eHouse Studio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We work for Tetley Tea and my position is National Account and Retail Sales Manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pointer, and what were your goals?

Our website was not shoppable and outdated. We asked Pointer to create a Shopify Account that was bold and bright and we wanted it to be shoppable. We are a small team and do not have people within our organization that can develop websites.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We shortlisted two vendors. Pointer was open and honest and we felt a good connection with them. They were a little more expensive but we felt they had specialists that would do the job correctly the first time.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had a kick off meeting. Pointer had a wonderful project manager and provided realistic timelines. We worked in phases, Discovery, Design, Logistics and Pain points. Everything went remarkably smoothly. We used Shopify, various apps that pointer suggested.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

• Mack -director presented to us
• Emily - our account manager, managed the project
• Ryan -design
• Dustin -design
• Becky-logistics

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We have just launched so we are excited to see how the results will be. We really enjoyed working with the Pointer team so we have now asked them to make changes to our teapigs Shopify site.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had project meeting and ensured all the right people were on the call. This occurred weekly. Communication was through emails and Zoom calls. Emily was always there to remind us what had to be done by when. Whenever we request any changes, they quickly finish it.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Just the level of communication, how they actively listened to us and what we wanted ahead of time so not many changes needed to be made. They were also fun and looked as though they loved their jobs.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and COO of Bushbalm Inc., a B2C skincare company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointer?

We were looking to align ourselves with the other players of our industry and branch out to other areas, so we needed someone to provide us with web development and design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pointer brought our brand to an entirely new level by providing us with Shopify e-commerce development. They built the site with SEO in mind to make sure we had all the appropriate meta fields available to us and as a result, we were able to get a speedy and high-performing platform.

Furthermore, they were also able to source and recommend photographers for us and designed all of our creative assets.

What is the team composition?

I was in direct contact with Ryan ( Head of Strategy), Nicole (Producer), a senior designer, and about 2–3 developers.

How did you come to work with Pointer?

We connected with Pointer through our previous experience working at Shopify.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested somewhere between $150,000–$200,000 CAD (approximately $117,500–$150,700 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2021–February 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

One metric I’d like to highlight is how Pointer was able to significantly increase our order value by $10, having gone from $75 to $85, and even as far as $92. So they not only helped us improve our cart value, but they also helped us maintain our conversion rate.

How did Pointer perform from a project management standpoint?

They were fantastic from a project management standpoint, as they kept constant communications and monitored all our timelines and requirements to ensure we always met our launch dates.

We typically interacted through phone calls, emails, and Slack, while we used Google Spreadsheets and Docs to manage our project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with their level of organization and ability to set clear expectations and stick to timelines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It sounds like I’m gushing over them, but they were just a dream to work with so I’m not sure if they could’ve done anything differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To get the most out of working with Pointer, I would suggest organizing yourself first before engaging with them and being prepared to provide them with what they need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior brand manager for Fable and Mane, a haircare brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointer?

We wanted to create a new website, as our previous website was very insufficient.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed and developed our website from scratch through a collaborative process. We gave them our brand guidelines and assets and they replatformed it, moving from WooCommerce to Shopify.

What is the team composition? 

We worked a lot with the account manager, who relayed our feedback to the rest of her team. At the beginning of the process, we worked with the design team and then transferred to a development team when it was required. There were interactions with others, but we mostly spoke with our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Pointer?

Our co-founder found a website they’d created for a past client.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–November 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We managed to launch the new website right before Black Friday whicih allowed us to take advantage of several sales we were running. Traffic and sales both impressed us over the holiday, and conversion rates also grew. Overall, the website offers an easier experience for consumers making purchases.

The solution is interactive and fluid, incorporating most of our brand assets and adhering to the staged plan that our co-founders envisioned. The website accurately tells our brand story and will be able to grow with our needs. It’s much easier to add features now than it was prior.

