Bonsai Media Group

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

Our old site was outdated and limiting our growth. Just being mobile friendly has had a significant impact on our business because customers are able to clearly view the website. Our numbers have steadily increased, and we’re seeing that the majority of our business traffic is coming via mobile devices.

Not only is the layout more user-friendly, but also more attractive and offers a better experience for customers. We’ve received a lot of comments from users about how much they appreciate the new look and feel. We continue to see steady increases in contacts and sales, and it’s all due to the work of Bonsai Media Group.

How did Bonsai Media Group perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate up to three or four times per week by email in order to resolve any questions or requests. They’re very responsive, even replying late at night or on weekends. The team does a great job of explaining technical processes for people like me who aren’t familiar with how to manage the more complex components of a website, and have gone out of their way to send video tutorials so I could confidently train myself.

For marketing, we have video conferences once a month with an easy to understand breakdown of analytics.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The majority of their staff is young and up to date on the newest technologies in regard to web design and marketing. The members of Bonsai Media Group’s team work well together, and their communication skills are excellent.

Beyond that, they’re incredibly welcoming and invested in us. We even had a team member drop by on Christmas Eve to deliver a gift from their entire team. They clearly care about each individual client and are eager to help us find success.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m sure every company can improve on something, but everything they did for us was great and the pricing was fair.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them a try! They have the expertise to help, and that was made clear from looking at their previous work. Everything that we’ve experienced with them has been hassle-free and yielded great results.

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

Before working with Bonsai, we didn’t have SEO, and our search engine rankings were poor. We achieved all our goals. The firm is in the top one to three of different areas that we’ve optimized our rankings around. We’ve generated a significant number of website quotes.

There’s been a noticeable improvement in reach. We have a tool on our site where the public can report safety issues, and there’s been a substantial improvement in company safety. Bonsai has helped us become who we are today.

How did Bonsai Media Group perform from a project management standpoint?

It varies as we’ve worked with different project managers. When challenges arose, their team resolved them. Bonsai is a responsive agency that takes pride in what they do. This pride reflects in the work they produced.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bonsai’s willingness to learn our business and understand our goals and then pivot that understanding to developing our vision for us stands out. It is not a cookie cutter approach, but more of a partnership. Their team doesn’t need support from ours, which is a testament to their talent. They want to be partners, not only a vendor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If you asked me this two years ago, I would’ve commented on their communication. Their team has gotten better at pacing regular contact. Bonsai could transfer more knowledge on what the analytics mean and how they can improve to our team.

Any advice for potential customers?

When working with Bonsai, I would suggest looking over a communication schedule, which would be useful for both teams. If your company is looking to expand their internal team, they are a fantastic partner. But if you aren’t looking for that, you’d want to see how they will fit with your company.

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

Not only did they help us develop our brand and our messaging, but their SEO work has also helped us become more visible on a national scale. Bonsai Media Group excelled in building our website and our brand and making sure that our services are recognized.

How did Bonsai Media Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They were outstanding in this regard, and they proved it early on. Bonsai Media Group submitted a proposal that detailed their daily and weekly project plans. They walked us through the life cycle of their development—from concept to design to engineering to QA to customer’s approval.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team takes the time up front to understand your industry regardless of the project size. Further, with how often developers in Seattle move jobs, Bonsai Media Group operates in a way that makes it easy for new developers to enter and quickly pick up the project. This ensures that nothing falls through the cracks and there are no surprises at the end.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve been great. I have no complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bonsai Media Group is capable of delivering on all expectations, but they are also well-equipped to recommend and provide ancillary services that can further help your business. I’d suggest giving their ideas honest consideration.

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from this project?

We just officially launched the website today [September 2015], and we're very pleased with it. We're already receiving quite a bit of positive feedback from people who are part of our community. As far as the process of developing the site was concerned, however, that's been less than pleasurable. In fact, we wound up having to spend money to hire a third party to manage the Bonsai Media Group.

It's been a very difficult process for our team. We found ourselves in a position where we just could not work directly with our developer. It was just not a very positive experience. That third party that we wound up hiring was actually the individual who brought the Bonsai Media Group to us.

Is there anything Bonsai Media Group could have improved or done differently?

The person we were working with from Bonsai is probably a very talented developer; however, he should never be the one to interact with customers. He's simply not very good at handling customer relations at all. In fact, he tends to use language that is threatening in nature and quite counter-productive.

We were at a point where we felt like we just wanted to get the project over with. We definitely didn't want to pull out, but we certainly couldn't continue to have what was becoming a continuing confrontation between Bonsai's developer and just about every one of our staff members. We brought in this other developer, who had really been counseling us behind the scenes every time one of these issues would blow up with Bonsai. I guess he was trying to work behind the scenes with Bonsai's developer, even to the point of coaching him, but the situation was untenable for us. We wound up putting our new developer on retainer to be the go-between and deal with Bonsai.