Website Re-Design for Historical Institution
- Web Development
- $10,000 to $49,999
- Aug. 2019 - Feb. 2020
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"We considered a lot of great organizations, but if I could do it all over again, I would still pick Helm."
- Other industries
- Buffalo, New York
- 11-50 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Seeking to revamp their outdated website, a historical institution hired Helm. The team built a customizable WordPress site with a variety of features and plugins.
The new site, with its customizable features, has been absolutely instrumental in the success and internal efficiency of the institution. Along the way, Helm was collaborative, flexible, and reliable, impressing internal stakeholders with their technical skill and creative acumen.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the communication and content coordinator for a nonprofit historical institution. We are our state's premier historical organization and we have been around since 1862. Our archives, exhibits, and collections are all reflective of the state history.
My job as the communications and content coordinator is essentially the marketing, PR, and social media person.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Helm Experience & Design?
We needed to do a website redesign. Our previous one was dated and didn’t do what the museum needed it to in any regard. It did not represent the exhibits appropriately, it did not represent our events appropriately and it was not user friendly at all.
The biggest thing was that we needed a communication tool that was user-friendly and would appropriately represent our collection.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Helm built a customized WordPress stack that has plugins, some made from scratch and some existing plugins that were customized to our needs. For example, they added a search bar as well as a customized, branded calendar for our research library.
Aside from building the actual site, Helm is also on board for any technical problems.
What is the team composition?
I primarily worked with our project manager. I also worked with Nicholas (Co-Founder) who was like an assisting project manager as well on the site.
When it came to certain phases of the project, we had a few other staff members that helped us. When we were in the earlier aesthetic phases, we had one additional person to help us from a graphic design viewpoint.
We also worked with someone for the more technical pieces, like linking the website with PayPal and things like that. In total there were five or six people that I saw in person and interacted with more than once.
How did you come to work with Helm Experience & Design?
Once we got the funding for the site, we did a full RFP process leading up to the project and we hired an external communications consultant to help with interviewing our top choices. It was between Helm and three other organizations. I believe Helm was sourced from our communications consultant, who knew of them but hadn’t worked with them before.
Helm had a very intense interest in our organization beyond just the website. They did their research on us as an institution — they knew about our collection and even came on a tour of the museum. I appreciated that additional initiative and I think that chemistry wise, they worked a lot better with our institution.
How much have you invested in them?
I believe the cost was around $38,000. They also host our website, and we have a support contract with them which is $250 per month.
What is the status of this engagement?
We entered a contract in August 2019, but we were doing pre-work with them prior to that. We did the soft launch and some of the testing in February 2020. They are still our host and we can contact them if something comes up or if something glitches.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Not only has Helm upgraded and refreshed everything to give it a new look, aesthetic, and functionality, they’ve also given us the capability to change and adapt. The site is very user friendly on the backend; there are webpages on the site that did not exist when we launched the site, such as a COVID-19 page.
These web pages took me all of 10 to 15 minutes to set up — now, not only do we have the refreshed look, but the website is exceptionally flexible. That was incredibly important for our institution, because our work is not static.
We know that all the tools are upgraded and designed in a way that we can make fresh web pages that don’t look cookie-cutter but that are still interactive and serve the needs that we need them to.
The site functions phenomenally, and has since it launched.
How did Helm Experience & Design perform from a project management standpoint?
If there was ever a deadline issue, it was on our end. Helm is on top of every single deadline, but they were also very flexible when things came up. There were a lot of different considerations and a lot of different opinions, and the team was very flexible with that and still were on time with everything.
We’ve had staffing changes and it just so happens that some of the staffing pages affect some of the very few areas on the site that we can’t customize. We would email Helm, and they would fix those things within 24 hours or before that. Since Helm hosts our website, they can provide us support on a regular and consistent basis.
We kept in touch through email and phone calls. I’m not very tech savvy, but they always explained things in terms that made sense. If I wasn’t sure about something, they didn’t just use a different term. We all had a full comprehension of what they were discussing. I never felt like anything went over my head which I appreciated.
What did you find most impressive about them?
For me, the site itself and the amount of flexibility and autonomy that it provides the organization, especially considering the fact that we do not have internal IT staff, is the most impressive. It’s not just the quality of the site itself that allows us to edit it — Helm gave our team very thorough training and built around our desire to have that flexibility.
As an organization, they have a lot of initiative and passion. There was not a single person I met on their team that I felt like wasn’t 100% in it at the moment. They were totally invested and hands-on.
The team is very understanding, but they are also very firm on what is realistic and what is not. At the same time, they were willing to work with us. There were some instances where they even had to mediate between what I wanted to do and what the desires were for another staff member.
They really took the initiative to learn our organization and really care about us as an institution. Helm really seemed to care — they’ve even shown up to our special events after the fact.
We considered a lot of great organizations, but if I could do it all over again, I would still pick Helm. I would highly recommend them to other peers both in the nonprofit field but also outside of it because they’re multifaceted.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I don’t want to say that they were too flexible, but I think they probably could have been a little bit more aggressive and a little more persistent with the powers that be. Once they realized the personalities they were working with and the way things worked prior, it was a lot easier for them to push back and give us other options which became the norm later on and something that I appreciated.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
For any new customers coming in, I would tell them very strongly to have their end goals for this project in mind going into it. If you just go in with needing a new website and that’s it, Helm, because they are flexible and accommodating, wants to produce a website that is going to be what you need it to be.
They are web designers, and they can’t make decisions for you as an institution. If you have your goals established, I have no doubt in my mind that they will find a way to make those goals happen in whatever website they design for you.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
-
Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
