Bizzuka, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please give a brief description of your company.

We inspect, manufacture, and rent out drilling equipment and tools for the oil and gas industry. We also have a subsidiary that also handles safety training geared towards the oil and gas industry.

What is your role at the company?

My official title is a software QA [quality assurance] analyst. I'm the webmaster for various sites that we have that Bizzuka helped us with. I also work with our marketing department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

They had actually approached Bizzuka right before I came on board. I would assume it was to do an overhaul of our existing websites. They were pretty outdated. They needed to add some functionality to the sites, provide a fresh design, and provide a way where we could maintain the site ourselves as easily as possible. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their work?

They handled the primary design and development of the site. I have some Photoshop experience as well, so they sent me the design files and let me make the appropriate changes and go back and forth on our end with our management before going back to them. It was nice that I could play with it, take my time, and really get the look I wanted with certain design elements. It worked out really well. It let me feel like our company truly had a say in how the site was going to look. It also helped them because they knew we would ultimately get the look that we wanted. It was good cooperation. I really liked that part.

Did they build upon the existing site or migrate to a new content management system?

They migrated everything over. Through training, they showed us how to add to the asset directories, add new folders, [and] how to delete and replace files as needed. Of course, we added some things, such as extra primary navigation menu items. They brought everything over in terms of components. If there was something that was missing or we wanted to add to it, they were very helpful. That's one thing I can say about the Bizzuka staff. I've talked to probably six or seven of them during these three years working with them. They've always been very friendly and quick to help out. It's been quite a pleasure to talk to them and to work with them.

Are the websites all launched? Are you still working with Bizzuka for any support or updates?

Yes. We have five that are currently live right now. If you count the mobile version, there are six. I'll message them on their chat if I need help with something or if I run into a problem. We definitely know each other on a first-name basis.

How long did the projects take?

Some of these sites took six to eight months, but that's really not a reflection on Bizzuka. There would be times where Bizzuka would be waiting on us to provide them with content or a decision from our company. They were always pretty quick. After the initial meetings, they were fairly punctual in sending out a mock-up to us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, are there any metrics or user feedback that you can share that indicates the effectiveness of the work?

I know our management is happy with the websites. I'm sure in a couple of years, because websites usually only last that long, we'll probably revisit this and look at changing it up again. As far as I know, everybody likes our websites, but I don't have the hard analytics in front of me.

How would you describe their performance?

They are professional, friendly, and quick to respond. They are on top of it. When I send that chat, they get our issues resolved very quickly. If they don't know the answer, or don't know what's causing the problem, they quickly check with their staff and get back to me. It's always a pleasure to talk to them. We feel like we know each other so well now. I can't speak highly enough about their professionalism and friendliness when it comes to the customer service side of things.

They do good work as well on the design side. I've seen a lot of their sites that they've done. Some of the sites are really nice. The creative side of the company is really good.

Is there anything unique or special about Bizzuka compared to other companies that you may have worked with in the past?

I've worked with one other company at a former job. Even though they're a bigger company and more well known, the other company didn't offer nearly the quality of customer service or contact, the ability just to talk to them so easily. In my experience, the customer service is just [first-rate,] bar none.

On the other hand, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you would do differently looking back?

I've sent them suggestions about how they could maybe make their website better. They send all my suggestions to the programmers. There have been some things that I haven't quite seen come down yet, at least to the live site. That doesn't mean they're not working on it on their end. I feel like they listen to my suggestions and I know they have changed some things based on them. They do a good job of listening and putting in a bug in their developer's ears about things that they might do to enhance the customer's experience.

BACKGROUND

Can you give a bit of background on your company and what your role is there?

We are Christian Community Credit Union. I’m the Web/graphic design specialist. We’re a financial institution serving a Christian demographic. We offer various services from deposit accounts to mortgage loans, auto loans, and credit cards.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

When you approached Bizzuka, what was the business challenge that you were trying to address?

