Niftic Agency

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the development manager at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Salt Lake City. Our mission is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and regain control of their future.

The IRC is an international NGO working in over 40 countries around the world and in 26 U.S. cities providing life-changing services to refugees and displaced people globally. In 1994, the IRC opened its doors in Salt Lake City, since resettling over 12,000 refugees and providing vital programs and services to thousands more.

In my role, I'm responsible for fundraising, volunteer management, resource development, communications, community relations and much more. Within fundraising, we have annual events to engage the community and raise the profile of our work and the families we serve.

For what projects/services did your company hire Niftic Agency?

Each year, we host one or two fundraising events. We learned of Niftic Agency years ago, and since we have utilized their expert services for every large fundraising event. In 2020, faced with a pandemic and myriad challenges, we turned to Niftic Agency to support a newly configured virtual fundraising event, Breaking Bread at Home.

What were your goals for this project?

We had specific fundraising and engagement goals, including raising a minimum of $25,000 and engaging over 150 supporters through elements of our event. Maintaining fundraising goals for events even during the pandemic is crucial to ensuring robust programming for the families we serve.

How did you select Niftic Agency?

Over five years ago, we first utilized Niftic Agency's services for a small event with a quick turnaround that our internal team did not have capacity to complete. Niftic Agency's expert design team is attuned to the specific needs of a nonprofit agency, remains cost-effective, and build a professional relationship with a focus on collaboration.

They brought a breadth of experience working with other event designs, fresh ideas to reinvigorate events year over year, and maintain openness to receiving ideas and incorporating them into final design.

Not only do they work on the design elements, but they take a step back to ensure each element fits within the broader scope of the event.

Describe the project in detail.

After initial contact to confirm the project, we set up a meeting with our team and theirs to discuss the scope of the event, our goals, challenges we foresee, and concepts in their infant stages. Initial meetings are focused on broad strokes and brainstorming, especially as we considered the unique challenges presented by the pandemic.

Once we move beyond the brainstorming phase, the IRC team worked to provide written copy and any other raw elements (photos, vector files, etc.). In keeping with a collaborative process, this is placed in a shared file where comments and discussion can occur throughout the project.

Deadlines were set for digital and print elements to ensure they were prepared in time for the event. Niftic Agency's team is quick to respond to changes, even as deadlines come down to the wire.

They are careful and offer open communication about the scope to ensure it will fit within our budget--this is essential for the IRC as a nonprofit working from tight budgets to ensure maximum profitability of our events.

What was the team composition?

We work with one designer at Niftic Agency, our main point of contact over the years. Additionally, another designer supported efforts throughout the project, including liaising with the IRC team. I'm sure there are others behind the scenes who support the progress as needed.

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

For our most recent event, though it was changed by the pandemic, we exceeded our fundraising goals by $15,000 and saw more than 200 supporters engage in the event, either through a meal pickup option or the virtual program.

Throughout, Niftic Agency's work enhanced our efforts, helped created a cohesive event even though we were remote/virtual, and tied everything together to create a special experience for our supporters. Though much has changed, many of our supporters voiced their gratitude for the event held and the opportunity to gather.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have a collaborative workflow overall. We have the added bonus of working with Niftic Agency for a number of years, though they have always made the process easy and accommodated our needs, even when working on last-minute design projects.

They take time to ensure that both sides understand the needs of the other and maintain open communication that gives the opportunity to smooth out any wrinkles along the way.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Niftic Agency and their team really care about the results, but also the process and the relationships built along the way. To ensure their work is of the utmost quality, they take time to better understand the organization, the event, the people involved and the expected outcomes.

No matter the project, they are quick to respond and offer their support. Over the years, the IRC team looks forward to working with Niftic Agency, as we understand just how much value they add to our events and our work.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They are flexible and understanding as challenges arise, and they are quick to remedy designs that don't quite meet the initial brainstorming brief.

