Digital Design for Auto Insurance Company
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Other Design
- $50,000 to $199,999
- July 2015 - July 2017
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"Balkan Brothers is excellent in terms of overall speed, efficiency, and quality."
- Financial services
- United States
- 10,001+ Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Balkan Brothers supplemented a large insurance company’s design team to redesign a website. The team helped with frontend design to refresh the brand in this 2-year project.
The designs created have done very well in user testing. Balkan Brothers create outstanding designs and are open to feedback and direction on their work. They are up-to-date on project management technologies and are easy to reach.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the senior manager in charge of experience design for a large insurance company.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Balkan Brothers?
We were a little bit short-staffed and in need of design help, so we reached out to Balkan Brothers. We have a complex product, and the insurance industry is pretty boring. It's not as if we're developing sites like what Nike, Apple, Google, or other tech startups are creating. We're creating insurance sales flows, and it's complicated.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Balkan Brothers has helped us with digital design and front-end development on a number of projects. It's a major two-year project that they're helping us out on, so it's not going to launch until the middle of next year [2017]. Essentially, Balkan Brothers has worked hand in hand with our team to create original designs for web and mobile experiences. They've taken those designs, prototyped them, and built them out. For one project, we wanted multiple concepts, so we worked with Balkan Brothers and another freelancer at the same time. We ended up going with the direction that Balkan Brothers came up with.
How did you come to work with Balkan Brothers?
We looked at Dribble, Behance, and other design community sites and found the work that Balkan Brothers was doing. We reached out to them and they responded to us right away. We set up a call for the next morning via Google Hangouts. We had great chemistry, and they were eager to collaborate with us. Balkan Brothers was also able to get started right away, so it was an easy process to select them.
How much have you invested with Balkan Brothers?
During the course of the past year, we've probably spent between $40,000 to $60,000 with Balkan Brothers.
What is the status of this engagement?
Our involvement with Balkan Brothers kicked off sometime last year. I don't have an exact date, but it was probably around the third quarter of 2015. First, we asked them to do a small project, and that turned out well, so we've been working with them ever since.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
We haven't launched the project yet, but we've done user testing and focus groups for the designs created by Balkan Brothers. The results show that, nine times of 10, their work is outstanding. Our internal business stakeholders and internal customers have been happy with their work. There's always a risk for combativeness when working with outside designers, but we have not encountered that issue with Balkan Brothers. They've been open about our feedback and direction. It's a two-way street with them. Our designers don't feel like they're working with an outside company. They feel like the Balkan Brothers designers are an extension of our team. Balkan Brothers work efficiently and quickly, so we don't have to wait for days or weeks to get something back. We see results the next day or a couple of days later. Balkan Brothers is excellent in terms of overall speed, efficiency, and quality.
How did Balkan Brothers perform from a project management standpoint?
I don't know if it's a weakness, but I can definitely tell they're a small shop. They have three guys, and I think they use some freelancers sometimes. But, if there's something that is extremely urgent, the Balkan Brothers team is very responsive. We have many means of communication, and we're constantly going back and forth about changes. Typically, we use Google Hangouts for phone calls and video conference calls so that we can share screens. We use Slack and Basecamp for project management like to-do lists and uploading files. We also use EnVision for reviewing work. They're up-to-date on all of the latest software, apps, and sites. I think we stretched their capabilities and resources when we had them work on a second project concurrently a few months back. We noticed a little lag on their part, but it just happened once or twice. We were aware of it, and they let us know that they were working on projects for other clients. I think any small agency with just a couple people is going to have those issues. They communicated that to us, and we didn't have any false expectations.
What did you find most impressive about Balkan Brothers?
I work with many outside vendors and external third-party design and development shops. One of the things that stood out was how easily Balkan Brothers ingrained themselves into our process. Typically, when we work with outside shops, it's hard for people to understand what we do, why we do certain processes, and how things function. I'm not sure that the Balkan Brothers team totally comprehends everything we do, but it's never been a roadblock. They just do what we tell them to do, and they enhance the areas that they can using visual design. Balkan Brothers doesn't get in the way of the actual functionality and the nature of our sales flow. This is often challenging for outside vendors since they like to have their own spin. They like to understand it and, sometimes, they don't fully understand it, so it's a battle on whose direction to follow. With Balkan Brothers, we never have that issue.
Are there any areas Balkan Brothers could improve?
I think they do an amazing job, given their current resources. I'm surprised that they're not working with big United States brands. I think they probably will at some point when they get some name recognition. They're outstanding.
RATINGS
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Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
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Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
"They always hit every timeline we have."
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Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"Extremely valuable. The cost is low."
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"I’ve already referred them to other people.
