Blueliner

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a pet nutrition company. We bake and offer different foods and supplements and treats to support the health and well-being of pets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Blueliner?

We’re an early stage company and we had a website developed but needed ongoing upgrades and maintenance. We had launched our product offering on a Shopify platform and needed resources to guide the oversight of that execution, as well as further development. We wanted to link in a CRM software tool to enhance the UX and our ongoing communication with our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In setting up the scope of work, we identified the metrics I was hoping to achieve over a six-month timeframe. They came back to me with a recommendation of how we might be able to implement and achieve those customer acquisition targets through a strategy of social media, keywords, and AdWords. For the CRM, we started out with Zoho and are now migrating to HubSpot on their recommendation.

The most recent activities have been focused on working to improve the customer experience, which is the reason we're transitioning to HubSpot. It has a lot more functionality and better reporting capabilities. We’ve also put in place the number of improvements on our website and with Shopify to allow for business model specialization and to address some issues we had.

What is the team composition?

The team includes Conor (Marketing Director, Blueliner) as project manager, Soribel (Sales & CRM Director, Blueliner) who works on our CRM software needs, and someone who leads on our website and Shopify.

How did you come to work with Blueliner?

They were introduced to me three or four years ago. I had experience working with a New York-based PR agency and they recommended Blueliner to me. I reached out when we needed their services.

How much have you invested with them?

$75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On the CRM side, I’m pleased that they suggested an improved platform for us to implement. I’m happy with the leadership that was demonstrated. On the Shopify side, any challenges were addressed quickly with solutions they implemented. It's the standard experience of an earlier stage company to functionality challenges and you have to find ways to fix it. We’ve been working on that together successfully.

How did Blueliner perform from a project management standpoint?

Conor is very organized. He has a good awareness of what’s going on with the different project teams on a day to day basis. They clearly work closely together. We have regular weekly meetings to go through key projects and objects. He’s very good about holding people to task and making sure things are done in a timely way. We use phone and email to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re responsive. I never have to wait long at all. No matter which member of the team I need to speak with, they’re pretty much immediately available. They absorb and understand the challenge of the project at hand and move quickly to get it done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m considering having a meeting with them to review the original scope of work, the time allocation, and what then happened. That’s something we’re going to review, talk about, and fine tune.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would have liked if we challenged our existing infrastructure a little more so that we could move as quickly as possible to a resource solution that served our needs over the longer term. They gave us some indication that they thought Zoho wasn’t going to be a useful tool for us long-term, but we could have drilled down harder. Sometimes it’s better to spend a little more upfront than to have to make a change down the line.