In this, they succeed in navigating often complex circumstances of understanding each individual's vision for the project and pulling that into tangible design elements for both digital and print assets.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Democracy Policy Network is a nonprofit policy organization that helps state lawmakers deepen democracy in statehouses across America. I'm a co-founder and creative director.

For what projects/services did your company hire Niftic Agency?

We hired Niftic to create our visual identity guidelines and the website that would host all of our policy resources.

What were your goals for this project?

For the visual identity, we wanted to create a system that embodied both trustworthiness (because we're a research organization) and energy (because we're about democracy).

For the website, we wanted, to build an online home that clearly communicated our vision of deepening democracy, our networked approach, and our agenda that organized policy resources into accessible formats.

How did you select this vendor?

We conducted 20+ interviews with a number of agencies and designers from around the world, and Niftic stood out because they were committed to the cause of deepening democracy and had a history of working with similar organizations on similar projects.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The scope included a visual identity guide — including logo, typeface, color scheme, etc. — and a website.

What was the team composition?

We worked with members across their team — Remy, David and Chris.

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

Since they completed our visual identity and website, our sign-ups have increased and we're having to explain ourselves less.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Extremely effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are excellent listeners. At one point of the project, there was some miscommunication about the visual identity, and they responded quickly and followed through in the exact direction we wanted.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Niftic was excellent and we will go back to them again. But one area for improvement would be keeping track of requested changes and being able to see their progress.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm one of the partners at Kx Advisors. We are a boutique growth strategy consulting firm for pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

What challenge were you trying to address with niftic agency?

We had renamed our business, but we needed them to help us rebrand it on top of that.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We didn’t have anything except the name for the new brand. They helped us do everything else.

Strategic planning for the brand was one of the deliverables. We went through a few weeks of market positioning to determine where we see ourselves in the marketplace, how we want to differentiate ourselves, and what would encourage people to interact with our brand.

They built out all the branding elements, like brand identity, color palette, and typeface. They developed our website, which is probably the biggest deliverable they were responsible for. They also handled our internal PowerPoint templates, business card design, and other collateral.

Once the brand was set up, they ran through a couple of different design options. We would give them feedback, and they would finalize it. We were pretty involved, but we let them do what they thought was the best. They would always come back to us with a couple of options, and we would pick which one we liked the best. We would merge the ideas and go from there.

What is the team composition?

There were two main people that we worked with. Remy (Founding Partner, niftic agency) is more on the strategy and client management side of things. We’ve also worked with David (Creative Director, niftic agency) who built the actual brand. They also have another person who does web development, but that was all based on David’s design.

How did you come to work with niftic agency?

We had a marketer on the team at the time who had phone conversations with 10 branding agencies. We ended up having 3–4 of them come in and pitch. We chose niftic agency for a few reasons. We were definitely looking for a boutique firm.

They offered the right balance of taking a very thoughtful and strategic approach. We really wanted an agency that was going to be creative and come up with branding ideas that we wouldn’t think of. Ultimately, I think they accomplished that.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from May 2019–October 2019. We have an ongoing relationship with them, but they aren’t actively working on anything right now.

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

People are generally happy with the brand. We target a few audiences, and they all really enjoy the brand. We operate alongside another consulting firm, but our internal team has a lot of pride in our brand. The website is atypical for a strategy consulting firm in terms of style, color palette, and everything else that we have gone with. We have had a couple of recent hires that were attracted to the company because of our brand. They said it felt fresh, younger, and more vibrant. 

How did niftic agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well. We had a couple of moments where we needed to be better aligned on my side, and that probably tripped up the process. Overall, they were very good about keeping things moving, especially early on in the project while sorting through our goals.

They were really good at marching through some of the more qualitative requirements. Toward the end of the project, we definitely had a lot to accomplish. They still got it all done. I think they did a fine job managing it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They got creative with our name and logo, incorporating a Red Cross that users already associate with healthcare. That creativity was great and yielded an effective product that didn’t have to be over-engineered. 