How did Pointer perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management and communication are really good. We tend to reply a bit late on our side, but they manage us well. The fact that we finished on track is due to their organized management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re still planning on working with them on ad hoc projects, which speaks to their quality. There weren’t any surprises.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would have been great to have even more support on the digital side to connect all the different applications right before launch, like Google Analytics. Of course, Pointer helped us some, but those services aren’t the core of what they do. It’s just tricky for us to do because we don’t have an in-house developer. Overall, there was nothing much for them to improve.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make the most of the calls and the resources that they give. It’s more on you to limit the number of rounds of feedback because that can delay the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital marketing and e-commerce at Colorescience, a professional skincare brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointer?

We realized it would take a long time to implement certain features into our custom e-commerce platform, so we decided to move to Shopify and needed help with the migration process. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pointer helped us migrate to Shopify. We first laid out all our functional requirements. Since our goal was for the new site to mirror the old one, we made sure to describe all the intricacies of our custom platform.

After they finished the website, they continued to maintain and optimize it for a year.

What is the team composition?

During the migration, our main point of contact was Sam (Team Lead). Then, Stacey (Account Manager) took over during the maintenance period. There was also a team of developers working in the background.

How did you come to work with Pointer?

We did a lot of research, but they were actually a recommendation from our VP of marketing’s former coworker. They had worked with Pointer and were happy with the results, so we decided to reach out. 

During the RFP process, Pointer came out as the strongest and most cost-effective agency.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a total of $190,000. The migration cost about $100,000, and the retainer cost $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from January 2020–July 2021. They finished the migration by July 2020, and we then had them maintain the site for a year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Pointer did a great job of making the website a replica of our old one. Furthermore, moving to Shopify has allowed us to quickly implement the optimizations we needed. We’ve added additional payment methods, cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and other Shopify widgets.

Our internal team was also able to manage the site more efficiently because it was easy to use Shopify. We no longer had to rely on developers, which has saved us a lot of time. 

Due to our ability to quickly deploy features, we also saw a lot of our metrics increase. After the migration, we saw a 16% increase in conversion rate and a 20% boost in traffic, which were really strong gains. 

On mobile, our conversion rate and traffic grew by 28% and 26%, respectively. Furthermore, our engagements metrics improved. We reduced our bounce rate by 84% and increased our revenue by 40%. 

How did Pointer perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was excellent. They expedited the migration process and finished within 6–7 months. We used Asana to keep track of the project, and the team did a great job of neatly outlining all of the steps.

Pointer was an excellent team — they were communicative and accessible whenever we had urgent concerns. We just reached out whenever we needed them, and they quickly solved problems within a couple of hours. Additionally, we had weekly calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They truly excelled in project management. The Pointer team worked quickly to build out the functionalities we needed. They showed a strong sense of urgency for essential matters. 

Furthermore, they were responsive and provided updates very frequently. I never had to follow up with them about anything because they never let any task fall through the cracks. Pointer also had a great energy that made it a pleasure to work with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could’ve provided more suggestions in terms of strategy. For example, at some point, we asked for a feature that ended up not working with the other elements of our site, and they could’ve used their expertise to identify if it was going to work or not before implementing it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very thorough with your functional requirements. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for Shopify experts.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the chief operating officer at a DTC CPG company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pointer, and what were your goals?

We hired Pointer to design and build out a top notch DTC CPG website on Shopify.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We spoke with a number of potential vendors and decided to work with Pointer based on their price, value, responsiveness, and expertise. And because we were impressed with their prior work and had heard good things.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Our project manager Sam was absolutely exceptional! She led us through the whole process -- told us what we would do, what the time line would be, and kept us up-to-date on an ongoing basis. Everything went exactly as planned, which felt like a miracle!

