E. Curtis Designs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Executive Director of the Mason Contractors Association of California. MCAC was originally formed to give California mason contractors a greater voice in labor negotiations.

MCAC expanded to become an organization representing both open-shop and signatory mason contractors of all sizes and specialties on a variety of issues related to the trade. Today, MCAC is comprised of mason contractors as well as suppliers with ties to the masonry industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire E. Curtis Designs?

To develop our organization website.

What were your goals for this project?

For the website to professionally represent our organization and provide useful information for our existing and prospective members.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I conducted a vendor search that included a Request for Proposal to three finalist web developers that were vetted by MCAC personnel to match our criteria.

Upon receipt of qualifying proposals, a phone interview or in-person meeting was established to review the project. E. Curtis Designs was the winning bid selected due to their portfolio, price and understanding of our objectives.

Describe the project in detail.

Full website development, including layout design, graphical editing, copy writing assistance, and scripting integration. In addition we've been using Edmund to maintain our website and update pages since our website's completion.

What was the team composition?

Edmund and I worked together exclusively.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The website gave our association visibility and credibility to prospective members and industry associates. The site is also an information resource housing issue updates, links to government agencies, past and present newsletters, and a directory of our members.

The site is also a portal through which members may pay dues, purchase advertising and register for meetings thereby improving our membership renewal process, payment efficiencies and cash flow.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Worked with the owner Edmund. We initially met at my office, discussed the web development goals, and after a few days I was provided a suggested development platform and layouts for assessment.

Once a layout was decided upon the website development was completed in approx. 4-weeks.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was super impressed with Edmund's ability to hear and interpret our organization's objectives. Being new to designing a web site, I fumbled terminology and was learning about layout and optimization on the job. Edmund was very patient and his technical ability more than made up for my lack thereof.

Of paramount importance still to this day is Edmund's exceptional customer service. He responds to emails same day, implements requested changes within 24 hours and works with me to make sure the desired content goal and visual is achieved.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I have nothing to report here.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a certified public accountant in Sacramento, California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with E. Curtis Designs?

E. Curtis Designs designed, developed, and maintains two websites for me, taxaccountpro.com and taxreliefreviews.org.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built two websites pretty much from the ground up both of which are focused on lead generation for my accounting business. Since then, they’ve handled everything in terms of managing inquiries through the site and any updates that we need to make to it. One we update every month with new material, and the other is more on an ad hoc basis.

What is the team composition?

I just work with Ed (Founder, E. Curtis Designs) directly.

How did you come to work with E. Curtis Designs?

I just searched website design professionals in Sacramento.  I chose them because he was the most eager and competent webs designer that I reached out to, so I decided to give him a shot.

How much have you invested with them?

I would say I’ve spent somewhere between $5,000–$10,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together about three years ago, in the summer of 2016, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The success of the websites has been better than I ever hoped for. Both are up and running profitably and successfully and have been since he got them off the ground. They’re real moneymakers — otherwise, I wouldn’t still be operating them.

How did E. Curtis Designs perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management with him is very quick, easy, and personal. Almost all of it's done over email that he turns around in at most 24 hours, and once in a while I’ll call him in order to discuss something that needs a more concrete or immediate decision.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have five websites in total, and each of the other three is all run by a different webmaster, but Ed runs two of my sites because of how capable and quick he is. I trust him completely, and I think that speaks for itself.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing he could do better because he already does everything in the best possible way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would just advise anyone thinking about working with him to go for it because you will get more than you even asked for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Office Manager and Owner

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire E. Curtis Designs?

Our website was hacked and we needed it to be rebuilt and redesigned.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We contacted him when our first website was hacked and he was able to bring it back online and added extra security.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We then had him develop a whole new website which has worked very well for us over the years. Whenever we need to make changes, he is always available and gets things done quickly. E. Curtis Designs is very detailed with his work and communication. He is highly knowledgeable in his field and knows his stuff! We highly recommend his service.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Just Edmund himself.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Hi re-built our website and re-designed it, and even helped us to rank higher on Google.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective.

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

Edmund is very quick to respond and very talented and knowledgeable in his field.

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

No.