Fruition

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner and principal of a boutique interior design firm. We specialize in high end and luxury homes, catering to clients throughout the greater LA metro area.

For what projects/services did your company hire Fruition, and what were your goals?

We are aiming to expand our client base, right now almost all of our business comes from word of mouth referrals from previous clients we have worked with, and while we are grateful to be recommended by our past clients we felt it necessary to diversify our acquisition efforts using digital channels.

To this end, our firm engaged Fruition to help us with search engine marketing.

How did you select Fruition and what were the deciding factors?

I was referred by a colleague whose opinion I regard highly. I spoke with a few members of their team over the course of a few calls during which they asked about my business and marketing objectives, I liked the questions they asked and the level of depth they went into as it demonstrated their experience and knowledge of the different factors that could influence how successful the engagement was.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

My account manager kicked things off by learning about my firm, what makes us unique compared to other luxury interior design firms in LA (there are many of them here due to all the demand from homes in the Malibu, Bel Air, Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills, and Manhattan Beach areas), and took the time to learn more about what types of clients were the best fit for our style and services.

After this was determined, they worked with my team to establish the relevant keywords and implement the campaigns accordingly.

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

One account manager, one paid search specialist, one organic search specialist.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We have only worked with Fruition for a month or two now so it is still early, but it has been a great experience so far, they are very responsive and knowledgeable, and the work product has been impressive. We have already received some new business as a result of the initiatives that Fruition has implemented.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Email mostly, which is what I prefer since calls are hard to fit in my schedule since I spend a lot of time on site at clients' homes, or in other meetings. They offer detailed reports which I like to review. As needed they are available for calls but as I mentioned this is not my preference.

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

The entire team at Fruition really took the time to understand what I am looking for in a client, and what makes an engagement a good fit for our firm, and has tailored the campaigns to qualify the incoming inquiries accordingly. They really impressed me.

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

Sometimes the conversations are very tactical and technical, I am a more high-level, creative personality without a formal marketing background so having things explained in layperson's terms would be better for me to understand what is happening more clearly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the communications and public affairs manager for the E-470 Public Highway Authority, which is a political subdivision of the state of Colorado.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We managed the E-470 platform on SharePoint and hadn’t updated the website in about a decade. Our internal team no longer maintained or supported the website. As a result, it had many challenges. For example, we couldn’t add pages or update the website because it was inflexible. We wanted to build a new website with a more modern design, information architecture, and look.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition provided full-service website development. They worked with us on the discovery phase during which their team researched our competition and our website’s challenge areas. From there, we moved into the design phase. They fully designed the website, creating wireframes, mockups, and the overall architecture. Their team then built the site and now actually hosts the site for us.

What is the team composition?

We closely interacted with three people from Fruition, including a project manager. Different developers and their CTO also worked on the project.  

How did you come to work with Fruition?

We had an existing relationship with them. When I started at E-470, I had conversations with Fruition about different opportunities. We had initial development and design conversations, and I felt great about moving forward with them because they understood us.

How much have you invested with them?

We had a budget of $90,000 and stayed within that budget.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project officially started in March 2020, and we officially launched the site in November. They continue to maintain and host the site for us.

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

We’ve received much fewer customer complaints about their inabilities to find information. We’ve also had more customers asking questions and engaging with us. That is attributable to having a more accessible website that’s also easier to navigate by customers.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Figma to evaluate wireframes, review designs, and provide feedback. It was easy for us to converse with Fruition about designs and the project’s progress. We frequently used Google Forms throughout the project too. From an overall project management standpoint, they’re on time, communicative, and organized.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Unlike previous vendors. Fruition focuses on customer service. Throughout the project, their team was willing to make changes and provide great feedback. They never try to upsell us or sell us a product that we don’t need. Fruition thinks about what we need as a client and helps us deliver that. They’re honest and transparent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. We struggled with the timeline a little but that was related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest with Fruition about the challenges your organization faces. Provide them with as much information about your company as possible. Fruition does a great job of diving into a project, adjusting to their clients’ needs, and providing the resources necessary to meet their clients’ goals.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager for a broadcasting engineering leader. I have a hand in everything from digital content to events.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

It was a complete overhaul of our website. Because we’re a technology company, we wanted to come off as a growing technology company. We needed a new look and field to position ourselves as a growing tech company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to have the site live by May, and they built it from the ground up. We started with a discovery phase and then we went into actual deliverables. We had an idea of what we wanted, so  I relayed that to the creative team and went back and forth on that. Then they provided design options and went from there. Fr any ideas I had, they also came up with ideas, and it was a joint effort.