They suggested that we do an editorial photography shoot to include symbols that would reference each sector we focus on. For pharmaceuticals, it’s pills and for medical devices, it was pacemakers. They 3D printed all of these objects and did a photo shoot for a day, taking pictures of all these objects.

Later, they blended those images with computer graphics. The unique results impressed us, and we use the photos all the time. When I see our own staff enjoying these deliverables, I know we got it right. Strategically-aligned creativity is something that they are really good at.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When they use the brand identity guidelines, because they were so dense with images, the original files were too big for them to email to us. That caused some issues with formatting. This is a minor issue, but we’re so happy with their work, so that’s the only thing I can point to for improvement. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let them run with their creativity. We really tried not to be too prescriptive in what we wanted to see. Our team really tried to hold back from telling them what colors, shapes, and themes we wanted to see. The visual side of things is something that they are really strong at, so it was helpful to give them the chance to be creative.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am on the product team at MoveOn. MoveOn is the largest independent, progressive, digitally-native organizing group in the United States. Launched in 1998, MoveOn pioneered online organizing and advocacy techniques that have become standard in politics, nonprofits, and industry in the U.S. and worldwide. We combine rapid-response political campaigning with deep strategic analysis, rigorous data science and testing, and a culture of grassroots member listening and participation that allows us to consistently and quickly identify opportunities for progressive change—and mobilize millions of members to seize them. Each year, thousands of MoveOn members step up as leaders by using the MoveOn Petitions platform to create their own petitions and campaigns to drive social change.

For what projects/services did your company hire niftic agency?

Petition creation on our platform had not been updated in years, and we needed an overhaul in UX & design to make our platform more usable for members. We also had old legacy code that made it challenging for us to build out new petition creation flows in-house. This led us to hiring Nifitic Agency to lead on: User research, ideation of multiple different petition creation journeys, design, user testing, idea validation, and building out three different petition creation journeys to test.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted members to have a more seamless petition creation experience. It was important that members felt the brand values of people-powered progress in the journey, but also had an interactive and engaging experience. Other goals included: Substantial user research and user testing, mobile-first design and build, three different user flows designed and developed, implementing the final three flows into our existing tech.

How did you select this vendor?

Our team sent out RFPs to various lists, networks, and sites. We can reviewed the proposals individually, ranking each firm on various criteria, some of which included: experience in the social impact sector, design + dev expertise, a track record of centering users, their work in equity + inclusion. From our personal reviews, we then interviewed our top firms, checked references, and made our selection.

Describe the project in detail.

After selecting Niftic, they did market research on different user journeys, demographics, and personas. After this we collaboratively came up with a large selection of wireframes to test. They created clickable prototypes that they put through a user research phase –recording users going through the flow, flagging any issues, etc.

After finding the solutions that would work best, they took the wireframes and built out the final designs (2 rounds of feedback). Once these were completed their team built out the flows and worked with our tech team to integrate them into our codebase.

What was the team composition?

On the Niftic side, we worked with senior leadership in all key sectors of the project: UX, Design, and Tech. Our team was composed of the Platform + Growth team. Both sides had a project manager who kept things running on both sides.

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

We had a hugely positive response to the new & innovative designs and Niftic really helped us expand our view in the various experiences we can provide our members.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was very effective. The project was very clearly managed and communication norms were clear. If there were changes in the project timeline on either side (whether due to vacation schedules, delays in feedback, etc.), they were all clearly communicated. We also had a nice GANNT chart that everyone could refer back to that was kept up to date.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They're a small team, but they operate and deliver as if they are 3x their size without losing the personalization and connection with their clients. They really went above and beyond for our project. It ended up being a larger project than our original scope in the RFP. I've never seen a firm of that size work at the pace they do, delivering high quality deliverables, while also maintaining excellent client management.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Looping with other stakeholders and internal teams earlier in the process.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a waste/recycling data analytics company serving the governmental (state/municipal) market. Founded in 2014, we've worked with cities across the U.S. as well as in four countries in Europe. I am the CEO.

