Insurance Compliance Among Nékter Juice Bar Franchisees Spikes After Teaming Up with EZ CERT

When Nékter Juice Bar first opened its doors for business back in 2010, it never could have imagined the rapid growth headed its way. The concept took off, with consumers and entrepreneurs both clamoring for a chance to be a part of it. That’s why it launched a franchising opportunity—Nékter Juice Bar wanted to expand in communities across the country.

However, that kind of growth leads to changes. With 83 locations currently up and running in six different states and 100 units expected to be open by the end of the year in 10 or 11 states, the processes that once worked for the brand needed to be adjusted. So instead of tracking its franchisee’s insurance compliance through an excel spreadsheet in-house, Nékter Juice Bar started looking for other options. When they found EZ CERT, they realized they discovered a solution.

Partnership with ez cert

“We first came across EZ CERT at a franchise conference in San Diego, where we learned that they could do all of our insurance certification tracking for us. Since we aren’t insurance certificate experts, we decided to look into teaming up with them,” said Chris Turpin, vice president of franchise operations for Nékter Juice Bar. “As we passed their information around the office, the idea of working with them became more and more appealing. And it turns out that our intuition was right—we’ve been working with them since the beginning of 2017, and we haven’t looked back.”

EZ CERT takes an active approach to achieving high rates of compliance—the brand tracks and measures insurance certificates to ensure that franchisees’ small problems don’t become large issues for franchisors. When local owners don’t have the right insurance, it opens up the door to the risk of litigation. That’s why EZ CERT makes it a priority to monitor insurance certificates on the individual franchisee level.

“After we started working with EZ CERT, we saw a six or seven-fold increase in our compliance—now, our rate is in the 60 to 70 percent range. And it continues to climb every month as we bring new franchisees on board and legacy owners have the chance to learn more about what EZ CERT has to offer,” Turpin said.

Time and compliance benefits

In addition to keeping up with franchisees’ insurance certificates, EZ CERT also saves the Nékter Juice Bar team time. The brand no longer needs to manage annual policy renewals and periodic updates to Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDD), meaning that it can focus on moving its ongoing development initiatives forward.

“EZ CERT’s reporting is second to none—it’s fantastic. Their team is constantly sending us updates to let us know what’s outstanding, what they have achieved and what our franchisees have been able to accomplish when it comes to insurance compliance. Having that type of information at our disposal is invaluable, and it’s clear that it’s helping our brand,” said Turpin.

Adding EZ CERT to the Nékter Juice Bar brand was seamless—the transition of responsibility surrounding insurance certificates was smooth. And now, EZ CERT is a part of the brand’s development process from the get-go, ultimately providing value from the moment a franchise agreement is signed.

“New franchisees coming into our system don’t know anything else. EZ CERT is built right into our system now—from day one, our local owners are aware of what they need to do in order to be in full compliance with our insurance standards,” said Turpin. “EZ CERT’s insurance certificate tracking solution is an integral part of the Nékter Juice Bar brand. They’ve taken that work off of our plates, and their expertise is leading to results.”