Advice Media

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a 3 physician obgyn office and I am the managing partner

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Advice Media?

We hired them for web development/SEO/social media promotion.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a fresh look for our website that was engaging for patients and an automated system for social media content. However we did not receive this.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We met a rep at a vendor fair

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

website development/seo/social media

What was the team composition?

We had a point person with a team dedicated to taking care of our account.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Their lack of response was damaging to our market share in our area. They also failed to deliver our website on time (they were 3 months late)

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They performed very poorly. Our project lead went out on maternity leave and no one took over our project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They had a flashy presentation

Are there any areas for improvement?

They lack communication among their own teams and seriously lack any type of customer service drive. Even after acknowleding that they definitely dropped the ball on our account they refused to help us transition to a new web provider (even though we never stopped paying our monthly fee).

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Beaty Facial Plastic Surgery is a cosmetic surgery and wellness practice. I'm a practicing physician, the wellness director, and current head of internal marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Advice Media?

We hired Advice Media to update and manage our website, SEO, blog, and social media accounts.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We chose the vendor before I began to work at the company.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They host the website, update it with relevant content, and work on our social media marketing.

What was the team composition?

We directly contact our dedicated project person. We set monthly meetings one month in advance. When I ask to speak to someone about problems, they put us in touch with our project lead. We can never speak to anyone else. I once asked to speak to the VP in charge of our account, but they said no.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website visits have increased, but it's hard to attribute that to Advice Media. We have also been far more active with other marketing efforts than before. Their social media campaign generated nothing. If anything, it had a negative impact on our brand.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our project lead was responsive to updating our website within the monthly timeframe that she set. She was less responsive to resolving problems outside her direct sphere, which was primarily social media.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are a young and eager company, which may pay off in the long run. However, they are so young that they don't understand the value of relationship management, customer service, accountability, and understanding the needs of the client.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Social media is their weakest area. Their work often appears lazy and badly researched, with misspellings and grammatical errors. I need to edit inaccuracies in the blog articles too. They also resist criticism. I requested that we use key phrases and tags for the blog articles, but they refused.

They also chose a culturally inappropriate photo for Facebook. The fact that they thought a photo of a white couple with charcoal faces and white robes was acceptable is gravely concerning. We are still under contract and deciding whether it's bad enough to terminate the agreement early, but we had to immediately stop using them for social media.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing and manager for a busy cosmetic surgery practice.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Advice Media?

Website development and management for 2 websites.

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed with a few companies, they promised a new website every two years.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Initially work was good. I wouldn't say it was perfect. Then as we needed more or gave feedback we never saw a change. Their quarterly reports were always "traffic has tripled!". We constantly had issues with our before and after galleries, and the blog and page content they wrote was atrocious, I'd always find grammar or spelling errors.

Finally in summer of 2022 I had a complete online presence analysis done and the 32 page report I got back confirmed things and brought up issues I had no idea were there. I presented it to Advice and they blew it off. That's when I decided they couldn't handle our business growth and needs. I brought up that they never made a new website at our 2 year mark and they said 'well you changed your branding colors so we figured that's all that was needed to refresh the website'.

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

1 person who scheduled meetings every 2 months to review 'what they were working on' and statistics.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Only when I decided and told them I wanted to leave their services did they loop in someone higher up but there was still NO resolution to my issues of constant problems.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Terrible. I got long winded emails but never got to review content before it went to the website.

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

Nothing impressed me.

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

This company shouldn't be managing or building websites for companies that want to appear professional. They are amateurs.