How EarthWise Pets Captures 100% of Franchise Commitments with Rocketlane’s AI Teammate
Industry
Professional Services
Use case
Franchise Onboarding, Project Management, Reporting, AI Fills
Before
- Onboarding new franchisees was handled via Slack, spreadsheets, and email threads, with no clear structure in place to track project statuses.
- There was no single source of truth. Teams couldn't easily track the progress of each new store in the onboarding process.
- Without a standardized process, some store owners felt lost during the onboarding process, leading to dissatisfaction and rework.
After
- Every store now follows a structured, repeatable project template, ensuring consistency and clarity from day 1.
- AI-generated call summaries and contextual task updates reduce manual follow-ups, while smart notifications ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
- Store owners have access to a branded, intuitive, custom portal where they can track onboarding progress, access resources, and stay in sync with HQ.
Earthwise Pet is a rapidly expanding pet retail and service franchise with over 180 locations across the United States. What sets them apart is a deep-rooted commitment to holistic pet wellness and sustainability. Each store offers a curated selection of natural pet foods, eco-friendly supplies, and personalized grooming services, making Earthwise a trusted destination for pet parents who care deeply about quality and conscious living.
Erika Fray, Vice President of Project Management at Earthwise Pet, is at the forefront of launching new stores and supporting franchisees across the country. From her very first demo, Erika saw the potential to transform how Earthwise Pet launched stores. Rocketlane quickly became her go-to platform for managing every step of the onboarding journey with the structure, templates, and collaboration tools she had long been searching for. Today, Erika’s team also leverages Rocketlane’s AI Fills to automatically generate call summaries and action items. They said AI Fills quietly took a load off the team’s plate and streamlined how they document calls and follow-ups, allowing the team to stay focused on what really matters: supporting franchisees with speed and consistency.
“The AI Fills in Rocketlane saves our team so much time by automatically generating call summaries, so we no longer have to take detailed notes or follow up manually. It's also been incredibly valuable from an accountability standpoint, especially since we handle so much over the phone. Having everything neatly captured and documented eliminates the ‘he said, she said’ issues entirely.”
The roadblocks before Rocketlane
Before adopting Rocketlane, Earthwise Pet's franchise onboarding process was highly manual, disjointed, and reactive. The internal team had to assume the roles of project manager, communications coordinator, and document librarian simultaneously.
“We had tried other project management tools, but none of them were client-facing.”
Communication gaps across Slack and email
Without a unified platform, onboarding conversations were scattered across Slack channels and endless email threads. Messages got lost or overlooked, and team members often had to manually search threads or resend files multiple times.
No visual timeline for franchisees
Franchisees had little to no visibility into their onboarding roadmap. Every step had to be explained by the internal team, and there was no proactive way for store owners to prepare for upcoming tasks.
Fragmented documentation
Important documents, such as how-tos, videos, and forms, were stored in various locations across Google Drive, desktop folders, websites, and even personal team member files. This led to frequent internal back-and-forth just to locate the right file.
The transformation with Rocketlane
Rocketlane provided Earthwise Pet with a complete overhaul of how franchise onboarding is managed. From improved collaboration to client empowerment, the change was immediate and impactful.
"The chat function and the UI really sold me… We moved away from Slack entirely. It’s just so much more functional for tracking a project"
Franchisees now see the road ahead
With Rocketlane’s client-facing interface and visual task timelines, franchisees now understand the end-to-end onboarding journey. They know what’s expected of them and when without having to ask or wait for updates.
Custom communication channels
Rocketlane’s chat feature became a game-changer for Erika’s team. Conversations were split into channels by topic (e.g., construction, grooming), with only relevant stakeholders involved. This replaced Slack and brought structure and traceability to discussions.
A single source of truth
Rocketlane became the central hub for all onboarding resources, such as videos, SOPs, checklists, and more. The team no longer hunts through drives or emails. Team members and franchisees alike now access everything from one place, saving hours of repetitive work.
Earthwise Pet's Rocketlane Playbook
Roadmap visualization with task management
Rocketlane’s project tracking allows Earthwise Pet to define every step of the store onboarding process through structured task lists and project phases. Tasks are grouped logically and assigned to both internal team members and franchisees with clear descriptions, timelines, and dependencies.
AI Fills for call summaries and updates
Since the team frequently communicates with franchisees over meetings, having AI Fills generate summaries has reduced the need for manual note-taking and ensures that commitments made during conversations are accurately captured.
Cross-linking and smart navigation
Rocketlane enables users to navigate between tasks, chats, and files seamlessly. This "circular logic," as Erika described it, means that clicking on a document link in a conversation takes you straight to the associated task description and vice versa. This type of intuitive navigation has saved the team countless hours that would have been otherwise spent trying to piece together attachments and project updates.
Notifications and alerts
Real-time in-app alerts and email updates ensure that both internal team members and franchisees are always aware of project developments, task completions, or new comments. This feature has reduced the need for constant manual follow-ups or chasing stakeholders for updates.