For what projects/services did your company hire niftic agency?

We identified a business opportunity and wanted to quickly iterate on a new potential product, but did not have the front-end resources to build the product internally. We were looking for a partner to help us build out that front-end UX functionality, while at the same time work alongside our internal back-end and data teams.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to get a MVP out the door as soon as was practical, take it to potential clients to get their feedback, and then iterate the product based upon what we learned. In essence, our goal was lean product development in order to test our opportunity hypothesis.

How did you select this vendor?

Ultimately, we selected this vendor because their skillset matched exactly with what we needed, but more importantly they very clearly understood our goals from the very beginning, and our teams seemed to have a natural rapport.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They took our wireframe designs and implemented them in a new responsive front-end React web app dashboard. This app ingested existing data that we wanted to be visualized in a new and exciting way. All React JavaScript, HTML, and CSS was provided by niftic, while our teams supplied the back-end infrastructure and data.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two of their developers initially, with the majority of work coming from one of their front-end engineers. As we started to iterate on the product, we started to almost exclusively work with just one of their front-end engineers (same one as before).

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We've now launched an entirely new product line that we are actively selling. As with any launch, going in we hadn't figured out all of the challenges or obstacles we would face, but knew that we needed a team that we could work with and one that could make some decisions on the fly to keep the timeline moving. Niftic delivered on all fronts.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used Zeplin to communicate our wireframes and ask questions/give answers to anything design or UX. And we used GitHub to communicate on anything codebase related. That coupled with Hangouts and quick, iterative sprints, lead to very effective project management.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They fact that they "got it" from the very beginning. They understood the lean ethos, and what we were aiming to achieve with the product.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None currently come to mind.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Change.org is a platform where people can support the issues they care about by starting or signing petitions. I am a growth specialist in the product team, focused on optimizing user engagement with various parts of the funnel. 

What challenge were you trying to address with niftic agency?

Our approach to growth is rapid experimentation and optimization. We hired niftic agency to add capacity for testing new designs and user experiences on the site, and boost conversion performance. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

The niftic agency team plays a key role in our growth efforts, and we work closely on a daily basis. They support everything, from UX ideation and designs to experiment implementation and data analysis. 

What is the team composition?

They have a large team that works on various aspects of our platform. We work most closely with their lead product designer, but lean on their software engineers for setting up and launching multiple experiments per week.

How did you come to work with niftic agency?

niftic agency was recommended to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent upwards of $90,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working with my team in January 2018, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

niftic agency’s support has driven huge results. In the last six months, some of our biggest wins on user engagement have come from projects that niftic agency has worked on. Their services have allowed us to reach aggressive business metrics over the past few quarters. Their work helps us maintain sustainable growth while providing users with a high-quality product.

How did niftic agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re strong communicators and have the necessary agility to change the project’s direction at a moment’s notice. Their developers are driven to meet deadlines regardless of the circumstance. We usually interact via Slack, but we’ll talk on the phone/Zoom if needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re constantly motivated to better understand and serve our users. This approach allows them to produce work that benefits our overall mission. We’re very happy with the role that they play.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I don’t have significant recommendations at this time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you are looking for an agency that is fast moving and optimizes for iterative learning, niftic agency is a great choice. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the social media coordinator for the National Geographic digital marketing team. On this specific project, I was responsible for collecting entry emails for a sweepstakes tied to the Yellowstone Live program.

For what projects/services did your company hire niftic agency?

After an internal option fell through, I needed a partner to create a web page that could collect emails for the sweepstakes.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to promote the sweepstakes and collect as many emails as possible.

How did you select this vendor?

After our internal resources backed out of the project, I mentioned I was in a bind at work and a friend recommended I contact niftic agency. I reached out their team and I was very impressed. There were three people involved in the selection process, but I was given the final say and I chose niftic agency.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

niftic agency created a webpage that prompted users to provide their information to enter our sweepstakes. The page’s design aligned with our brand guidelines and legal terms and we provided specific images to promote the prize. The first draft was completed in just one business day. We did one round of edits and niftic agency made the requested changes. Without checking for approval, they included a countdown clock to create a sense of urgency for our audience, which really impressed me.