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Sam was our main point of contact, but we also had contact with probably 5-6 other folks on the Pointer team whenever it made sense to discuss an area that required their expertise.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We haven't launched the site yet, but by all accounts it is a beautifully-designed website, with great functionality and will be a smash hit when we do go live in the next couple of months.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We used slack and email, and Sam was extremely on top of every project detail. There was never a moment that we didn't know exactly where we were, what was next, and when we had to provide feedback or information by.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The entire Pointer team was a pleasure to work with. They were super organized. Very talented at what they do. And somehow kept everything right on schedule, despite us not always making it easy on them to do so!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Honestly, this experience was about as good as one can be. I would highly recommend working with Pointer for any and all web development and design services. They are professionals and phenomenal at what they do!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of eCommerce for a Canadian eyewear company. We sell online in Canada but also internationally. We also have retail stores across Canada.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pointer, and what were your goals?

Our website wasn't built on any eCommerce platform. It was time consuming for our developers to maintain and did not give enough flexibility for the eCommerce team. We wanted to build a new website leveraging Shopify in order to gain velocity but to also offer a better customer experience to our visitors.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

After doing some researches, Pointer was shortlisted with 2 other agencies. After doing discovery phases with them, we were confident that they would be the best agency to partner with. They convinced us that they knew how to build amazing customer experience on Shopify but the most important for us, built a private app that would sync our ERP to Shopify.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Pointer had the mandate to build the website based on wireframes that was doing previously by another consulting firm. They also had to do an ERP integration via a private app. They had to build two websites with different needs (different inventory level, products availability, etc.).

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked mostly with 2 people. There was an account manager / customer success manager and their Director of System Integrations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

After launching, we were able to see an increase in conversion rate due to the great customer experience the new website offers. Although, the biggest gain for our company is the gain in flexibility and velocity that the website offers. They built it in ways that allows marketing & eCommerce departments to quickly make changes.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Pointer's team did a good job at project management. We had Zoom calls on a weekly basis and we were also actively talking on their Slack Channel. They always answered our questions in a timely manner. We also used Asana to track deliverables.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are passionate about Shopify and know what they are doing. They were always professional and answered any questions (related to the project or not). They also have frontend developers that have backgrounds in design. That helps a lot for the UX of the website and offers an amazing customer experience to the visitors.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Not really, they did an amazing job. I definitely recommend their work to anyone looking for an agency to build a website on Shopify.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of an e-commerce business that sells a large variety of crystals and subscriptions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointer?

We were trying to enhance our website and UX to bring a modern and advanced customer shopping experience, upgraded features, and improved design. We also wanted to collect more data about our customers and increase our overall conversion rate.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

They overhauled our Shopify website, creating an entirely new solution. Our agreement was that they develop a custom solution, but I realized that our site used a template that appeared to be copied from another one of their client’s websites. It looked almost identical to ours, with a couple of different widgets. The type of scrolling was even the same. The template might have been original to Pointer, but they had us under the impression that our website was going to be custom. Pointer also installed several unfamiliar third-party apps and search filter bars that slowed our website down incredibly. Finally, they built a quiz for the site that asked 15 questions and then showed the customer one product.

We were supposed to launch in early October but that dragged on, and we didn’t end up launching until several days after Black Friday, which is our busiest time of year. Unfortunately, they didn’t test anything before launching the site. They created something that looked beautiful but didn’t work or function how we needed it to.

What is the team composition?

They had me on a couple of calls over the months, and I would say that I dealt with 8–10 different people between developers and project managers. Originally, there was Mack (Director of Client Services), and then he dropped off and said that Leah (Team Lead) was our project manager. We dealt with her for a long time. She kept promising all these things, and when she didn’t follow through, Mack would apologize. It was a very strange dynamic. Eventually, Leah dropped off of the project, and we dealt primarily with Mack again.

How did you come to work with Pointer?

Pointer was a referral of a referral, from a trusted person to a friend. They seemed credible based on their team size, cost, and impressive portfolio. Further, we run everything on Shopify, and Pointer prides themselves on being a Shopify Plus partner. Their sales tactics made me feel like I was in good hands, so I didn’t question things. As time went on, our relationship became more and more of a nightmare.

How much have you invested in them?