We went from a Drupal site to a WordPress site. Their developers were really great to work with because I wasn’t familiar with WordPress. From start to finish, they were there every step of the way from discovery to training on the backend.

What is the team composition?

I worked primarily with Erica (Lead Technical Project Manager). Then I talked to a few others on the design and dev teams. I probably worked with 5–10 people throughout the engagement.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I worked with Fruition for four years at my prior company. They had such a responsive team and they were really easy to reach out to. They also had a good product and are able to back it. I wanted to stay somewhat local because the site was hosted and maintained by a team in India and I sometimes had a hard time finding a person to talk to there. So, I wanted to find a partner that I could talk to and trust.

How much have you invested with them?

We gave them a budget of $50,000, and they crafted the scope to fit that budget. It was organized with line items, so I knew exactly where each dollar was going.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–May 2020.

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

We've been measuring it through Google Analytics. I just pulled a report the other day and, overall, the traffic to the Web site has grown substantially.

We’re really satisfied with the design. It functions exactly as it’s supposed to. Obviously, every new website is going to have bugs, but we went through some pretty extensive testing and have about 98% of the bugs worked out.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

I’d give them a 10 out of 10. Erica was wonderful. I was able to reach out to them whenever I wanted to. They were really easy to work with because we were on a tight budget. I worked with them pretty much every day for 4–5 months. Erica was super responsive with everything.

We had our weekly Zoom calls and I went out there in January and met with the team before we started the build. We still mostly communicated over phone, email, and Zoom. They also use software to track the status of everything through open, closed, and in-progress tickets. I knew exactly where the project stood at any given point.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their customer service was superb. There was never a question that went unanswered. The entire team had been super responsive. Even now, their customer service is wonderful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start with reaching out and meeting the team. Clients should take advantage of the experts they have on staff. They’re super knowledgeable and can give you great advice.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development of CEMCO, a manufacturer of cold-formed steel framing products for the construction industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We had a Drupal website developed back in 2015. Shortly after, the company that built and maintained the website shut down, leaving us stranded in terms of overhauls and updates.

I then began looking for a company that could program in Drupal and take over the hosting and heavy lifting for security updates. A few years later, we then decided that we needed a new website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Fruition took over our website responsibilities, and we began a maintenance contract with them. They handle all of our program and security issues. They also redeveloped the website, which is a brand new WordPress platform.

The team recreated what we had in Drupal and added significant productivity tools to it, including product finders, submittal builder, and a find-a-dealer feature, which are important to our customers.

What is the team composition?

Once we created the scope of work, Erica (Lead Technical PM) became my main point of contact, and I occasionally interact with Chance (Senior Sales Engineer). Initially, during the discovery process, I was able to work with other team members.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I reached out to several websites after doing a Google search. I received an email from Jim (CEO) when he was the chief development officer, and I felt very comfortable with how he presented the company and their capabilities.

Additionally, one of our manufacturing facilities is located near Fruition’s offices, which is great.

How much have you invested with them?

For the maintenance, we spent $500 or less per month. The new website was a little over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in November 2018, and our engagement is ongoing. 

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

We were amazed by how the website came out, and the analytics we’re already seeing are phenomenal. We’ve seen a significant increase in usage, and it’s been less than 15 days. A lot of customers have complimented the format and how easy it is to use it remotely. 

It looks like we’re going to be able to bring more people onto the website, and we haven’t lost anyone even though it was a substantial change. They got deep into our business, expectations, and needs. 

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

Fruition’s communication is extraordinary. Despite the difference in our companies and working methods, we’ve been able to communicate well. There’s been very little miscommunication, and we do weekly updates.

We learned a lot about maintaining a website and creating a better-looking, more functional website. The process has been easier than we thought. Additionally, Erica does a phenomenal job. She’s sharp and helps steer us in the right direction.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The discovery process was fantastic. During the process, Fruition brought significant information into the fold from work that they had done, not only from an analytics standpoint but also from an experience standpoint.

