Noticed

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're a retailer of aviation supplies and equipment. I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Noticed to launch a rewards program for our company (Smile Rewards), along with Privy, to convert more customers.

SOLUTION

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

Notices is a Shopify preferred partner, and came recommended within the Shopify ecosystem.

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

Privy Setup/Strategy, Campaign Management (Smile Rewards Program Strategy, Execution and Klaviyo Flow Deployment), Smile Flow Designs (4 Flow Designs - Program Intro, Points Earned, New Tier, Refer A Friend), Privy Email Capture Designs (4 Popup Designs - Homepage Popup, Abandoned Cart Exit Intent, Free Shipping Threshold, New vs Returning Users). Program Card Setup, Design Assets Customization, Referral Program & Landing Page Setup.

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

I worked with three members of the Noticed team: Senior Email Marketing Manager Ecommerce Account Strategist UX/UI Designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was not impressed with the deliverables: I had a walk through with Privy directly shortly after Noticed launched. During my call with Privy, I learned that Noticed misconfigured a number of items.

This included offering discounts to all customers on a cart page, instead of simply those showing exit intent. As well, there was no differentiation between mobile and desktop campaigns.

None of the campaigns were properly optimized, and one was not showing due to an error in the logic Noticed created. On the Smile Rewards side, a number of items were misconfigured, or not configured at all.

Noticed skipped over all internal Smile email notifications, so they had none of our branding at launch. Noticed also didn't properly configure the landing page correctly.

Every link on the landing page noticed created redirected to a registration page, regardless as to whether a user already had an account. It was not logical or usable as delivered.

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

Most communication with Noticed were via email. There was an initial kickoff call and a few calls during the project to discuss deliverables.

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

To be candid, I wasn't impressed by Noticed. I will not be working with their team again.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Noticed was lacking on the deliverables. The word I chose to use when discussing with their Director of Revenue was "Sloppy". The team did not appear to quality control the product before launch.

The team was lacking on the programming side, which would make me question whether they understand the fundamentals of liquid, the Shopify language.

Rather then fix the deliverables two team members replied "Out of scope" when I brought up concerns about their failure.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and founder of a women's soft clothing manufacturing and apparel company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Noticed?

I wanted to increase my e-commerce capabilities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They're in charge of email and marketing campaigns, my social media campaigns, and the customers who subscribe to our emails. They increase brand awareness on our Instagram and Facebook channels, all in the interest of our e-commerce sales.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with two points of contact. I spent the first six months with one account lead, and then we transitioned to the two other team members.

How did you come to work with Noticed?

They contacted me through Shopify. We were growing fast, and I was intrigued by their approach and knowledge. They seemed like a perfect package, and they've proved that they are. They always overdeliver, and they keep all their promises. I'm incredibly impressed by their whole scope and all the people we work with.

How much have you invested with them?

I've spent around $30,000 on their services so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around the end of 2018, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don't have any hard metrics yet, but we anticipate we'll double our e-commerce sales over last year, mostly thanks to their involvement.

How did Noticed perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptional. I would rate them perfectly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They hire experts in their field, capitalize on their strengths, and stay in their lane. They are complete professionals, and they communicate well both internally and with their client. They're experienced and hands-on, and they understand our needs and our whole business from top to bottom.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their weakest area is with their SEO capabilities. I think they are bringing in experts in both SEO and PPC, so that weakness should improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd recommend them to anyone, but it's important to be quick, efficient, and on top of your game. Be surgically focused and clear about your goals, and you will get the most out of your collaboration.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Bear KompleX is a fitness brand that creates high-quality gear and equipment for. I'm a co-founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Noticed?

We hired Noticed for email marketing, support, and optimization. 

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to improve our email marketing efforts by maintaining contact with our current and prospective customers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were referred to them by someone we regard highly. We interviewed Noticed, as well as other companies in the industry, and they ultimately won out!

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Noticed fully took over our email marketing campaigns. They segment and optimize our lists, create new and exciting content, set goals, and analyze data and performance, all while improving our conversions.

What was the team composition?

I work closely with their digital marketing professional and director of growth marketing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of our most difficult tasks is developing content. It's difficult to constantly think of exciting things to share with supporters, but they always do a great job of exploring relevant events in our industry. For example, I had no idea it was "National Eat Your Veggies Day," but they created an email about how our meal prep bag is perfect for vegetables! They do this kind of project often.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It's incredibly smooth. Communicating with them is a breeze and their follow-ups are quick. They do a fantastic job of creating content and keeping our campaigns fresh.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I'm most impressed by their proactive approach. They're a truly full-service agency that takes care of all our needs. Outside of asking us to approve campaigns, they handle everything without prompts.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, everything is great. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior e-commerce manager at Partners Coffee.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Noticed?

We hired Noticed to revamp our website after we rebranded the company and its name to Partners Coffee. Since Partners Coffee wanted to change its digital assets as well, they onboarded me to redo the digital experience. I needed a vendor to help me meet the 8-week timeline.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Noticed did front- and backend development from scratch, designing a semi-custom theme on Shopify. They created the wireframes and rewrote content with the end goal to provide a completely new digital experience for our customers. The Shopify site launched in April 2019.

What is the team composition?

I met with the CEO and then interacted with a 4-person team during development. The team included a project manager, a lead developer, a designer, and a web optimization resource.

How did you come to work with Noticed?

I found Noticed via the Shopify Partner program. The team was local and offered a reasonable price.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from February–April 2019. Noticed is providing post-launch monitoring through early May 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sales have been stable, but we don’t expect to see an uptick until we educate our customers about our brand change. The site received positive feedback from internal stakeholders and our peers at an industry trade show for its digital experience.

