BlueTone Media Web Design

Please give a brief description of your company.

We are a customized tour operator that sends people on both international and domestic tours. We have been in operation for about 25 years, and I have been with the company [slightly more than] two and a half years.

What is your role at the company?

[I am the] director of marketing/project manager.

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached BlueTone Media Web Design?

We worked with BlueTone Media already when I was hired; their main services to our company are website development and maintenance. They re-designed our website a few years ago. However, they recently added a "group portal" and "online registration" to that website.

What were your company's business goals for the project?

Have a more up-to-date, better functioning website. The literal goal was to build a portal for our travelers to login to access tour information, and create online registration that worked hand-in-hand with our online payment options.

Can you talk about the scope of the project?

The new website was expected to work well with the current website design as our objective was not to totally re-do the entire website at this time. The group portal was expected to be easy to use, attractive, and able to be customized for each of our tours. The online registration page was more of a challenge because the output of the data had to be streamlined and organized in a way that made less work for our accounting and operations department, not more.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms or personnel work hours?

Due to roadblocks with our finances, the project has taken longer than expected. The time frame for these two additions to our website has been about two years or so (talks began in May of 2012 [and the] real action began around September of 2013), and it's probably been about $2,000 to $3,000 worth of work.

When was the project completed?

The group portal and online registration, with all fine-tuning, was completed very recently as of last month or so. The only item that is yet to be completed to be fully functional is for my company to get approved for a different payment processer for e-checks that communicates with our website so that we can make the online registration "live."

What were the results of the project, and are there any metrics you can share?

The result was that both sub-projects of the website have been completed.

How did BlueTone Media Web Design perform?

BlueTone was a great help in this process; as I mentioned before, we've definitely had some delays and road bumps due to financial situations here and having to put the project on hold for staff workload reasons, but they were patient and stayed with us throughout the whole process. Whenever we asked them to edit/change/remove something, they did not hesitate to complete it within one to two days.

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

They have very good, personalized customer service.

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

It may have been helpful for them to visit us in our office more frequently to discuss what we were expecting in that phase of the project instead of having to do it by phone or email. For someone who doesn't have extensive Web design or coding experience, often it's hard to explain what you need to someone who can make that happen without having visual aids to assist.

Please describe your company.

We are located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We are a business directory for Puerto Rico, which includes everything from restaurants to pharmacies [and] towing companies. We currently have four employees.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the owner of the company.

What was your goal for working with Blue Tone Media Web Design?

I needed to build the website from the ground up, and I didn’t have the time to do it myself. So, I needed someone to lay down the groundwork, and I needed him or her to host the website and handle the traffic.

Please describe the scope of their work, in terms of design, development, and support.

They provided design work. The directory is basically going to the actual business and documenting location, and having them give me their business contact information. The website was designed originally for them to companies to sign up themselves. This didn’t quite work, and that’s when I decided I needed to go through the redesign with Blue Tone Media.

What was your process for selecting Blue Tone Media Web Design with which to work?

I found them online. Their website has references for people they have already worked with. I contacted them and they referred me to them. I like the work they did on their Web pages, so I went with Blue Tone Media.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

Around $3,600 annually.

When did you start working with them?

About a year and a half ago, and the relationship is ongoing.

What were the results of the project?

The work is excellent, you just have to be real in depth and detailed on what you want. They provide you with exactly what you ask for. If you’re not in detail, they will fill in the details for you. As long as you fill in all the details in regards to the Web design it comes out perfect. However, if you’re vague with your designs, you will probably not have as much success with them.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

Yes. They are very responsive and always answer their phones. On any types of issues, I just email them and they immediately find a solution. It’s one of the reasons why I stuck with Blue Tone Media.