They proposed several ideas and features of what could be good for our website. Without the thorough discovery process, I don’t think we would’ve been successful in creating a visually-appealing website that’s also functional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Scheduling with our different timezones has been challenging. Additionally, we’ve had a bit of difficulty trying to explain what we wanted to change because we don’t use the same vernacular.

The learning curve was quite steep in the discovery phase for us, but Fruition was very accommodating. That was more of an issue on our end.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Meet with them in person at their offices because they’re an incredible group of people. They are team-oriented, and they’re focused on getting it right the first time.

Jim was so welcoming when I met him, and it felt like they were more of a business partner than a vendor. Everything they’ve done for us has helped us to be a better company.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development for a scientific consultancy. We specialize in risk management of occupational health hazards. We help other companies identify and manage chemical, biological, and physical health hazards in the workplace and surrounding community.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We needed help with web development and SEO. Prior to working with Fruition, we worked with another web development company and their customer service was disingenuous.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done a bit of everything. They completely redesigned and rebuilt our website. We provided content for the majority of our engagement, but I recently gave them. More freedom to write ad copy and they’ve totally nailed it. They also do our quarterly newsletter. They manage a PPC campaign to drive traffic to our site, and our corporate LinkedIn page. They provide a monthly report of what is working and what’s not.

What is the team composition?

Since day one, Jeff (Founder & CEO) has been my primary contact for 95% of the time. I correspond with one other person sometimes. The fact that after all these years, I’ve worked with one person who understands the big picture and knows what we’re doing, is incredibly valuable. I never have to re-explain things.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I brought in about half a dozen firms to interview. We were impressed with Fruition and moved forward. Technically, they’re very competent, but they have that intangible piece in place—communication and customer service—there’s so much value to that.

How much have you invested with them?

Our monthly spend is $2,500 (approximately $255,000 in total). It’s mostly for the PPC campaign, but that includes site updates, LinkedIn work, and our newsletters.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2012 and it’s ongoing.

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

We’ve definitely seen an increase in the number of clients that come through the website. We wanted a very small number of qualified leads, not just masses of phone calls. We’re a small company, and we're driven by our technical capabilities. Fruition bought into that and was able to deliver. We do a small number of proposals, but they’re for big projects that will keep us busy for a longer period of time. That’s our corporate model. We’ve seen better clients come in, and more qualified local leads. We also geotarget and they help us filter out the leads that ultimately would be a waste of time.

They also help us with our branding, the new website is more consistent from page to page.

They listen to our needs as well. One of our former partners argued that we needed to use certain language to drive traffic, but we that language has been twisted by lawyers in the past when our scientists have been called to court for a case. We couldn’t have that, but our partner wouldn’t listen. In contrast, Fruition always listens to our needs and are willing to try something new.  

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is good. They provide breakdowns of what they’re trying to do. They’ve even noticed that some of our content has been outdated since Google updated their algorithm, so Fruition wrote out the steps needed to get us back on track.

They’re able to drive our activities and they proactively ask where we want to grow. They don’t just wait for me to tell them what to do; they help me identify where the opportunities are on a conceptual level.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A lot of firms know their stuff, but they can’t balance it with customer service. With our previous partner, we were clearly one of their smaller accounts and it was hard to get their attention. What sets Fruition apart is their ability to build customer relationships.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re lucky to have them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You still need to take ownership of what you want and understand your own marketing objectives. If they’ve ever tripped up, it’s because we’re talking about a new marketing initiative and it’s formulated enough on our end.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director of The Monroe Institute located in Virginia. We’re known worldwide for our consciousness research and experiential programs. We have both residential programs in Virginia and other locations worldwide. We also offer online programs and products for expanded states of awareness, exploring, accessing, utilizing the benefits of these expanded states.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

The company that hosted and maintained our website disbanded their web division, so we needed another company to support our website. The same company also built our website but didn’t follow standard Drupal protocols, which caused the platform to crash. Fruition took on an unusual and challenging project given that our site was built in an unorthodox manner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had issues with our website, which Fruition was able to patch. Their team implemented creative fixes that allow us to continue our operations. Our audio and video assets were vulnerable to security attacks because of previous site management. Fruition built an infrastructure that put the assets behind a secure wall. Their team was able to stop the bot attacks and stabilize the website. They also created a how-to manual and educated us about Drupal because we needed to learn functions such as adding programs or editing content.

What is the team composition?