They initially gave us two prices — $60,000 and $90,000 — and said that it would be better if we paid more to get more features. Not only did the website cost us $90,000, but it also cost us the losses from our holiday season, as well as time, headaches, and our reputation with customers.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started at the end of May 2020, and the project ended in December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve? 

I had a Zoom call with all of them on the scheduled launch date, and they said they uploaded the wrong code. It was a disaster. The morning of the actual launch, they showed me stock photos of the over 100 types of crystals we sell and said that if I wanted to use them, then I had to purchase them, and that they would cost $8,000. Thankfully, we had a lot of our own photographs to use, but they should have included that price in the budget, rather than brought it to us moments before the launch.

I was supposed to preview the site, but Pointer launched it looking like a wreck, with duplicates of all my products (which they did not ask me about) and products that didn’t exist. Additionally, they created a subscription box for a service that didn’t exist. The quiz was the final issue for me. It launched without any analytics or data on our customers, and when I asked them to include that functionality, they quoted me $15,000. When I looked in Shopify’s app store, I saw a downloadable solution for $15 per month. This app also would have provided much more data than Pointer would have.

I messaged them on Instagram, telling them I couldn’t use the website, and that I would never be back, but they grew tired of hearing from me and stopped responding. This was unacceptable, and we involved our lawyer. I have also reached out to Shopify.

When we were on good terms, I referred Pointer to someone else that I know, and they experienced the same situation. I don’t know how much they paid, but they were forced to fire Pointer as well.

It’s unfortunate that Pointer can charge a wild amount of money and have no liability. This is why I reached out to Clutch: if I can tell one person about my honest experience with Pointer, then hopefully something will change. They were great salespeople, but they weren’t honest and didn’t follow through with what they said they were going to do.

How did Pointer address the challenges that arose? 

They couldn’t care less, responding in a passive-aggressive and rude manner. They were not willing to work with us. I am a very small company — I feel like they took advantage of me as a single female founder because I was a low priority. They made countless mistakes and never corrected anything. It’s unfortunate that we paid so much money and Pointer refused to refund us.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

We spent $90,000 and had to throw the website in the trash. We still have it, but we stopped using it one month ago. Since that time, our conversion rate has gone up from 1% to 40%. This was partially because customers couldn’t find the cart on the site that Pointer developed. I would have never imagined that one year after starting with Pointer I would be back to square one with my old theme.  

I’d been working hard up until our engagement to build the data analytics and backlinks for our Google Shopping products. These make a big difference, especially when Google sees that a product has been purchased 1,000 times. Pointer erased all our data and made a brand-new product, causing our SEO and position on Google to tank. I couldn’t figure out the cause, so I had a professional look into it. They discovered that something out of the ordinary happened to our account on the sixth of the month, but Pointer wouldn’t answer my questions about it. They gave me nothing but a bad attitude and carelessness. It didn’t matter to them that they ruined my business and forced me to do several month’s-worth of clean-up work.

How was project management handled?

We had weekly calls and check-ins. Everything went smoothly in the beginning, but once the launch date grew closer, I started getting more aggressive. I needed to see the design, and they only showed me basic photos. COVID-19 is one thing, but when you charge a client $90,000, everyone needs to be on the same page. It was a very important project, and no one was coordinated or synced up; Pointer was all over the place.

Dealing with the launch was incredibly overwhelming — everything that was wrong made up an avalanche — and they were most likely overwhelmed too because they were dealing with a lot of other things. They truly didn’t put their thought into the website and didn’t understand our products.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

Pointer excelled at selling us the dream and making us feel confident that they knew what they were doing. They told me I was amazing and their dream client throughout the whole project. I don’t know if that’s a strength because it was all false.

In what specific areas can they improve?

There should have been direct accountability. Because they seemed organized, I assumed Pointer was utilizing a master list of all of our calls. When I was on a call with our lawyer trying to ask Pointer for the breakdown of their hours, they said that they couldn’t give that to me. Any other graphic designer, marketer, or developer always logs their hours. My brain hurts when I think about how Pointer values themselves at $90,000 and then dropped off the project.

