Jordan Crown

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is Pental Granite and Marble. We’re headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and we have branch locations in Fife, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Van Nuys, California. We are a wholesale distributor of natural stones including granite, marble, and quartz slabs. We also offer porcelain, ceramic, and glass tiles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Jordan Crown?

We wanted to redesign our website. It was several years old and needed to be refreshed. We have an in-house designer working in HTML, but there were two pages with specific requirements. One would feature a mapping function that could handle zip code searches. We also wanted a particular design for our blog page. We weren’t able to do all this ourselves and needed outside help.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Jordan Crown developed our site using Wordpress.

How did you come to work with Jordan Crown?

I searched for web developers on Google and called several agencies. After talking to the owner of Jordan Crown, I got the impression that they were knowledgeable in the things that they promised to deliver. Also, I liked the work they had done on other websites.

Even though I could have hired a developer that would have done the work for much less, I might have ended up using a less experienced developer and wouldn’t have had any real confidence in the final quality.

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

The total development cost was $6,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Jordan Crown in July of 2015. The website was completed in September of that year. We still work with them for updates and minor fixes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from your work with Jordan Crown?

Our previous website was outdated and had a dark and heavy look. Working from our previous design, Jordan Crown was able to add more photographs and new elements to redesigned site.

How did Jordan Crown perform from a project management standpoint?

They had an excellent response time. I wish the other agencies we work with were as responsive. When Jordan Crown promises to fix something, it will get done. It was helpful to work with them on the project and have it completed on time.

Is there anything Jordan Crown could have improved or done differently?

I cannot think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are called Allegis Transcription Services. We specialize in transcriptions for the property and casualty insurance industry.

What is your position?

I am a co-founder and president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Jordan Crown?

We were looking to rebuild our website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of Jordan Crown’s involvement.

They designed and developed our website using the Wordpress platform. They’re now involved in its maintenance.

How did you come to work with Jordan Crown?

I found them through a web search. We were specifically looking to build a site using Wordpress, and Jordan Crown stood out for this specialization. We looked over their references, assessed their pricing, and decided to work with them.

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

The total cost was somewhere between $8,000 and $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together last year [2015]. The website was launched after a four-month development period.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from your work with Jordan Crown?

The new website that Jordan Crown made has been very beneficial to our company. All our metrics have improved.

What distinguishes Jordan Crown from other providers?

They’re responsive and cost-effective. We worked with a single designer on their end, and had a very good iterative process.

Is there anything Jordan Crown could have improved or done differently?

No, there isn’t. They delivered well, given our requirements and constraints.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We specialize in transport engineering, urban planning, and landscape architecture for both public and private sector clients.

What is your position?

I’m the marketing communications director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Jordan Crown?

Our goal was updating our website, which was not only outdated in content, but also in terms of functionality. It wasn’t mobile-friendly and lacked other features.

We obtain most of our clients through proposal development. In the public sector especially, proposals are submitted competitively. We wanted our website to reinforce the level of competency and accomplishment found in the relationship we build with our customers through printed material.

Another goal was to attract talent. Clients don’t find engineering firms through Google, but this type of presence is beneficial for finding employees. Our industry is competitive in this regard. We wanted the website to show prospective employees the kind of work we do, and how we stand out within our culture. Jordan Crown got this right from the beginning. This was one of the reasons our firms worked so well together. We have a common culture and philosophy regarding life/work balance and other core values.

The third goal was being able to better demonstrate our competency, allowing existent or potential clients to see the variety of work we do.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with Jordan Crown?

We have an in-house IT department and spent our first two years trying to handle the work ourselves. We employed people that could build from scratch, but because of our growth and competing interests, we didn’t have enough resources to do everything on our own.

The selection process for Jordan Crown was quite extensive. I reached out to colleagues and peers for references on vendors, and also researched firms responsible for competitors’ websites. I then gave the names of those companies to our IT department, which did an initial review of the work regarding overall functionality and backend elements. Based on this, the department would give me a recommendation on whether or not we should use a specific company. I had discussions with ten different vendors, and we interviewed four.

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

The cost for the initial website development was $22,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May of 2015. The website was launched in October of that year.

