CraftWorks Experiences Jump in Compliance Rates With the Help of EZ CERT

Monitoring franchisee insurance compliance is a time-consuming task that many franchisors don’t have the bandwidth to monitor as diligently as necessary. That was the case with CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries, a parent company to 10 franchise brands including Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom. In search of a way to become more proactive about compliance without taking manpower away from revenue-generating tasks, CraftWorks sought out a way to outsource the task. A serendipitous encounter at a franchise convention in April 2018 led the company to EZ CERT, who has acted as a safety net and support system ever since.

“We were introduced to EZ CERT by our franchise attorney, a mutual business acquaintance,” said Mark Belanger, president of global franchise development for CraftWorks. “We were searching for ways to audit this segment of our business and decided to outsource so we didn't have to dedicate internal resources to monitoring and ensuring proper compliance. EZ CERT provided great value for us and our franchisees,” Belanger said.

Franchise Disclosure Documents require that every franchise has insurance coverage; non-compliance puts both franchisors and franchisees at risk of litigation. EZ CERT’s main role working with franchises is maintaining the insurance coverage mandated in a brand’s FDD for every location by compiling reports to effectively track compliance whenever needed. “Our team also monitors each location for potential coverage errors and works ahead of time to inform franchisees when it’s time to renew,” EZ CERT founder Heath Groves said.

“Most of the certificates CraftWorks franchisees had on file were expired, so we were essentially starting from zero,” Groves said. “We’re now up to 64 percent, with all but one franchise location’s certificates on file and others in the process of filling in various coverage gaps,” he added.

“Having someone track compliance internally was proving to be extremely labor-intensive,” Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom franchise sales coordinator Kelli Punchard said. “Outsourcing to EZ CERT has been a huge relief and brought peace of mind to us and our franchisees. Their team has been extremely responsive and easy to work with,” she added.

EZ CERT provides franchisors with a quarterly review that ranks each franchisee red, yellow, or green in terms of up-to-date certificates and overall compliance, working with franchisees to make sure everyone is in the green and fully compliant. “The audit process is simple and their quarterly review templates are easy to read and understand,” Belanger said.

Though part of EZ CERT’s job is to inform brands when franchisees aren’t following guidelines, Groves said he’s been impressed by how receptive CraftWorks franchisees have been. “We’ve done really well across the board,” he said. “Corporate has been actively involved in making the process go smoothly and their communication has allowed for a seamless transition.”

Groves also lauded CraftWorks’ system and franchisee requirements as everything EZ CERT looks for in a system. “The FDD was very well written, which made our job easy and streamlined from square one,” he said. “This helps to protect brands and eliminates risk by ensuring the proper coverage is in place.”

Belanger said EZ CERT’s biggest impact so far has been increasing awareness about insurance compliance across CraftWorks’ franchise system. “We want to make sure we have all of the proper coverage and certificates in place to protect us and our guests,” he said. “Our franchisees appreciate the relationship because it gives them confidence that we as a franchisor have their best interest in mind and are keeping our promises.”

“EZ CERT has been an extremely positive and collaborative partner so far,” Belanger said. “Heath and the team are outstanding executives and true professionals. They’ve been great to work with and I’d recommend them to anyone who needs this service,” he concluded.

Photo courtesy of the CraftWorks Restaurant and Breweries website.