than I could previously, giving my team the space they need to step into their roles and really own them. That also frees me up from needing to manage every change and update.”
As someone who was able to deliver an outstanding digital experience for a diverse community of franchisees, executive leaders, and corporate employees, Thurston generously shared some helpful advice for others looking to accomplish something similar.
We’re always inspired by working with customers with meaningful missions, who are changing the face of their industry. As FACE FOUNDRIÉ continues to expand its presence across even more locations, we’ll continue to build tools to keep everyone connected, informed, and engaged.
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