InsideOut Solutions Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please give a brief description of your company.

Azalea Inn is a bed and breakfast inn with 10 rooms located in the Landmark Historic District of Savannah, Georgia. The inn is an upscale property with swimming pool, indoor and outdoor seating areas, and is well known for their hospitality, breakfast, and desserts.

What is your role at the company?

I am the owner and innkeeper for now 10 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached InsideOut?

Our website had been a workhorse for exposure to the new world of Internet travel searches, but began to lose ground as changes in technology, Google searches, ranking, and so on played a more prominent role in Internet searches.

What were your company's business goals for the project?

We desired a fresh face to our website with content that addressed the needs of our clients from landing page through room pages, calendar of events to blogs, breakfast to dessert, and all in between. We wanted SEO [search engine optimization] combined with the new website which would result in prominent placement to capture the eyes of our traveling public.

Can you talk about the scope of the project?

We have built two complete websites with InsideOut, the most recent being less than a year old. This second time, it was extremely important to have a responsive website, and we needed to add an entirely new arm of our business – vacation rentals.

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting InsideOut?

My first encounter with InsideOut took place at a tradeshow connected to our industry – innkeeping. I interviewed three website development companies at that show, and ultimately chose InsideOut.

My criteria during our first encounter was timing from development to launch, combined with a cost I could afford as a then three-year-old company, still in the buildup stage. The packages offered between all three companies held similar components, but at very different costs. I eliminated the first company as the cost was not within our budget. The second company and InsideOut offered very competitive packages and had a similar timeline for delivery.

The decision to go with InsideOut was a matter of comfort. The team listened to my questions, shared their ideas, gave me their thoughts on development and, most importantly, were willing to work with me to get what I need, not just what I could afford. The InsideOut team offered me a monthly payment plan. So, quite simply, they took my best interests, made it their best interests, and helped me achieve my goals.

Can you give a sense of the size of the project?

The first website cost $8,500 and was completed in September 2010. The second website cost $8,320 and was completed in December 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did InsideOut perform?

Wildly wonderfully. I still feel like a new bride whenever I look at the work of art they have created for my business – all glowing and full of smiles and a look to the future of what is to be.

When working with InsideOut, was there anything unique or special about them that really makes them stand out?

The entire cast of characters – yes, they have some characters – at InsideOut are professional in every aspect of their job, but they also have a softer side to the business that makes you feel like you are part of their working family, but not a dysfunctional family. I have never felt like my questions or concerns were being met with a roll of the eyes, or a heavy sigh. No matter my level of sophistication in any of my questions or concerns, I was addressed at a level that met my needs and never made me feel like I was interrupting their busy day with another irritating question.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that they could improve or you would do differently?

Actually, no. I firmly believe that you hire the best to do those things that you have no skill in, and that you need to trust the advice given. The wonderful thing about working with InsideOut is that this developed trust is never taken advantage of. They deliver exactly what they promise and often more.

What advice would you give to a future client of theirs?

Communicate, give feedback, ask questions, and listen to their advice.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We actually have three companies that do business with InsideOut. We do business with them through The Croff House, which is a bed and breakfast located here in Hudson, New York; Enchanted Properties, which is a rental property company in Costa Rica; and The Barlow, which is a hotel here in Hudson that opened in 2013.

What are your role and responsibilities?

I'm the owner of all three companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal in working with InsideOut Solutions?

We were just launching the business, so the objective was to make sure I didn't go bankrupt. Beyond that, our objective obviously was to stay on brand, to design our website as we needed it to operate and function, and to make sure the most current technologies were available to us.

Please describe the scope of their work.

Basically, they handle all of our Web design. They do brand management, brand design, and logo design and then parlay that into a Web presence, assisting with our marketing materials, and really giving us some direction.

SOLUTION

What was your process in selecting InsideOut Solutions?

It was a no-brainer because they had already worked with us on several of our other companies. Initially, our selection criteria were that we needed to find somebody who had experience with website design, a familiarity with the hospitality business and who was comfortable working with businesses that were not particularly large. There were several such companies out there, and in varying price ranges, and we picked InsideOut at that point because of their experience level as well as their reasonable pricing.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

The website design was between $6,000 and $10,000. Beyond that, it was logo construction and marketing ideas, and that was about $2,000 each time.

Do you remember when you started working with them? Are you still currently working with them?

It would have been probably November 2008. We are still working with InsideOut.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

I have no quantifiable information that I can supply, only because there is no basis of comparison since we've never worked with any other marketing or Web design firm. That being said, we are the No. 1 bed and breakfast in Hudson, New York. We are the number one hotel in Hudson. We were just awarded a TripAdvisor Hall of Fame entry for the Croff House, and we've won a certificate of excellence for both properties for the past five years.

So, I think that is all reflective of the quality of their work as well as integrating and keeping our solutions up to date. For example, we don't take any reservations at the Barlow with the telephone. Everything has to be done online through our secured servers. So, we're able to monetize our cost savings for staff and personnel.

Is there anything unique about InsideOut Solutions that really makes them stand out compared to other companies?

I would say that it is a personal connection with our properties. On the surface, you might think that having our marketing partner in Washington state for a property that is located on the East Coast makes no sense. But, for us, they have always understood our marketing position and what we're trying to achieve, which clearly is three distinct visions for three distinct businesses. This actually gives us a unique perspective to see that they're not just saying the same thing repeatedly because we've actually worked with them on three different projects.

So, clearly, they bring a personal point of view and a personal touch to each project that they're doing. That allows them to capture the nature and essence of the property and convey that to people who aren't necessarily familiar with the properties. That's what marketing's all about. 

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

No. They are very responsive to requests and on top of the new technology. It's very easy for marketing firms to want to constantly reinvent the wheel and, quite frankly, churn through clients' money. That's not what they do. They're very candid and upfront about telling us that given our market position, we really wouldn't necessarily benefit significantly by constantly revising their work. I think that's a really smart business position to take and one that I really think differentiates them. It really shows me that they're not just looking at the marketing of my business, they're looking at how my business functions as a holistic entity.

What advice would you give a future client of theirs?

I would advise them to listen to what InsideOut is saying. I would advise them to communicate what their objectives are. It's very unfair for anyone to expect a vendor to know exactly what you want. You can't have vague goals like, I want to increase my web traffic, or I want to be the number one hospitality in my area. Instead, you really have to say specifically that this is what you want to achieve, and you have to communicate that to InsideOut. They will really listen to you and deliver against that.