Bash Foo

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of a restaurant called The 571 Grill & Draft House.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bash Foo?

We found ourselves associated with a controversial subject that was highly visible on social media and within traditional media. We hired Bash Foo for comprehensive social media monitoring and SEO services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We put our livelihood in Bash Foo’s hands. We gave them control of our social media channels and requested 24-hour monitoring of those platforms. They published a corporate response to the media addressing the situation, and their SEO work stifled much of the online exposure of the subject so that it would not be associated with our business. They also worked with Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor to delete the bogus negative reviews we received as a result of the media attention.

What is the team composition?

Aside from a manager, their team largely worked behind the scenes, and I did not interact with them directly.

How did you come to work with Bash Foo?

My attorney highly recommended them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $5,000–$6,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together for one month, from November through December 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All of the fraudulent negative reviews were removed, and a lot of the attention regarding the negative situation was turned away from us. If people Google us, articles surrounding the situation have minimal exposure. Bash Foo saved our social media world. We couldn’t have survived without their monitoring and work with social media.

How did Bash Foo perform from a project management standpoint?

I can’t say enough good about them. To be caught in a negative situation like that, Bash Foo looked out for our well-being. They are a breath of fresh air. They were always accessible for urgent problems through emails and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a swift and creative way of handling reputation repair and management. I was blown away by how quickly they could take the public eye off of us. I can only imagine the kind of skill it requires to dispute fake negative online reviews with Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor.

Any advice for potential customers?

If something like this were to happen again, or to anybody else, Bash Foo would be the company I’d go to.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the VP of business development and marketing at Energy Optimizers, USA. We do energy conservation services for schools, local government, and commercial entities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bash Foo?

We were a startup, so we needed to build our brand and reputation. We were looking for a company to help us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We've been working with them for nine years. They helped us design our marketing materials and our website. A few years later, they helped us revamp our website, updating the content and enhancing the quality of the site. They also have dramatically increased the number of rotating screens and made the website look cleaner. They added a phone number (which is not our standard office number) that allows us to track who calls us and record the keywords in the conversation. Bash Foo worked with us to make sure our contacts are directly related to our business, which is only non-residential.  

I had no experience with digital marketing, so they helped me craft the right message, develop strategies, and generate leads. We're expanding our local government market, so we've been using their messages and strategies. In addition, they create campaigns for Facebook and Twitter and help us track the website performance using Google Analytics. After we send an email blast to our target market, we can track the contacts that look at our website.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Mike (President, Bash Foo).

How did you come to work with them?

Our owner knew about them and interviewed them. They were local and had the expertise we needed, so we chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $175,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2011 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It's been a great partnership. They helped us enhance our branding and name recognition in the local government market. I've noticed recently that people who attend our trade shows also visit our website. Bash Foo has been helping us follow up with the attendees (that is an overwhelming number of follow-ups since we do about 40 trade shows a year). 

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

Mike is very responsive and always available. He delegates tasks to other members of his team when needed, so the turnaround times have been very good. Also, he's a great communicator. Their office is close to ours, so we often meet in person, but we also have frequent email and phone conversations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Mike put a lot of effort into understanding our industry and our business. He invested his personal time and attended a lot of our meetings, becoming part of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I've been very pleased with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd suggest meeting with them in person or at least talking via Skype as opposed to just a phone call or an email.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Administrator of Tipp City Veterinary Hospital. We're a small animal or companion animal practice.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bash Foo?

Originally, we needed help with our website; we knew we wanted to do a website redesign.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve redesigned the site with them twice, but for the first time, we had some specific ideas in mind. We knew that we didn't want a cookie cutter website and that we didn't want to work off of templates. The team at Bash Foo was able to take our ideas and turn them into reality, which was really helpful. We also moved to a new hosting backend during the second redesign.

Since then, we've been using them for some of our marketing initiatives, like managing our AdWords accounts. They have a team of writers who will generate content for us, mostly for SEO purposes, and we’ll use those to keep the site updated on the backend. There are not always articles the clients are seeing; we don't feature them on the front page, but they do help us maintain our listing. Those pieces ensure that we're one of the first sites that people see when they're looking for keywords that are related to our business.

What is the team composition?

Our primary relationship is directly with their President, but I know he has a team supporting him. We’ve worked with other teammates for some of the projects as well, like an account manager who manages the relationship. They ensure that the different pieces of the puzzle come together, and that the rest of the team is supporting our projects and goals.

How did you come to work with Bash Foo?

I've worked with some other vendors in the past, both specific to our industry and outsourced - some overseas web design type people. For us at least, we wanted to work with a local company. I don't remember how I initially met them, but I knew they were local and worked in the space. Once we got to know their team it was an easy decision to try them out.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000–$30,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since 2010.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With this latest redesign, we saw a dramatic increase in the speed of our site, which we appreciated. We moved over to a new hosting backend which really helps. After the first redesign, our presence on search engines definitely improved through SEO. Aside from that, we saw an increase in the number of visitors to the site, but I don't necessarily know what to attribute that too, whether it was the marketing component or the SEO or just the new site.

How did Bash Foo perform from a project management standpoint?

They're responsive if we have issues or need something updated or changed that's beyond our capabilities. They're easy to communicate with, and I like the fact that we can sit down, face-to-face, and meet. The actual communication is managed by a single person, which I appreciate.

We don’t use any project management tools now, but at the time, we may have connected on Basecamp. It wasn't a huge component of the project though. We do use some shared folders on Google Drive if we need to move images around or get information over to the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do a really good job making sure that their approach and what they're offering is tailored to what you need. It's not a one-size-fits-all type organization. They have a lot of flexibility, and their team has the skill set necessary to make that happen. They made sure our vision was realized.

Any advice for potential customers?

Go into the relationship with an open mind. They're experts in the area and they may have ideas and solutions that a client hasn't considered yet. It's worth mulling that over and taking their expertise into account. That doesn't mean that everything they recommend is perfect for everybody, but I've definitely taken advantage of that expertise a number of times, and we've come out ahead because of it.