They do not host the website. Our in-house IT team ensures triple redundancy across three different states. However, we do have a maintenance contract with Jordan Crown.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

A lot of time was put into compiling portfolio projects. We have 100 different examples highlighting our expertise in various areas. Every single one of those included photos and testimonials. These are now used whenever we present proposals to clients, who can go right to the portfolio page and see the different projects we’ve worked on.

What distinguishes Jordan Crown from other providers?

Jordan Crown's responsiveness and intuitiveness sets them apart. We thought we were much more complicated than we were, as a company. We explained what we were trying to do and attempted to determine how to succinctly communicate our image. The first design Jordan Crown came up with distilled things that we viewed as very complicated into a digestible format for the website design.

We appreciated the method that Jordan Crown used for creating a roadmap of the web design process; from the original wireframe, where we could move things around and provide feedback, to their content tool, which allowed combining different types of media. Our site is content-heavy, so having an organizational tool to assist us was very helpful.

Is there anything Jordan Crown could have improved or done differently?

We have actually created a file that included suggestions for their next clients. We want Jordan Crown to be successful, and look forward to working on a new project with them.

One thing that was problematic for us was not understanding the significance of the number of photos that we planned on using. Aside from the 100 project profiles, which can have anywhere from three to ten photos each, we also have photo galleries for our team and our community involvement. It would have been helpful if Jordan Crown had explained the importance of how we needed to handle filtering, naming conventions, and flexibility for changes. Right now, if the same file is hosted on two different pages, changing its size to fit one page will change it on the other. If we’d known this before uploading the content, it would have allowed us to give more thought to long-term maintenance. We had to figure some of these issues out on our own.

Jordan Crown should strive more to let their clients know how a decision can impact the long-term maintenance of their site.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Navia Benefit Solutions is located in Bellevue, Washington. We are an employer services company specializing in tax advantage benefits like flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, and transportation.

What is your position?

I am the software development manager. I oversee the website and internal applications of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Jordan Crown?

We were looking to modernize our website, make it more user-friendly and easier to maintain and present our brand better than the old page. We also wanted a WordPress site and were looking for a firm with such expertise. 

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with Jordan Crown?

I found them through the WordPress website. On one of the main pages, I found a link containing vendors that did design work. Jordan Crown's name came up.

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

The total development cost was in the range of $75,000 to $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2015. The website was launched in September. We haven't done any work with Jordan Crown since then, but we still keep in touch, occasionally asking them questions and looking for their expertise on things that we're doing to enhance the website. They answer any question we have.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from this engagement?

Jordan Crown exceeded our expectations. The quality of the website is great. It captures our brand in a way that our old website did not, and it's much better organized. Jordan Crown was focused on keeping things simple and easy to find. This is especially important since in the benefits world there is a lot of information to organize. We're proud of the site and the way in which it turned out.

They did such a good job of building the website that we've been able to add content and pages ourselves as well as make other updates.

We don't keep very good track of metrics as a company. The qualitative feedback we've gotten from our clients and partners was positive. They like the new website's ease of use, the look of it and the fact that it's responsive. It looks good on tablets and smartphones.

How did Jordan Crown perform from a project management standpoint?

They were easy to work with. Jordan Crown has a certain accessibility that is easy to relate to and worked well for us. They didn't come across as arrogant or elitist. The staff that we worked with was knowledgeable. I felt that they gave us good counseling on design practices and getting our message across in a focused way. Their WordPress knowledge was great. When it came to actually programming our website and optimizing it to do what we wanted, I felt that they did a great job.

Is there anything Jordan Crown could have improved or done differently?

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a construction company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Jordan Crown?

Our old website was out of date and riddled with errors. We needed a new website for marketing our homes better and getting more information to potential buyers. For this purpose, we wanted to implement filter tools, include pictures and present a more modern theme and image.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of your involvement with Jordan Crown.

They developed our website using WordPress.

How did you come to work with Jordan Crown?

We went through a search process for different local companies. Jordan Crown responded well and quickly to our request. We looked at their website and past projects, which showed that they were competent. We liked the WordPress platform they were using. Our information changes a lot, and we wanted to make sure that we could update it ourselves. Their platform seemed to be a good fit for us in terms of its content management system.

