Doublesided

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the former secretary of the European Society of Contact Dermatitis when I worked with Doublesided. I’m currently a medical practitioner.

What challenge were you trying to address with Doublesided?

We needed immediate help in redesigning our website which included a membership portal for making online payments. Our previous developer left us without any access to our website or domain name. As a result, we were forced to ask our members to pay by bank transfer or cheque which was both an incomplete and very time-consuming process.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Doublesided redesigned our WordPress website when we got our domain name back. We met them in their central London office when we worked together on the new site’s structure. They revamped our website, and while doing so, they suggested a lot of improvements to make it modern looking. Some things were provided by us, but a lot of the design ideas came from them. The team did that by changing our platform’s color scheme, setting up our membership system, integrating banking options, and importing all the member details that we provided to them. More importantly, they ensured that our site was user-friendly.

They also implemented a support ticketing system that could reduce the work of our organization’s secretary. That way, there was no need for the secretary to answer all questions related to payments, memberships, and easy to answer questions such as what to do with lost passwords. On top of that, the Doublesided team also made it easier for our members to communicate with each other. They also enabled them to access each other’s contact details to ensure the smooth working of our society.

Furthermore, the team was in charge of coordinating with journal publishers to ensure that all of our stakeholders receive their journals in their correct addresses. The journal that our members received were related to our subspeciality. We gave Doublesided the list of our members as well as their respective address details. There were also links to the electronic form of the journal for members who didn’t want to subscribe to the paper.

What is the team composition?

There were two owners within the company, including a developer and a creative. The developer was our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Doublesided?

We found them because they had developed a website for our sister company, a UK medical dermatology society. We did get a couple of quotes from different suppliers. However, Doublesided’s price was more favorable to us. Above all, they came across as very genuine, helpful, and responsive.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent £42,000 (approximately $58,618 USD). Then, we spent £10,000 (approximately $13,900 USD) on the initial website design.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with Doublesided from June 2016–March 2020. The Doublesided team continues to work with our society, but I handed my position to somebody else 18 months ago.

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

We saw a substantial improvement on our website with Doublesided’s support. Thanks to them, our platform became easy to use. More importantly, whenever our members had inquiries such as lost passwords, they immediately resolved them. We received positive feedback from our members because our system was very responsive.

How did Doublesided perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management process was good, and they kept their word on our agreed deadlines. Since we were both based in the UK, our initial meetings were face-to-face because it was easy for us to meet in the London office. However, subsequent communication was via email. We also had video calls when I was in meeting with other committee members who were based in all regions of Europe. Overall, our conference calls where we discussed various aspects were very smooth.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Doublesided was very amenable if we wanted something altered. They were quite patient despite us not being very tech-savvy. They translated our requirements into technically workable outputs that were beneficial to all our members.

With them, we were able to get things up and running. They also ensured that everything was functional with their great maintenance support. Moreover, they were great compared to the firm that we worked with before. That previous company went out of business and didn’t even inform us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We weren’t as demanding as companies who might be in the commercial sector. We didn’t count if they were getting many hits and scoring highly. As a result, I couldn’t comment on areas they could improve. We only knew that they were very responsive, and if there was something that they could've done better, they could still come up with suggestions for improvements.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to what they have to say because they have good ideas. If you think you aren’t creative, you can channel their team’s creativity and let them translate that into a deliverable that works well. Above all, put your trust in Doublesided.