EIGHT25MEDIA

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

We've received so many compliments from our board of directors and staff on the new site—it's a night and day difference. EIGHT25MEDIA transformed the website into a much more user-friendly, eye-catching platform. Since launching, we've received a lot more RFPs through the improved “contact us” page as well.

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager offers top-notch customer service. She's available at any time of day and great about addressing any questions I have. Their development team is also patient when going over project details and presenting cost-effective solutions. Their designers were open to our suggestions and helped us reorganize the site in a way that made the most sense. They never said “no” to any of my requests. In addition to email and phone calls, we communicate project information through G Suite and Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their entire team is great to work with and communicates well. They put me at ease by engaging with me in great detail and making themselves available 24/7.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I look forward to engaging them again as other projects come up.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Prepare many questions. The more questions you ask, the better chance you'll have of finding the right vendor for you. They'll need to prove to you on the spot that they can provide solutions and suggestions.

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

Our previous website was in desperate need of an overhaul. It didn’t have an infinite scroll or an edge-to-edge screen—it was a dated design. The new site is responsive and looks great on mobile. The inclusion of social media feeds enhances and modernizes the UX. The hosted forms minimize the need to go a landing page in order to complete a form and the new demo fields allows users to input their email address straight to us. They were vital in streamlining calls to action on the site, which we appreciated.

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly calls to address problems, clarify questions, and receive updates. However, it was mostly us pushing for the calls. Their team would sometimes only have 15 minutes for us, but other times they’d allot 45. It would have been helpful to have a standing call on the same day and time each week, which we could cancel if there was nothing to discuss. However, as my team was adjusting to using WordPress, EIGHT25MEDIA was incredibly responsive in helping us fix problems we may have created.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re responsive and have the ability to build on WordPress efficiently. The site they built for us is beautiful and intuitive. Also, we had the specific requirement of keeping our URLs the same to not disturb our Google analytics, webpage tracking, or history. They did a great job completing the project while maintaining that integrity.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As mentioned above, the scheduling of meetings could be improved. If we would have locked in a specific weekly meeting time from the beginning and stuck to it, communication and general project management would’ve been more effective.

Being a services company ourselves, we found it surprising they wanted a 25% deposit before the work began. This prompted our respective CEO’s to negotiate a mutual deposit amount. Additionally, they wanted the final payment just before the website went live. As a client, I didn’t feel comfortable issuing the payment until the ultimate deliverable was completed—and our agreement said that final payment was due upon code handover AND site go-live. That being said, we haven’t had a problem with them completing the project and adding some additional polish since go-live, but we weren’t aware that they would push for final payment as early as they did.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d encourage customers to lock in a standing time and day of the week for updates/project management calls, and to understand the payment amounts and terms (including deliverables) in advance. 

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

Before our website was redone, it was difficult to get metrics on the traffic to our website. With the new website, we have Google Analytics built in so, it’s easy to monitor where people are coming from, how and when they’re searching and getting to our site, and the period of time when we have peak traffic to our website. We also incorporated Salesforce into our website; any new leads that come from our website can be viewed on Salesforce.

How did EIGHT25 perform from a project management standpoint?

It was mostly positive. They were very prompt with their responses during the development of the website. Their developers are outside the U.S. Sometimes it took longer than anticipated, but they did a good job of communicating what was delaying the project and provided us practical reasons. They did a good job with communication. We used Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really flexible to work with. There are many bigger web development companies out there, and they have fixed models. It’s harder to customize your website with the templates that they provide. EIGHT25 was very flexible in developing a customized website for us. Their price was competitive. The number of customers in their portfolio was impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could do a better job with maintenance services. We continue to work with EIGHT25 whenever we encounter any maintenance issues, but their pricing is on the higher side. If they come up with better pricing models for maintenance, we’d definitely be happy to look into that.

They did a good job of developing the website, but when it comes to data extensions like Salesforce or any other plug-ins that we have to use, it would be nice if they had an expert who could help us with that or if they could refer us to a consultant in that area. That could have been better, but overall, they did a good job of guiding us through things that we lack knowledge in.

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

The site improves our entire company’s image. We are just about to launch, so will have better quantitative results in the future. It should facilitate purchase, imbues brand trust, and gives us a boost in CRM. The integration the site provides is important to us. Automation will save us time in billing and invoicing, marketing, and customer data management. Connections to the backend will make our teams more productive, and we hope to see increases in conversion and revenue, and other positive ROI [returns on investment].

How did EIGHT25MEDIA perform from a project management standpoint?

Maria, our account executive, was patient. She listened and adapted to meet our needs, and she always communicated the timeline and expectations through what became a ten-month process. She provided top quality service, and brought in their development team whenever something needed technical explanation. Originally, we used Basecamp and Google Sheets, but switched mostly to email. Overall, the process was great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really valued their understanding of internet business strategy. So many companies can develop or design websites, but their strategies are a differentiating factor in the market. They provide helpful specifics, like video testimonials on our checkout page that improve our conversion rates. They give tactical advice we can actually implement and measure. That knowledge really sets them apart from their competitors, and helps us meet our goals.