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

The total cost of the project was between $16,000 and $18,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Jordan Crown in June 2015, and the website was launched in December of that year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from your work with Jordan Crown?

We use Google Analytics with the new site to determine how many visitors we have. Our old site didn't have that feature. The new page is very easy to update, and WordPress is very easy to use. The site is error free, and everything is working well. 

The launch took longer than we'd have wanted, but that was our choice since we didn't want to launch the site without it being perfect. On our end, we also had some delays in providing Jordan Crown with certain information. Since it launched, we have implemented a couple of add-ons. Jordan Crown was quite willing to help us with this, even though the project had ended.

How did Jordan Crown perform from a project management standpoint?

Collaboration with them was easy. We had a kickoff meeting in person where we explained our goals. After that, we worked with a couple of their team members, going through a wireframe stage and laying out the site's pages, followed by the design phase. They would send us revisions of the work, and we would give feedback on any changes we wanted. Jordan Crown constantly steered us in the right direction. Launching the site was seamless. They took care of the entire process for us.

What distinguishes Jordan Crown from other providers?

Jordan Crown was very quick to respond. They seemed excited about our project and took ownership of it. Although it is ultimately our website, it was their work, and they took pride in it. They sent us design revisions and constantly explained to us what was a good idea or not.

Is there anything Jordan Crown could have improved or done differently?

I can't think of anything at the moment. They were willing to change things if we asked them.

BACKGROUND

Please give me a brief description of your company.

We’re not actually a company, but instead a family that is operating a non-profit charitable foundation.

What is your role at the foundation?

I am the lead family member and a member of the board.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge you were trying to address when you approached Jordan Crown?

We were experiencing numerous communication problems within the family, and lacked a structured means to communicate and collaborate.

What were your goals for working with Jordan Crown?

We wanted to develop a secure family “portal” to keep the family connected and engaged in our charitable foundation. We hoped to encourage information sharing, to centralize family-related data and to build a repository of information and ideas.

SOLUTION

Can you tell me about the scope of the project?

Jordan Crown built a portal from scratch to address these goals, a portal capable of tracking all aspects of family communication.

What was your process for selecting Jordan Crown to work with?

Jordan Crown was the only established, professional developer willing to hear me out on the project. What we were looking for was not at all customary or ordinary, and Jordan Crown went out of the norm to build what we needed.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the project in dollars spent?

I’m sorry, that information is confidential.

When was the project completed?

The project was completed sometime around June 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project?

We now have the ability to communicate as a group, to keep track of that communication and the results.

When working with Jordan Crown, was there anything unique or special about them compared to other companies that you may have worked with?

Jordan Crown was outstanding! They were reliable and dependable, always there for us. They are perfectionists and their attention to detail was amazing.

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

I should have gone to them sooner!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a non-profit organization located in Seattle, Washington.

What is your position?

I am an entrepreneur and have created several different startups and companies within the last seven years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Jordan Crown?

My background is as a business systems analyst. I can articulate technical specs for a product, but I needed a capable team for actually executing the work.

We’ve worked with Jordan Crown in software development, sales and non-profit work throughout several projects.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They developed the website based on my specifications using an existing Wordpress theme. They worked behind the scenes on making the site do exactly what we wanted it to do.

How did you come to work with Jordan Crown?

I was in touch with several developers, either working independently or running small, boutique shops. They all seemed to have a different methodology. Some only wanted to develop everything top to bottom but had a high price. Others wanted to develop custom CMS [content management system solutions], which was not the right choice for me. I wanted to use Wordpress.

Jordan Crown was prepared to stick to my specifications and work collaboratively with me, and their budget was in line with what I wanted to spend. Once we started talking, choosing them was a no-brainer.

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

The total cost of the project was $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our first project in 2013. The work took three months. Once we created the basic site, a few additional features needed to be added.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from your work with Jordan Crown?

Part of the project was making an e-commerce site through Shopify. Jordan Crown modified the store to make it look like our Wordpress site. It’s running flawlessly four years later. This has been the key metric for our organization. Having that store has created a new revenue stream that continues to grow to this day.