The designer and Leah were both made very useful recommendations, and they had a lot of good feedback, but none of those things came to light when they presented the site.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Be very cautious if someone tries to charge you a lot of money because technology has come a long way over the years. There are a lot of great apps out there and a lot of affordable developers who are willing to work with you and are capable of building world-class websites. Shopify has a lot of amazing apps that people should utilize depending on what they’re looking for. Shop around and get quotes from different people.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the e-commerce manager of a kitchenware company, and we sell products for businesses and consumers. Our primary products are cookware and small appliances.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointer?

We were looking to upgrade our e-commerce website and bring it up to speed. We wanted to increase our overall conversion rates, performance, and overall value to provide a better e-commerce experience for our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, we went into a discovery phase where we discussed what we were looking for. Pointer went through everything, point by point, and then essentially created a job to begin the work. They touched on all the points that we needed, including increasing our conversion rate and bettering the design of our website. They worked on a theme, but it was heavily customized so it was basically a rebuild of my prior website.

Additionally, Pointer also recommended some review software such as the Yotpo platform, and a few payment options such as PayBright — this allowed customers to make payments over time or on a monthly basis. A lot of the apps were already on my prior website, so their main focus was to increase the website speed and overall UX development and imaging design.

We’ve actually done two websites with them recently. We finished our Canadian website, which is our main business, and we just launched a US website that launched a month ago. Now, I essentially have them for any future projects as things come up, which they always do in e-commerce. We reach out to them and they've been happy to continue supporting us.

What is the team composition?

I work with an account manager, who would essentially relay the information that I have to the design team. I also work with designers, and front- and backend developers. 

How did you come to work with Pointer?

I checked around and saw some really good reviews about Pointer on the web. I then reached out to our Shopify account representative, and they gave us a shortlist of companies to look at. One of our main requirements was to work with somebody within our budget, and they were able to meet that.

The reviews out there for them were fantastic and I was able to see some of their work, which also looked fantastic.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve probably invested between $100,000–$150,000 USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership started in January 2020, and it’s still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We had a substantial boost in our conversion rate, and our website speed increased quite dramatically as well. We also experienced a boost in our sales from our online channels and the overall customer satisfaction has increased. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from customers saying our website is easy to navigate, compared to our old website.

How did Pointer perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve had experience working with another company, so I do know that things can be a nightmare — but Pointer has been excellent from beginning to end. They meet and exceed all their timelines, and deliver what they promise. I’ve been with other companies in the past, I’ve been at this for about 12 years now and I’ve probably built 4–5 different websites, but this far exceeded all of them.

We primarily communicate through Google Meet and Zoom. Pointer is a very professional company that always responds to questions on time. They’re more of a partner than anything. They’re with us the whole way, even after the launch of our first website, we had some minor issues which they were very attentive to. By the time we launched our second website, we had zero issues, because they were very proactive in making sure that there were no problems on our second launch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed by Pointer’s understanding of the e-commerce industry and their attentiveness to their customers. They’re very patient and calm and they provide us with very accurate responses to our questions and concerns — alleviating any issues and making sure everything was working okay.

At first, I was a little bit skeptical of how quickly they understood my requests, because I had to explain it at least ten times to prior companies I’ve worked with — and they would still mess up. With Pointer, one explanation is enough.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing that would stand out. I have built several other sites in past, and this was the smoothest experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to have all your requirements clearly and concisely outlined for the team at Pointer. The better your communication is the faster the product and scope of work will be completed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a direct-to-consumer glasses company that focuses on reading and blue light glasses. I’m the senior manager of digital growth. I’m responsible for our site and other digital operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointer?

We were looking to level up our e-commerce platform from a look and functionality perspective. Our previous partner was good, but we thought Pointer would help us go to the next level with Shopify.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came up with a list of all of our requirements for a site refresh. They put together a workbook with everything for the scope and design. We went through several iterations in Figma for our different webpages and other aspects of our site for the design.