We had been in business with another company who was doing the Web hosting and who had to come up with the design with our website. I came on board and after some analysis, our website really needed to be redesigned. The way the layout had been done, the information wasn’t above the fold. Things weren’t in the proper order that they should have been for the ideal user experience. We didn’t directly go to Bizzuka to inquire about their services. We were referred to them by a design firm who was affiliated with them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their work?

We worked with the design agency to come up with some design comps, and they worked with Bizzuka and their [proprietary] content management system to transfer the design.

We have a very extensive website with more than 200 pages that we manage. The new CMS was just very easy. It was pretty seamless integration. They did a phenomenal job of development on the backend so that it was easy for me to transfer the information over. The product that they have is very easy and user friendly. They helped us implement our SSL [secure sockets layer] integration. We had a lot of new features and a new log in box for our members to log in to their online banking directly. We had to coordinate with our third-party vendor with that. They were just always there willing to help. They’re very quick to respond. Any challenge we’ve given them, they’ve always brought up great recommendations and always answer whatever questions we may ask.

When did the project take place?

It began in the late summer or fall of 2012. We migrated in February of 2013.

Do you continue to work with them?

Yes. Definitely. Whenever we have a question or if we’re adding a feature. We always have something new coming about, and they always meet the challenge and help us. They’ve also done a lot of our SEO [search engine optimization]. They’ll do an SEO refresher on our site. We try to do it at least once a year, if not every six months. In fact, we just received a gold award from the Marketing Association of Credit Unions for the website redesign.

Can you give a sense of the size of the project either in a cost range or personnel work-hour figure?

It was in the $10,000 to $50,000 range.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Are there any metrics or user feedback that indicates the effectiveness of the work?

Initially, the feedback we had received was that it was really easy on the eye, and much easier to navigate than the previous site. Users of the site can readily find what they need. We’ve had a definite increase in our page views. It’s been a definite positive in terms of the presentation of our credit union and with the user experience. It’s been a very positive outcome.

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

We’re somewhat of a demanding client because we’re always wanting to make changes, to do something different or add something. What I like is they always come back with a positive attitude. They always meet the challenge and they do it in a timely manner. It doesn’t take weeks, it takes maybe days; if not days,[then]  hours. They’re just very quick to respond. They also truly know what they’re doing and are experts. I know that when I have a question, they know what they’re talking about and they explain so that I can understand. They’re programmers, but they explain it so that a layperson can understand as well. That, I appreciate, because I in turn can explain it to management.

Looking back, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you would do differently?

The slight glitch we had is that we have a mobile site that is hosted by another company. We couldn’t integrate the design that we wanted. That was the only slight glitch or slight limitation. In some respects, I wish that the CMS in terms of a mobile site could be more amenable to the design that we have, but it’s not.

BACKGROUND

Please give a brief description of your company.

We’re a heavy industrial construction company that services from the West Coast to the East Coast of the United States.

What is your role at the company?

I’m the marketing manager. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have multiple companies under our parent company, and we were trying to get all of our websites to look very similar. We needed an entire rebuild for each of our companies’ websites, which we’re still on the process of doing. As of now, they’ve done four or five websites for us. We’ve been working with them for a few years now.

SOLUTION

Did they provide the whole solution: The design, development, training and any support for the websites?

On the design end, I would say we worked together on that. The training and support, yes, they do that completely.

Around when did you start working with them?

My best guess would be 2010.

Why did you select Bizzuka to work with in the beginning?

We liked their content management system. It’s called OnDeCC [On Demand Content and Components]. It was easy to train all of our staff to use it because we have multiple companies, and so we need to have multiple people able to make updates quickly. It was an easy, user-friendly system.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, are there any metrics or user feedback that you can share that indicates the effectiveness of the work?

Nothing that we have tracked, but I have heard nothing but compliments on the site from outside people looking in, as well as from us here internally. It’s user-friendly. It’s easy to use in quick updates.

Are you happy with the new design?

Yes, the design worked great. We told them what we wanted, and they came up with pretty much exactly what we were telling them.

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

This was my first experience, and it was seamless. It was very easy.

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

No. We’re very happy with the product. We were happy working with them.