How did Jordan Crown perform from a project management standpoint?

Jordan Crown is incredibly responsive, whether we’re working on a new project, or fixing bugs on existing sites. Every time I contact them, they respond incredibly fast. They’re professional; their dialogue is courteous and to the point. I appreciate this, as it enables me to get to the bottom of things.

I don’t write much code, but I have an adequate understanding of it. I liked the way in which they organized themselves. They set up code in separate files and are great at documenting things, which makes it easy to hand over projects to other developers down the road.

When we were working together, they became an extension of our team. We’d communicate daily about the updates and what content was needed. It was nice to interact with them as if they were members of our team.

Even though they’re not a huge shop, they always behaved like they were world class.

What distinguishes Jordan Crown from other providers?

I consider myself to be proficient in Wordpress and content development in general. I can handle CMS tasks but need help when it comes to HTML and CSS. They were always willing to let me take the work as far as I could and pick it up once I get stuck.

Is there anything Jordan Crown could have improved or done differently?

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please provide a brief description of your company.

We are a medical practice in Georgia. We started with five employees and now employ forty. We offer comprehensive dermatologic and dermatologic surgery care, including general dermatology, surgical dermatology, Mohs micrographic and reconstructive surgery, aesthetic dermatology and laser surgery. Our mission is to provide superior skin care to our patients.

What is your role in the company?

I am one of the owners of the practice.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge you were trying to address when you approached Jordan Crown?

We had previously done all of our own IT work, including our website. With all the advances in technology, we finally gave in and opted to let someone else do this for us.

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

Our main objective was to develop an excellent website that reflected our business to the online community.

SOLUTION

Can you tell me about the scope of the project?

The project simply involved taking our existing website, and making it better and more current. We had specific goals, such as increasing our web presence.

What was your process for selecting Jordan Crown to work with?

I researched multiple companies and reviewed and evaluated their websites. Jordan Crown came up many times, so I called them, and they seemed to be a good fit.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms?

Our project was likely a small one for them; we are a small business with a straightforward website.

How long did the project take?

The project took about five or six months to complete.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project, and are there any metrics, statistics or other feedback you can share? What has Jordan Crown helped you achieve as a company?

We don't have any specific metrics. Our goal was simply to improve our online presence with a professional website and they were able to complete this.

Was there anything unique or special about Jordan Crown compared to other companies that you may have worked with?

We chose them over multiple other agencies because of their other work, their small size and the personal connection. I was able to work with the same people throughout the project. Jordan Crown was very flexible from a schedule standpoint, and very receptive to my needs.

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

No, I don't see anything that they might have done differently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We’re a business finance company, whose cornerstone products are invoice factoring and funding merchant and business cash advance lines of credit. It’s an alternative to traditional business financing programs. The company is located in the Greater Seattle Area, Washington, but serves businesses located across the entire United States.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Jordan Crown?

My specialty is content marketing. When I was first hired in April 2013, I worked on building a website that could help us get better search engine optimization results. What we didn’t have was a Wordpress-based, responsive, mobile friendly, call-to-action kind of website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

It was a joint effort. Jordan Crown understood that we wanted a responsive, modern website, but as opposed to other sites, we wanted each page to have significant content to feed the search engines. We provided all the content and tags. They handled the actual development. The result was a 400-page website, so it was a massive undertaking.

How did you come to work with Jordan Crown?

We wanted to work with someone local to Seattle. I found three Wordpress developers in Seattle. Of the three, Jordan Crown responded to us within an hour, one company did not respond at all, and one responded a week later. No other company really had a chance against Jordan Crown.

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

The total cost was somewhere between $30,000 and $35,000. We’ve asked them to do several things on top of the initial proposal.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in late 2014, and we launched the website just last week [Dec. 2015].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

The quality of the work that Jordan Crown produces is outstanding. I’ve worked on another web development project before, and I’ve looked at code for a lot of websites. Their code is very clean, and it’s very easy for me to understand what’s going on with any given page.

How did Jordan Crown perform from a project management standpoint?