What was the team composition?

I worked with the founder and a partner from niftic agency. The founder handled the statement of work and invoicing process. The partner managed the technical elements of the webpage. Both were very professional.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We received over 39,000 email entries through the website, which was nearly double our original goal. Internally, we can also use this information to guide promotional efforts for other campaigns related to different parts of the National Geographic business. This was our first email collection sweepstakes and we are impressed with the results.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team was very easy to work with and responsive to our requests. We mainly communicated through email. I was very happy with their speed of work. Their creativity and attention to detail set them apart from vendors I’d worked with in the past.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

niftic agency quickly responded to our feedback. The quality of their work on the first draft was great so we only gave minor edits. I know that they have other clients, but I felt that my project was a top priority. With that in mind, I wasn’t as stressed about the hard deadline for the project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

My husband and I are the owners of a  high-quality RV and trailer rental business that provides positive and memorable travel experiences before, during, and after each rental. The variety of RVs in our AdventureKT fleet accommodate the comfort and needs of groups ranging from 1-8. Each vehicle is mechanically and aesthetically maintained against the highest safety and quality standards. Every member of our passionate staff is committed to empowering travelers with outdoor information, vehicle know-how, and roadside assistance that results in confident and happy travelers. We stand above other companies in this space due to our exceptional customer service which has earned us a 5-Star Yelp status.

For what projects/services did your company hire niftic agency?

We purchased an existing RV rental business three years ago and needed to significantly refresh the branding, logo, website, and the overall customer experience. As a small but growing business, we needed a marketing partner who not only understood the Outdoor/Travel space, but who was creative, efficient, responsive, pleasant, and could scale their services to accommodate our budget and timeline. niftic agency turned out to be a perfect fit on all fronts.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to refresh the AdventureKT branding, this would include our logo, website, and overall customer experience when booking an RV online. Once this foundation was in place, we planned to activate a more proactive marketing plan that would expand our customer base, increase our rental revenue, and attract a less price-sensitive clientele.

How did you select this vendor?

We sent out an RFP to 4 agencies. All 4 were recommended to us by trusted industry contacts and colleagues. We needed a marketing partner that had experience in a variety of industries yet understood the nuances of the Outdoor and Travel space.

Describe the project in detail.

niftic did a thorough needs assessment to assure we were aligned on the project scope, timeline, and budget. Once complete, we moved into action using a well-planned and realistic work calendar.

The niftic team kept us on schedule, from the initial phase of consumer research, selection of design elements, color pallets, fonts and photography to the user experience and technical functionality of our site. They helped make sure we were engaged and excited throughout the process as well. Having worked on a number of similar projects over the years, I can honestly say that this was by far one of the most positive experiences I've had.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a team of 3, with a primary lead that managed our overall project. Because of a registration software that we use, we needed to connect our niftic web developer with this third party and have them work together directly to establish the compatibility between this software and our new site. This went very smoothly and we were grateful for niftic's receptiveness to working with this existing partner of ours.

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

Our new and existing customers love our new website, both how it looks and how it functions. Not only has our web user experience been significantly upgraded, but our bounce rate was reduced by 20% within a week of launching. We've also seen that our online bookings have increased by 10%, saving us time and resources. Our third party partners have held our new site up as the best they've seen in the industry. Everyone loves the results.

How effective was the project management?

The project management was excellent. Our collaboration was pleasant, productive, and on track with the schedule. We got into a rhythm of how we preferred to communicate which led to very efficient meetings and feedback exchanges. Our niftic team was often ahead of schedule with their deliverables, which was impressive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

In addition to the excellent customer service and the quality of the overall project delivered, we found Niftic to be a true partner of ours rather than just a project provider. From day one, the niftic team was genuinely vested in who we were as a business and what we were building.

