Forge and Smith

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

It is a business in British Columbia that has been in its location for 20 years.

What is your position?

I am the communications coordinator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Forge and Smith?

It was initially to redo the website. It then developed into more comprehensive web and general media strategy. We were looking to do a complete update on the brand. We've had worked with a very large company prior to doing web marketing, and we were rather unhappy with that contract. We terminated it and went in a very different direction, going with a small independent firm at Forge and Smith.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They did full development and design for us. Now they also do social media marketing. We have looked into rebranding different, more tangible promo items, such as business cards. They also worked on our letterhead and various items like that.

How did you come to work with Forge and Smith?

We found them through online research. We had a number of referrals and interviewed a couple of those by phone and had some other companies submit their portfolios. I actually found Forge and Smith online, and asked Shawn [Johnson, founder and principal at Forge and Smith] if he was willing to make a pitch to our office. We were very impressed with the presentation Shawn gave and ultimately selected Forge and Smith.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I believe it was $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first project with them began in October 2014, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We've received a lot of positive feedback from current clients, new clients who have found us online, various colleagues, and people within our field and outside as well, such as suppliers who have been on our website. We are really pleased with the look and feel of the new design.

How did Forge and Smith perform from a project management standpoint?

Forge and Smith was very deadline focused and have adhered to all the deadlines they had set. I was never wondering when I was going to hear from them. If they didn't meet the deadline, it was because they had already met it a week in advance. They're very organized. They have a very solid core group of people that I communicate with, and it's been seamless.

What distinguishes Forge and Smith from other providers?

They have a kind of IT [information technology] forward-thinking approach, and a design insight that I don't think is very common in our local area. I know that it's a very competitive market, but it's a market that had appeared very stale to me, coming from a couple other cities abroad working within this field. They were able to compete on a more international scale, although that's not their particular focus right now. They have a design that is a lot more forward thinking. I wanted something that that I could look at in another country and not seem like we were 10 years behind in design.

Is there anything Forge and Smith could have improved or done differently?

We communicate through Basecamp and, with Basecamp, you don't know if they are monitoring it, and that can be by choice on their end. If I submit something, I know that it will get sorted out, but I don't know how soon. I would like if there was a feature like an online chat, therefore having a better of a sense of what the timeframe for response will be now that the bulk of the website, and the web marketing is complete.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for the Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine. We're a private medical clinic specializing in reproductive endocrinology and fertility.

What is your position?

I am the business manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Forge and Smith?

I think this is our fourth website. We had one when we first opened 10 years ago, and that lasted a couple of months. We had a second developed in a WordPress format, which we were pretty happy with for a couple of years. It was very basic, so we decided to kick it up a notch, and we hired another company to give us a more professional, polished look. That website probably lasted for two or three years. 

We were pretty happy with that website, but we really wanted to make some design changes, and they were very template based and couldn't give us what we wanted. We were given examples of sites that we liked, but they were very specific about their templates, saying that they had to be that way in order for Google Analytics to work, so we started looking at other web designers.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Forge and Smith did design, development, and now they're doing the social media piece. I should add that the social media piece and the Google Analytics are areas that we've never successfully been able to do in-house because that's not our focus. They've been really supportive with that.

More importantly, we had done a survey a few months before we implemented another website and found out from our survey that 75 percent of our customers are going directly to the web. We had been doing a lot of newspaper advertising, some magazines, and presentations. That's when we realized we needed to redirect our marketing resources and decided to try a more web or social media approach. It was basically experimental. I think we've had three reports now from Forge and Smith which have proven to be quite eye opening.

How did you come to work with Forge and Smith?

We came across Forge and Smith through web searches. We liked some of the designs so we gave them a call. We were actually ready to hire another company. Forge and Smith were very responsive to our call. I think Shawn [Johnston, founder and principal at Forge and Smith] had a proposal to us within three days. He came in to do the presentation and it was very impressive. The thing we liked most about his presentation was their ability to support us after the design with Google Analytics and strategic social media, which is proving to be incredibly useful.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative?

I think initially the website was about $13,000. We're paying another $3,000 a month right now, which is quite reasonable for what we're getting and we're quite happy at this point.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them right before Christmas, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We get the Google Analytics and social media monthly reports from them with corresponding action items so that we can increase our reach. They review what's happening as far as traffic on the website. We never used to do Twitter, so they helped us get Twitter up, and we got a lot more aggressive with Facebook. They introduced us to Hootsuite so that we can start to organize and schedule all these various postings. We got Google+ up. They've come with these and other suggestions that, for the most part, we've implemented have seen more referral traffic through our website.

How did Forge and Smith perform from a project management standpoint?

The project was successful and very well received. We're extremely happy with both the design of the website and their ongoing support. Their implementation timeline for the website – I've never seen anyone do it so quick. They were pushing us, which is unusual. My experience with the other designers is we were pushing them. They did a really good job as a team.

What distinguishes Forge and Smith from other providers?

The monthly follow-up piece is huge. Forge and Smith's designs are wonderful. I like their approach in website design and the navigation, and the nice clean spaces and graphics. Those are all really nice.

Is there anything Forge and Smith could have improved or done differently?

Nothing particularly. I'm really happy with their work.