Expertrec

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and owner of Puget Sound, which has been around since the 60s. It primarily features a two-way radio system for commercial, marine, and electronic use. We’re based in Seattle but have a worldwide presence and website where we sell the radio system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Expertrec?

We have about 7,000 products on our site. Prior to our engagement with Expertrec, we used Google’s custom search feature to index the products and make them easy to find. That worked well, but Google eventually terminated that service. We needed an alternative solution. At the time, they were just getting off the ground, but we trusted them to implement optimal search functions into our site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were just entering the market when I asked them to implement their search and indexing services into my site. The scope of work, for the most part, just involved them embedding some existing code into our website. Even then, they had all of the basic features and functionalities I wanted, so they didn’t have to do much customization for me. For instance, if I wanted more weight on a particular page, they could complete that task quickly as needed. But, anything I requested for customization was easy to adjust. 

Along with the service, they also offer their users a dashboard that allows you to customize which results are weighted without external assistance. I wasn’t able to control that before this. That ended up being pretty important because due to the complexity and volume of our products, automated weighting algorithms would often guess our preferences incorrectly. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with two of their team members, but the project was essentially a non-event. It was simple because they made their services comparable to what we had previously. There were more bells and whistles with the search result manipulation this time around, though. 

How did you come to work with Expertrec?

After Google kicked us off their retired service, there was a mad rush to figure out what to use to replace the system. We found a top ten list online full of alternate options. After looking through them all, very few seemed easy to implement at the price point we were shooting for. Ideally, we wanted something very similar to what we had before. Expertrec seemed to meet our criteria, especially for our e-commerce platform. 

How much have you invested with them?

To use their services, it costs us about $100 each year. They might charge more now, but because I’m a legacy customer, I get a slightly lower rate. We were happy with the price—there was nothing to complain about there. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We spent the month of October 2016 on the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Before our engagement, customers would complain about the difficulty of finding some of the products on the site. I never get that complaint now. Internally, my team is happy with the search services too. It’s easy for them to pinpoint certain products, using the system as a database. All parties were pleased because they were able to provide technology that could accurately customize a search experience for our customers at an affordable price. 

How did Expertrec perform from a project management standpoint?

They were super helpful and extremely responsive. Between us, my developer, and their team, we’re all remote. The entire project was communicated over email, and it was quick and to the point. There was not much back and forth because they know what they’re doing. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They care about the customer. If you compare them to similar providers, they truly exceed expectations. They’re focused and could align with businesses of all sizes. This solution ended up being better than Google’s old option because there’s no advertising. I used to have a problem with competitors being able to show ads on our pages through Google, so this cleared that issue up.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything at the moment. As I said, they turned this process into a non-event, which was important to me.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure their process is right for you. Look at what you’re searching for and see ing they’re able to index it for you before you implement anything new onto your site.