I had three contacts from Fruition. Jim (CEO) was always available to escalate any urgent tasks. I also worked with Drew (Vice President of Technology) and Chance (Technical Sales Engineer).

How did you come to work with Fruition?

We searched online for Drupal experts. After interviewing a few different companies, we decided that Fruition was the most knowledgeable and experienced with Drupal. Their team understood our situation and how to move forward until we were able to create a new website.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent roughly $1,200 a month on their services and invested more in a few larger projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with Fruition in September 2017 and the contract finished in March 2020.

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

Fruition's efforts improved the UX of our website, which in turn helped to increase online sales. We had several challenges with our website throughout the partnership, but they were able to address them in a timely manner.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

We had several conference calls and communicated by email. I also had one on one calls with members of their team, which was organized and had great follow-through. They have a good process for managing projects, communicating well and completing tasks in a timely manner. We always got what we expected when it was expected. Fruition was professional.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fruition addressed urgent issues with creativity and professionalism.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear and specific about your needs. Be detailed with your communications to make the process simple and ensure that you’re on the same page.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a nonprofit that’s focused on helping people without college degrees get jobs and proper training. We’re located in New York and have offices around the country, including one in Denver. I’m the web and social media manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We contacted them for help with our Drupal website, but our relationship has now grown outside of that.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially brought them in to do some web development and general maintenance, but we ended up doing an entire site audit with their team. Additionally, we redesigned one of our other web sites, and they work with us on a regular basis on both for maintenance. Our team was able to work with them, providing feedback on their designs throughout the project.

We ultimately didn’t have the budget to fully pursue their SEO work, but they provided a lengthy list of color-coded recommendations on how to make adjustments to the site in the future.  

What is the team composition?

I’ve been working with Lynne (Senior Account Director, Fruition) and another resource. We have both of our sites set up with their help desk, so we can access them for daily edits, maintenance, or security updates. 

How did you come to work with Fruition?

We were looking for a new developer and were having trouble finding a Drupal web specialist. I interviewed about six potential companies, but many of them didn’t have the Drupal experience we wanted. They reached out to us, which was great because we were looking for someone to fill the role pretty quickly. Their team was also based in Denver, so we thought it would be helpful to have them close to one of our offices.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2018, and they’re still supporting our site.

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

We launched the site recently, and the internal enthusiasm for it has been great. Our CEO is able to navigate it much easier, and it looks fresh and clean. Our executive director has also praised the site for including our initiatives in Indiana. 

Additionally, we’ve seen an increase in traffic to some of the digital tools that we wanted to showcase in our work. There’s also been a significant increase in email and newsletter signups.  

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re flexible with us. As a small foundation, our budget is tight. They’ve understood that and have helped us scale back when needed. Their responsiveness and willingness to work on our schedule has helped. Our timelines are fluid and their project managers have been accommodating.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Overall, they’ve made it so much easier to update our site and understand some of the security updates they’re running. They were honest in telling us what we should and shouldn’t be paying for. Their customer service is great. Even if we don’t have a project to work on, I always meet up with them when they’re in town. I enjoy working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re great about following our guidelines, but I’d love if they were a bit more proactive in suggesting ideas on their end. We have a limited budget, so I understand their hesitation there.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of development and community relations at Advocates for Children, a nonprofit where we recruit, train, and support community volunteers to work with kids in the welfare system.

Most of our children are in foster care. We train our volunteers to look into their situations and report back to the professionals assigned to their cases. Our volunteers give a voice to the kids and provide consistent advocacy as they work their way through the system.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We were presented with a new event to raise money for our volunteers. There were going to 15–17 participants in charge. We needed a company to create the platform for the donations to be received through.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at Fruition developed the platform from scratch. Along with supporting the website all-year-round, they work with our team in other ways.

What is the team composition?

I had regular communication with three people, working closely with them during the development process. My point of contact was Mike (Service Desk Specialist, Fruition).

How did you come to work with Fruition?

Our nonprofit was working with one of their competitors four years ago. I wasn’t part of original conversations that led us to Fruition, but they’re the only ones I’ve worked with in my current position.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Fruition started in January 2018.

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

I can’t recommend Fruition enough. The project itself was successful. We were able to raise a lot of money through donations from Fruition’s platform. They were instrumental.