We then began the process of getting everything up. We also went through a rigorous QA phase before relaunching the site.

What is the team composition?

We worked closely with Mack (Director of Commerce), Emily (Account Manager), and Kyle (Frontend Developer). Emily was our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Pointer?

We did an intensive search for design and development agencies. We focused on agencies that only work in Shopify. One of the issues we had with our previous vendor was that they worked on all of these different platforms, so we found it hard to make our imagination come to life since they weren’t experts in Shopify.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in late August 2020. The refreshed site was launched in early February 2021, but we’re in a retainer relationship with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our conversation rate has moved in the right direction. Our site speed has also improved. The general reaction from customers has also been positive. Once we launched, we didn’t hear any questions from them about the site, which we found to be a success.

The team is incredible to work with. The last week before launch, we had daily touchpoints with them where we got to work through a laundry list with them that covered QA issues and other areas. They were very willing to make last-minute updates that weren’t in the initial scope because they knew it would improve the overall site experience.

How did Pointer perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, their team was professional, organized, and responsive. They handled everything we put together in the roadmap, and they stuck to deadlines. Everything was clearly documented. We used Notion for project management, but I’m not sure what they used internally. We primarily communicated through email and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re excellent when it comes to design and development. Their level of customer service is outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really, I can’t think of anything. It was a good experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more you’re responsive to them, the more you’ll get responsiveness out of them. I was very engaged, which helped them buy into the success of the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the Website & Design Manager at Aisle. We make sustainable, high performance period products for every body. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pointer?

We rebranded a 20+ year old company (whew) and hired Pointer to redesign our website to match.

What were your goals for this project?

To redefine the period aisle and reestablish ourselves as leaders in the menstrual care space.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We've admired their design work for years and knew they would be the right fit for this project. Being Canadian helped too. 

Describe the project in detail.

Pointer refreshed and redesigned our entire website.

We kicked things off with a discovery process. They sent us a UX/UI visual design questionnaire to fill out, and we shared our brand guide, design brief, sitemap, and mood board with them. We reviewed the existing website together to determine what we wanted to keep, change, or let go of. We collaborated on the creative direction for our first post-rebrand photoshoot, which really helped us clarify/refine our new look.

What was the team composition?

Everyone at Pointer contributed in some way. I communicated regularly with an account manager (you're #1, SL), who was a super-organized and responsive to all of my questions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We get tons of positive feedback and are so proud to show off our new website. Our values as a company are better expressed now than ever before, and our conversion rate has improved too.

We had great calls with Pointer's director of design and creative director, who completely got our whole vibe and would not let us be mediocre (you were 100% right about that font). Their director of development generously stepped in to save the day when we had some after-hours issues in the final stretch. It really felt like the whole team was genuinely invested in our success, and that meant a lot to us.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

This project was highly collaborative, with lots of moving parts and a short deadline, so the workflow could be rigorous at times. I would strongly recommend getting your internal team organized and aligned before engaging Pointer. They run a tight ship, and you should be prepared to do the same. 

Page designs were reviewed and discussed over a series of video calls, and then I would synthesize our feedback into PDFs of action items. Communication with our account manager totally exceeded all expectations. We had some challenges with production delays on our end, and a quiz that was more complex to build out than originally expected, but Pointer made it happen for us - and right on schedule. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Our account manager really was the best. Her organizational skills and careful attention to detail made me feel supported and confident that nothing would be missed. I also really appreciated the creative/design team's efforts to consider our wishes while still firmly maintaining their pov to get us a successful end result - they struck a great balance here imo. Your style and expertise is why we hired you, so thanks for pushing us to take risks!

Are there any areas for improvement?

We've built a lot of websites over the years, but I think our engagement with Pointer has been our most successful website collab to date. My only advice is to be sure you're all on the same page and clearly communicating your expectations.