DaBRANDé

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of CGS Health

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Since 1974, Cook Group has been a leading provider of third party administration (TPA) services and medical stop-loss insurance products to the private-sector employer health benefits marketplace. Currently we administer more than 75,000 self-insured covered lives across medical, pharmacy, dental and vision benefits. The CGS Health team has the third party administrative capabilities and medical stop loss experience to tailor a self-insured benefits plan for any group of 50 lives or more nationwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire DaBRANDé to accomplish?

• We hired DaBRANDé for web development and three additional projects

SOLUTION

How did you find DaBRANDé?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select DaBRANDé over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from DaBRANDé were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Our original project was for our brand identity and the development of our website. In the first subsequent project, we wanted to build our direct care model as we moved away from an insurance-based system. The website should give people a good overview of that model, so DaBRANDé
  had to create a good landing page with graphics. They also created a separate page where users could see frequently asked questions that explained our direct care model in a user-friendly way. 

In the second additional project, I reached out to DaBRANDé in April 2024 to develop a retail website, which was a huge undertaking. The goal was to launch a subdomain of our main website by Thanksgiving to have a Black Friday sale. 
I asked them to finish it in eight weeks, but I only wanted to move forward if we were sure we could stick to that timeline. They said yes, and then we went through the ideation phase and planned the website. I even hired a photographer to shoot the product images and gave the team the descriptions of our products.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

I had a disappointing experience with DaBRANDé while using their branding, web design, and advertising services. Right from the beginning, communication was poor. Despite several attempts to get in touch, they were slow to respond and seemed disorganized throughout the process. The consultation promised a customized approach, but what I received felt rushed and lacked any real creativity or understanding of my brand's needs.

Their branding work was a major letdown. The logo they provided didn’t align with our discussions, and the color scheme felt outdated and uninspired. My feedback seemed to fall on deaf ears, which was incredibly frustrating.

The website design was equally subpar. It was clunky, hard to navigate, and not optimized for mobile, even though that was a crucial requirement. Revisions took an unreasonably long time, and despite multiple attempts, the site still wasn’t up to standard.

As for the advertising services, they were a waste of money. The ads were poorly targeted and failed to generate any meaningful engagement or results.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They were truly disorganized. Because of my job, I’ve had to have an extremely good memory of things and random details. In our engagement, I’d tell them about those details in our calls, and no one else would remember such information from their side. They’d look in their notes, but the notes would be sparse.

What was your primary form of communication with DaBRANDé?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The project alignment was just total rubbish. Their output was too poor, and they lacked proper communication skills.

Are there any areas for improvement or something DaBRANDé could have done differently?

Apart from the issues I’ve already mentioned, their customer service must improve, especially in terms of their attachment to the project versus what I wanted. For instance, I’d tell them to remove a certain element from the website, but they’d tell me no. I understood that they had their opinions in terms of UI, but I should be the one to make decisions since it was my website. Simply put, they didn’t subscribe to the philosophy of customers always being right.