The Fruition team listened to our needs, creating a user-friendly product for our donors. It was also manageable on the backend for our team. The same team members are working on the platform again for our 2020 event.

Their team is very philanthropic, donating hours, and supporting our community work. They genuinely believe in our mission, and that’s impactful. The team at Fruition is not only good what they do by giving us what we’re asking for or need, but also cares about why we need those requests.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

The team at Fruition is responsive and attentive, quickly answering questions and leaving comments. I’m not the most tech-savvy, but they’re incredibly patient with explaining issues to me. I was able to submit tickets and questions to a website they had. They would get back to me quickly, sometimes within minutes.

I appreciated their progress updates. Mike was easy to work with. He was communicative and efficient, completing tasks the way I asked. Since this was a new event for us, we knew what we needed, but not how to make it happen. I gave vague descriptions of how I envisioned the site, but their team still made it happen.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team is very supportive of our organization. Some of their staff came and supported us at the event. Working with Fruition feels like a real partnership. Because they understand our work, they’re able to create projects and other applicable items for us.

I feel comfortable reaching out to them with questions. They never make me feel like a big pain. Their team is always welcoming and friendly, exhibiting solid customer service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them improve. I’m satisfied with what they’ve produced and their entire process, as well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of business development at Trumpet Behavioral Health, an autism therapy provider. We have 40 locations in eight states and are growing rapidly to meet the demand. I manage marketing and advertising functions, overseeing all activity associated with traditional advertising, PR, social media, reputation management, and anything else that falls within the marketing spectrum.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

My company’s previous advertising vendor lacked transparency and creativity, and they weren’t leveraging our budget wisely to create value for us. We wanted a partner to make sure we were investing our marketing dollars in an arena that would help us generate client demand. Our mission was to grow in new markets. We were trying to understand our competitive environment online in addition to other strategic and valuable opportunities to create more content and digital engagement while making our services standout.

We also hoped to create long-term value associated with how we look at recruiting and talent and ultimately get the appropriate number of team members to work with our special patient population. We wanted a vendor that could educate us and create a strategic narrative and vision for where we needed to be.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition has become our Agency of Record (AOR). When they took over our existing site, we went section-by-section and page-by-page to look at the user flow and patient journey. Fruition optimized our top pages and looked at ways to start incorporating video and calls to action for navigation and other things. They built out pages around FAQs and rebuilt our mobile site, as around 3/4 of our traffic was mobile. The team continues to manage and host our website.

Fruition also manages all of our digital advertising strategies and spend. They assist us with Yext, place listings, Google My Business activity, SEO, and SEM. They’ve become like an advisor to us, helping us work through different initiatives around recruiting and talent acquisition in a very challenging, rapidly expanding healthcare space. They share best practices and inform us of what competitors are doing. 

They also do all of our social media reputation management. The team generates content for our blogs and oversees our monthly content calendar, for which they consider different elements associated with client demand generation.

What is the team composition?

There are probably 7–8 people that work with us across the different service lines. We have an accounting director, and the new permanent CEO often works with us as well.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I’d reached out to my professional network seeking recommendations for a local agency. I think having a local personal relationship is important in a strategic partnership. Individuals from other ad agencies recommended Fruition. I’d also done some online research and found that they were active in the autism space, as they’d hired individuals impacted by autism to be part of their staff. They were local, growing, and had experience in healthcare. 

My company put out an RFP and heard back from three Denver ad agencies. Luckily, Fruition was one of those. When we spoke with their references, they were passionate about their partnerships with Fruition; many commended their transparency and accountability. We were fortunate that a number of contacts and personal touchpoints led us to Fruition. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the discovery process in November 2018, and Fruition is still a partner of ours. 

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

The digital space is obviously the epicenter of a business. Our organic traffic has increased year-over-year, as have month-over-month trends. We’ve seen increased user duration on the site and decreased bounce rate across all organic activity. Our referrals, direct traffic, and social media activity have all increased. These three areas are super important, as we’ve seen a good number of leads and conversions related to those activities. This includes parents or caregivers looking to obtain information related to autism therapy services. 

Fruition’s work on how visitors engage with our site has not only influenced client demand but also recruiting and talent acquisition. This is very encouraging, and I think a lot of it has to do with how we’re engaging different platforms, including LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and Instagram. Our Facebook audience and activity referrals have gone up. We’ve also figured out which social media accounts aren’t appropriate for us. Fruition’s visibility into other parts of the healthcare industry has been very fruitful and rewarding. All in all, from a quantitative perspective, every single metric is pointing in the right direction. 