Additionally their pricing structure is great in that we could leverage them on a project by project basis or a retainer, depending upon our changing needs. They offer a wide variety of marketing and development services and this adaptive and scalable model is ideal in our ever changing business environment.

Please describe your company and your position there.

As International Business Developer, it is my responsibility to make sure our group is working with partners that are well-versed in several arms of the business, including EComm and consumer electronics. Working with a group (niftic.agency) that has a clear understanding of how to make the digital user experience unique for our customers and that can help refine our vision has been invaluable.

For what reason(s) did your company hire niftic.agency?

After experiencing on-going frustrations with different groups, we chose to work with experts in the space (niftic.agency) who are able to solve problems and create unique user experiences. All team members of niftic.agency took the time to clearly understand what we wanted, and, in the end, delivered above and beyond our expectations – an experience better than we imagined. They were professional and tailored the project to our needs like no other, rather than simply pushing a cookie-cutter solution like the vast majority of digital agencies.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking for a curated digital user experience that aligned with our brand of providing high-end consumer electronics.

How did you select this vendor?

We selected niftic.agency after extensive vetting, research, and discussion with the group. They provided transparency about their services and what it would take to make our vision real. They clearly noted where more resources would be required and why, and inspired confidence in our group. Their understanding of the digital/web landscape, both from a design and technical perspective, is second to none.

Describe the project in detail.

The organization of niftic.agency can only be spoken of highly. Consistent follow-up and regular weekly conversations via phone and screen-share tools enabled us to gain a clear understanding of what was going on (both from a visual and technical perspective). They were transparent about where the project was at (in form of email correspondence), excelled in their attention to detail, and solved problems that others couldn't.

What was the team composition?

The team consists of experts in their respective fields with a clear understanding of who is accountable. Chris Fowles spearheaded the technical development of our project, though due his advanced understanding of design principles, seamlessly integrates with the work of Design Director, David Herzog. Remy Fowles' project management and strategic understanding enabled us to have a clear understanding of deliverables and who is accountable for what. She held our group accountable as needed. The whole team inspired confidence.

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

Within 90 days, we saw immense influx (exceeding 70%) is engagement on the site – we were not only reaching more people, but more importantly, reaching the right people, at the right time, resulting in a significant increase in both sales, and returning visitors. In addition to this, niftic helped generate extensive growth on our social channels, many of whom articulated they were impressed with the experience on our page, resulting in their choice to "follow" our activity on other platforms.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was exceptional.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was most impressed by their ability to solve problems and deliver results, without sacrificing quality of deliverables, or communication without the executive team. They made it clear to us when there were problems and were willing to have the difficult conversations when they were needed, further inspiring confidence that we were working with true professionals.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No. The group delivered again and again, and I can only praise their efforts and final product.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

ProcessAG is a 4-generation company in the creative industry. We do product design, brand management, and manufacturing overseas. We have 5 offices in China and 2 offices and 3 print facilities in North America. I’m the CEO of our company’s U.S. and western market divisions, which include U.S., Canadian, and European markets. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Niftic Agency?

Many of the brands that we service and integrate with needed digital software to bolt on the backend. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Recently, they built a fully interactive website with backend management for sales team leads. That was for a consumer product company. For that project, they also built new organic software. We needed them to create a chatbot that could communicate and talk to Facebook and handle digital marketing leads from inbound traffic that another team was generating. The volume was so great that we couldn’t manage it with a customer service team. They ended up creating a chatbot that could qualify or disqualify the leads and drive them to a customer service team that would capture and close the sale. Niftic Agency created some backend software on that whole interface. We had no problems, and everything worked as well as possible for a new chatbot system.

