SHERPA

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a customer service rep for an aviation company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SHERPA?

We needed someone to do UX research on our existing portal and then, according to the findings, help redesign our customer portal.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SHERPA tested our existing platform. They conducted a few interviews with customers and our customer service team. From there, they began building wireframes for the UX. Since that stage was approved, they’ve moved onto the UI design and development is ongoing.

What is the team composition?

The project manager is our main point of contact. For each step, we’re in touch with 4–5 people.

How did you come to work with SHERPA?

We researched online and shortlisted several companies. Out of all the ones we contacted, SHERPA made the best impression.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2018 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So far, we’re satisfied with their work and services. Everything is delivered on time within our tight deadlines, and they’ve been a great help throughout the entire journey.

How did SHERPA perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management approach is very good. We’re in contact either daily or 2-3 times a week. It’s been an intense workload, but they coordinate well. Their team follows up on any changes, which is great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re responsive and flexible, suggesting solutions that don’t jeopardize our timeline. In some stages, we need to make unexpected changes, and they adapt well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If they expanded their team, they’d be able to get more work done. This isn’t an issue with our project but could be helpful for future projects they do.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’m quite satisfied and I’d recommend others to work with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the enablement manager at Hippo.co.za, a financial services comparison website. Our primary focus is on car insurance. I’m responsible for technology and the website’s development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SHERPA?

We’d been in the market for around eleven years, and our website had become outdated. We needed to look at our funnels, especially in terms of UX, to improve conversions and generate leads.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SHERPA is our UX partner. They began with a proof of concept (POC) and did a full review of our existing website; now, they’re redesigning the UX of different sections of the site, including home, car, and life insurance. We’ve given them carte blanche for our site’s UI/UX design. They use InVision, Photoshop, and other design tools.

SHERPA is also helping us improve analytics. They updated us from static tags to Google Tag Manager. Facebook clicks were coming to the site as direct traffic, and SHERPA helped us clean this up and correct the tagging.  Our teams collaborate on content.

What is the team composition?

I work with 5–6 SHERPA team members, but I’m sure they have a bigger backend team. I have one main point of contact.

How did you come to work with SHERPA?

Another business within our parent company had worked with SHERPA and referred them.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent around €50,000 (approximately $55,800 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The POC work spanned August–November 2018. We’ve since upgraded to a formal agreement, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although we’re still in the early phases of the project, we’ve already seen 10–11% functionality and performance improvements from the POC. We’ve implemented many of SHERPA’s recommendations. My team has seen very good numbers so far, and the actual value of SHERPA’s work will be evident after the full implementation.

How did SHERPA perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re always willing to take on additional tasks, and they facilitate an easy, informative collaboration. The team is readily available, even during non-business hours. They’re clear on deadlines and haven’t missed one yet.

SHERPA’s team communicates well. Although we’re a South African company and they’re Turkish, we’ve never had a problem with the language difference. They set up a Slack channel, on which we share constant feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The ease of working with SHERPA sets them apart. They deliver high-quality results that we’re very pleased with. They bring a unique perspective and strong UX expertise to our project. I think the relationship will continue to be outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I was initially a bit skeptical about working with an offshore vendor, but we’ve had no issues.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The only mistake we made going into this was doing it as a POC rather than a full-on project from the start. We lost some time there; otherwise, I’d say that clients can really trust them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the COO for Telesure Insurance, a brokerage brand that tries to make insurance easier. We have operations around the world, and I currently head up the retail division in our Turkish environment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SHERPA?

Insurance is a complicated and cumbersome process in Turkey, so we wanted to create an easy-to-use website from scratch for our new brand.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SHERPA worked on our UX and user journeys. We gave them a two-hour brief, and they came back within a week with phenomenal suggestions that they later implemented. They mapped out the user journey and designed UX/UI services. They listened to what we wanted to achieve, understood our goals, and united our sales process with the UX. They created an intuitive and interactive product that doesn’t ask too much information or confuse clients. Since originally hiring SHERPA, we’ve worked on multiple iterations of the site.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with the owner and a UX developer.

How did you come to work with SHERPA?

They were a referral.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project occurred in December 2013, and we continue to use them for updates and changes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re one of SHERPA’s oldest clients, which shows how much we trust them. The site they created was functional within just a few weeks, and we’re the strongest performing online and e-commerce insurer in Turkey. We don’t have any competition that’s close to our level of UX, thanks to SHERPA.

How did SHERPA perform from a project management standpoint?

We spoke two or three times in the two weeks. They grasped exactly what we wanted to accomplish from the very first meeting. Even though we didn’t provide much information, they still made a high-quality product in a short amount of time. They’ve never failed us, and they always let us know if they can’t make a deadline. Open and honest communication is integral to their project management, and we can call each other at any time to manage expectations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a phenomenal ability to absorb information and create a solution that perfectly meets your needs. We had a successful launch, and they’ve even been able to apply their skills outside of the Turkish market. The company culture is friendly and honest, admitting to mistakes and fixing them without excuses. They all have great work ethic and aren’t afraid to challenge us to make the best product possible.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Make sure they and your IT team work well together. There needs to be good collaboration between the two to best optimize the partnership.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of Sportive.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SHERPA?

We were using the Magento backend platform, which made it hard to change our UI/UX designs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The process started with wireframes, followed by the frontend work, and then the backend integration. We worked on optimization after launching the new website.

They renewed our website using Magento standards and made some UX changes to the old website. They investigated our users and created user personas based on our call center and Google Analytics data, focusing on their behavior and motviations. With the personas, we also created user journey maps, looking at how they made their decisions to buy from us: what searches were they coming from, and what they needed to go through to make a decision.

They then created a UX report for us, based on that data, and worked on a new UI design from scratch. They focused on anticipating what users needed—what elements they needed to access and understand.

What is the team composition?

The project involved 6–7 people from SHERPA, with different people for each step. Our meetings were more crowded at times, but I don’t know how many people worked in the background.

How did you come to work with SHERPA?

We had a large budget from an investor so we started to investigate the best agencies in Turkey. We came down to three names and also looked outside the country, at agencies in the Netherlands, France, and the U.K. We decided to go with SHERPA because of their references, both brand and personal ones.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost was around 200,000 Turkish liras. The conversion rates have changed a lot since then.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2016 and concluded the collaboration in November 2017. We stopped the work for a while, because of the budget, but then continued again.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All our conversion rates increased, from checkout baskets to units per transaction, and the bounce rate on our homepage decreased. According to our survey, we got an 8.5/10 rating for site aesthetics; before, it was around 5.6/10.

How did SHERPA perform from a project management standpoint?

I was in direct contact with them three or four times per week, or even daily. Their performance was perfect. Keeping strict deadlines was important to me, as I was reporting directly to the CEO and to our investor. It was important for me to get reports, to have project management, and to keep deadlines, and SHERPA was very good in this respect; they never missed a deadline.

They were responsive and truly the best agency I’ve worked with. They never missed a deadline and got back to me anytime I needed to reach them, giving me reports on what they’d done so far and what the methodology behind it was. They worked on the project, but they taught us at the same time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated their questioning. According to them, everything needs to be A/B tested, it needs to be clear, and it needs to be questioned before launching it. They always interrogated why we were doing something, what would be its impact, and how we would measure it. Those questions helped us a lot in finding the right approach. As an agency, they didn’t accept everything that came from the customer; they challenged and taught us, developing our knowledge.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They've opened a London office, but they still need to expand a lot and bring more talent to the team. They’re perfectionists and they’re growing fast because of this. That's good for them, but as a happy client of theirs, I would like to bring them more jobs. Once they’re full, they won’t bring in any new customers.