Fruition has increased engagement with prospective clients and their families by building FAQ pages, creating monthly blogs, and managing different channels for conversation, including live chat. The number of online form submissions has increased, as has the number of online chats. The number of click-to-calls, both organic and paid, have increased, while our cost-per-lead has started to come down. Everything across the board is great. We’re able to see how we’re spending and investing our money.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very helpful to us, especially since I’m very busy managing other teams and partners. This includes a sales business development team, a lead generation outreach partner, and 6–7 vendors for an online store that sells our merchandise. Fruition’s team understands the scope of our work and major milestones. My direct interactions with them total 2.5–3 hours a week.

I know we’re not one of Fruition’s biggest clients, but we’re always treated like we are. They communicate proactively and have weekly check-ins and monthly in-person reviews. I requested end-of-week updates so that I can share those with my organization to build momentum, and they’ve delivered them. 

Fruition makes project management very upfront. They create shared drives and use a priority project tool that’s associated with our direct retainers for the new strategic contracts or scopes of work that we do with them. Everything is very fluid and dynamic. If we run into any issues, such as someone experiencing a problem on social media or portions of our site being down, Fruition responds quickly. Because of their transparency and openness, I can check their Gantt charts and project maps to see where they are in the project at any given time. Our account director is also very accommodating and available to connect. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

If you’re going to work with somebody and give them your money, you want them to treat your money like it’s theirs, and that’s what Fruition does for us. They stick to the strategic vision by seeing how they can help us achieve smart, scalable, and sustainable growth while treating our money like it’s theirs. Strategic alignment allows a relationship to turn into a partnership, and I was pleased to see this come to fruition. We began to understand the scope of some of the project we’d given them and the value of our investments.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our industry is a little different than the traditional healthcare model. We also have regulatory and ethical government body restrictions and policies to consider. Fruition was able to adapt to these differences quickly, so I have no negative feedback. They’ve been accommodating of our unique leadership and executive teams, who always want to know costs related to lead generation and acquisition, understand the value of optimization, and see how we’re different from competitors.

Any advice for potential customers?

Leverage time in the discovery process, not only to understand how your business can interact with Fruition but also to determine how to build on the personal qualitative aspects of your business to align with Fruition. Having a good discovery process, setting expectations, and aligning with the vendor is very important so that you can realize the connection and have the vendor become a sustainable value-add champion for your business. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of salon operations at Salon Plaza.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fruition?

We brought on Fruition to ramp up our social media presence and community awareness.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fruition provides digital marketing services. They set up all of our social ads and began geofencing. The team launched and continues to manage various campaigns. They focus on marketing different areas, such as where our need-based salons and grand openings are.

Our teams collaborate on creating content for the ads. We often deliver the basics of what we want the ad to look like, and then Fruition puts their own twist on the content and finalizes it.

Fruition assists in other areas as needed, including Salesforce Pardot and QuickBooks.

What is the team composition?

At the beginning of our work together, we just worked with two team members; now, we work with four.

How did you come to work with Fruition?

I was not a part of that process. However, we have a lot of partners out of Denver, where Fruition is based out of, so I think it was a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

I estimate that we spent $1,700 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work with Fruition began in May 2018, and it’s ongoing.

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

Fruition has done a great deal for us. They’ve driven a lot of social traffic. We’ve also gotten more calls.

How did Fruition perform from a project management standpoint?

Fruition is very much in alignment with our values, and their services bar none. They always find a way to meet our needs, and they get the work done. They’re excellent to work with. I’d recommend them highly.

We have weekly conference calls and also communicate via email and text. They send us reporting via email. We’ve built a strong relationship; we’re comfortable picking up the phone and calling them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a very well-rounded team that assists us in a lot of different areas. It’s been a great partnership.

Fruition’s behavior and how they work with clients makes it clear that they really care about the success of our company, not just making money.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t. They should just keep doing what they’re doing. As they grow, they should never forget the little things they do to get to know people and their values.

Any advice for potential customers?

I would tell them to give Fruition an opportunity; they’ll be able to help grow their business. If they want to work with somebody with strong people and technical skills, I’d say Fruition is the company for them.