Niftic Agency managed everything digital for this company. We just did the designs and the brand management and handed it over to them, and then they bolted everything together and made it work. We had a couple of revision rounds, but everything worked seamlessly in the end.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with 3 or 4 members from their team. An admin was our designated point of contact. The only other contact we really cared was the lead engineer, Chris [Partner, Niftic Agency], out of Washington D.C. He had probably another couple people on his team, but we didn’t want to integrate with them. We just wanted the simplicity of a single point of contact. The admin coordinated the schedule and the traffic, and communicating with the engineer allowed us to describe the details and the changes.

We vet our vendors pretty heavily so that we’re not running into problems. Most of our client base is pretty large. Some are 200 million, and others are in the billions like Nike and Adidas. It’s really important that we go through a proper vetting cycle. We don’t really have a price-driven model. We mostly care about stability and our utility cycle.

How did you come to work with Niftic Agency?

Typically, we set a criteria list on the size of the company, their programming skill set, experience, level of clientele, and professional management and operation. We want them to be using the best methods, backdate schedules, and things of that nature. As long as they have those processes in place, they can qualify for our team. That’s pretty standard for all our vendors.

We helped source a few different firms, and Niftic Agency won some of the projects and the bids. After some time, we just kept using them because they did a good job and gave us no problems. We’ve completed a handful of engagements. They’ve been active for some time now with us. They are in the top 2 or 3 vendors that we consistently partner with, and they’ve been a preferred vendor for the last 18 months. They probably graduated to that with some smaller projects, but they wouldn’t have been on my radar until they hit some of our important clients. Our agency picks up smaller tasks here and there, but we’re not managing projects in detail when they’re small or local.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent well over 6 figures.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together 18 months ago, and the collaboration is ongoing. 

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

We’re reading people and their personalities. That’s what we care about in these third-party vendors. We don’t like flashy sales people that make audacious claims on timelines and schedules. I don’t think Niftic Agency focuses on sales or selling. They’re more engineering-based and utility-driven, which we like because it gives us an honest read on them. It also means that when a product goes awry—which they all do in some way—they’ll handle it well. That’s what we care about.

Niftic Agency is just a good, hardworking team. We know if something goes wrong, they’ll put in the time to rectify it. That’s hard to find from a vendor.

How did Niftic Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had no problems with timelines. We’re also giving them pretty large-scale projects. I would think our projects are ranked on their A scale. It’s just like all agencies, ourselves included: if you end up raking in a C-level client, you’re not going to finish the project as timely as an A-level client. That’s the function of all agencies.

We communicate however necessary. We generally expect live documents and even integration through certain apps like Slack or Trevio. Our communication is based on project managers and our facility in what they want. Niftic Agency has been pretty flexible. They’ll meet in person with our Salt Lake City team. They’ll come to our office, and we’ll go to theirs. The D.C. team has been doing a lot of video chat conferences and email correspondence. We like to have more than just phone conversations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re great. We don’t recommend many firms, but I highly recommend Niftic Agency. They’re just good people. They do honest business, and we really value and appreciate vendors like that. I don’t have any issues with them. Of course, I don’t want them to get too busy because they’ll be juggling my stuff.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We know which areas we would like them to tackle, and I know they’re close because we’ve talked about having them take over the digital marketing traffic funnels. That’s a category where we haven’t been happy with other third-party vendors. It involves a lot of product marketing. That’s a category that we feel like they could integrate more and maybe positively take on. They haven’t done that yet. That would be a strong suit for them. It would also help them understand how the software they’re developing can be leveraged on applications. For example, a chatbot they created for us integrated with the Facebook API and literally was talking to Facebook users who liked our pages. It would pop up in their Messenger, type conversations, and offer them coupons and discounts.

Keep in mind, Niftic Agency doesn’t do digital marketing. We just asked for this solution, and they ended up creating this bot that started getting a lot of traction. When groups like this integrate at that level, I’m amazed they don’t stay in digital marketing because this could be a funnel for all of that. Right now, we have to go back to another agency for digital marketing, and we’re getting a conflict between both groups because the digital marketing group was a little protective of their channel and didn’t create this. What do we do?