They did very well and hung in with us. At the start of the project, I was a full-time employee of our firm. During the project, I left their company and took another job but was helping them move the website along in my spare time. I then decided to return to my old company as a full-time consultant. Jordan Crown handled these transitions very well and kept the ball moving. Their team is very easy to talk to and work with. I felt very comfortable right from the beginning.

Initially, we had one branding phone call. The very next thing I knew, they had a design in front of us that was very close to the design we ended up publishing. They’re really good at understanding the nuances of our brand and what we wanted.

What distinguishes Jordan Crown from other providers?

Our companies are the same age. We’re not so set on the processes, policies and procedures that always develop as a company gets bigger and has been around for a while. We both speak the same language and are willing to err on the side of moving forward rather than losing an opportunity.

Is there anything Jordan Crown could have improved or done differently?

There is nothing that I can think of that they might have done differently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is named Orthopedic and Fracture Specialists. We are a full-service orthopedic practice located in Portland, Oregon, and offer immediate diagnostics and treatment within one facility. We offer a full range of services, from physician consultations and medical imaging to surgical and non-surgical treatment, including physical and occupational therapy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Jordan Crown?

Our old website was definitely in need of a facelift. In particular, we wanted to focus on the fact that we have a number of specialists in various fields of orthopedics and that we are not just a general orthopedic clinic. We were looking for an effective way to communicate our story.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of your work with Jordan Crown.

They worked primarily on the website. We wanted something that was accessible and would work on most devices, because most of our patients are not sitting at a computer. We didn’t focus too much on search engine optimization or other issues.

How did you come to work with Jordan Crown?

This was the first time I’d really worked on a website project, and it was my first project with this company. I didn’t know where to start, but we quickly ruled out the previous firm we employed, because of a lack of flexibility of the website from an administrative perspective. I reached out to a few of my personal contacts in the web design sphere and did my own research online. I came up with a list of seven or eight firms and had a list of questions that I asked each of them. I narrowed my search down to the top three and asked them additional questions to gauge their interest in our project.

I then invited my top two choices to come in and present their proposals to me, our Chief Executive Officer, our president and a couple of the doctors who are on the marketing committee, after which we picked Jordan Crown. The reason we picked Jordan Crown is that they managed to impress all of us with their proposal. They had even gone to the trouble of bringing us an initial wireframe of the main landing page based on just a couple of conversations I’d had with them. At that point, it was fairly easy for us to work with them.

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

We’ve spent somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000 working with Jordan Crown.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November last year [2014]. We just completed a second project at the end of August [2015]. They have become my go-to development firm for sure.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from your work with Jordan Crown?

We’re definitely very happy with the website that Jordan Crown built. It’s extremely user-friendly, both from a user and an administrative perspective. The information is so much easier to access. The content is organized in a logical way and provides just the right amount of information.

I don’t handle our metrics, but I can say without a doubt that our website is more effective than it ever used to be. It was never something that we relied heavily on to bring in more patients, but it’s been a great resource for everyone. It has certainly helped us establish our brand within the community.

How did Jordan Crown perform from a project management standpoint?

Their performance was absolutely wonderful. We’re very pleased to have been able to work with them, and their overall willingness to help and answer any single question, regardless of how big or small it was, was very impressive. They’re very creative and brought fresh ideas to the table. They took our vision and transformed it into a clean and amazing website. In fact, when we needed a website for one of our sub-brands, we didn’t hesitate to reach out to them, and we got the same high-quality product that we expected.

What distinguishes Jordan Crown from other providers?

Since I didn’t have much experience working with other web design companies, I really don’t have much of a point of comparison, but from the process of deciding whom we wanted to work with, I can say that they were one of only two or three companies that listened to what I was saying and really tried to understand what we were looking to do. We wanted a kind of multi-site network, and many of the firms that we spoke with dismissed that approach immediately. Jordan Crown really soaked in what we said, and, at the same time, weren’t afraid to point out potential problems when we wanted something that might work against us. I appreciated that and felt that they cared very much for the success of this project. They treated the project as more than just a source of income.

Is there anything Jordan Crown could have improved or done differently?

Not that I can think of. They were very responsive, extremely reliable and never showed their frustration with all the discussions and changes we were doing on our end. They were a pleasure to work with and helped me make my first project in this company a huge success.