How did Noticed perform from a project management standpoint?

Noticed did a stellar job compared to other vendors I’ve engaged. I can’t speak highly enough about their performance because I didn’t think the time frame would be feasible. During development, we communicated via email and Trello; I interacted directly with the project manager and the lead developer.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their development dashboard helped us create a custom solution, which gave us a range of opportunities other vendors couldn’t have supplied.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should explain their business needs thoroughly. Don’t hesitate to repeat information when it reinforces the vision and desired direction.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director of Fink’s Jewelry. We have brick-and-mortar stores and an e-commerce site.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Noticed?

Our website had a Squarespace frontend and BigCommerce backend, which had created two URLs. As a result, we encountered challenges with the user journey. Our team hired Noticed to re-platform the site on to Shopify.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Noticed re-platform the site, launching it in November 2018 ahead of the holiday selling season. Given the timing, we re-engaged the vendor for marketing, paid search, and email marketing services. They now handle those three verticals and continue to make site improvements.

What is the team composition?

I interface with Marina (Senior E-Commerce Strategist, Noticed) a few times a week and speak to Micah (Director of Growth Marketing, Noticed) almost daily.

How did you come to work with Noticed?

One of the owners reached out to Notice via their live chat feature. That interaction led to a series of meetings, during which the team did not attempt to oversell us. Noticed did due diligence during the discovery phase and presented to our team off site. Their focus on ROI and the development side were major selling points for our team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2018 and the site launched that November.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site drove traffic into our stores and has enabled us to put more merchandise online and work with a variety of useful tools. By consolidating to one URL, our team now provides an enhanced user journey while making smarter decisions that enable us to stay engaged with online customers.  

How did Noticed perform from a project management standpoint?

They were responsive and made us feel like an important client.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I can’t compare them against many vendors since most of my research focused on the Magento space. However, Noticed is uniquely concentrated on achieving ROI with the ad spend. They make the client comfortable by demonstrating their intent to generate revenue.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The website took longer than the initial estimate, but no launch happens on time. However, we transitioned to an internal team post-launch and everything has been going well with the functional site. We are incredibly pleased with Noticed’s marketing services. The team has been responsive and engaged while boosting our ad spend ROI.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Provide as much information as possible without overloading them. The team learns quickly and works in a fast-paced environment. Noticed will want to learn about the client’s business and make the most of the partnership.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Cook Woods. We sell exotic and domestic hardwood lumber through our website. We’re a web-based business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Noticed?

I was facing the problem that Magento was moving from Magento 1 to Magento 2. I had been extremely unhappy with the way that my current developer had been managing our Magento. I figured I needed to explore options and see if I even had to stay on the Magento platform or if there were other options out there.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re building a new website for us. We’re switching from the Magento to the Shopify platform.

What is the team dynamic?

The owner, Adam [Owner, Noticed] was my first, and my main, point of contact. 

We’re a small business and this is not what I do for a living. I don’t know much about development. We don’t have an in-house development team. We’re just trying to make this work.

How did you come to work with Noticed?

I was in an exploratory phase where I needed more information. I started calling companies to find out what solutions there were. Noticed randomly reached out to me because they were targeting people on Magento 1. I had an email from them.  A lot of people will tell you anything to get your business, but Adam  shared information with me, that after hearing from him, I could look it up and see that what he had told me was industry standard or on the cutting edge of what was unfolding in the industry. He was very knowledgeable and cares about what he’s doing. He has a passion for the work that he does. That was my first impression. I knew that Noticed cared about my business and their goal wasn’t just to make money. They were more interested in a long-term relationship.

How much have you invested with them?

$67,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in Spring 2017 and the work is ongoing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that would demonstrate the impact of the engagement?

I love how hands on Adam is. He’s extremely knowledgeable and honest. He’s a great contact for any questions that I had. Once we signed on with them, he went more into the shadows and his team took over. I’ve had the experience where somebody sells you on something and they’re never accessible again. He’s always been accessible and his team has been professional. I like that they have a lot of really knowledgeable people on the team that are specialized. The developers are very knowledgeable. We’ve been working with a couple of different intermediaries to help transfer information data from one platform to another. There are times where they say, “We can’t do this or that,” and the developers with say, “We can because of these different things we can see on the backend.” They’re yes people. They look for ways to figure it out.

Noticed has walked alongside me. When there were times I didn’t know how to answer some of the questions, they walked me through it. They’ve made it an easy process where if I felt overwhelmed, they made it so it was feasible for me to make the decisions I needed to make for our business

How did Noticed perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication has been great. The project manager has been involved to make sure it’s going along, but I’ve been able to talk directly with the people that are doing things. That’s helpful because nothing can get lost in translation. Deadlines haven’t been quite on. I found that to be kind of industry standard.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their process of finding out what you need and want was thorough. Once we’ve gotten into the process of designing and the different features that we need, they’ve been good at taking care of it. I haven’t had to remind them. I’ve had to do that with other companies. Noticed has a very thorough process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The timeline could be improved. I already talked to Adam about it, but one of the design guys was a little bit hard to talk with. The guy was phenomenal though. The way that things look and his insight on design was fantastic. We didn’t have to go back on the things he produced.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated on May 30th, 2018, by the client. The original star ratings were: Overall - 5, Quality - 5, Schedule - 4, Cost - 4, NPS - 5. New content is below:

What was the scope of their involvement?

At this point, we’ve finished our project and contract.

What is the team dynamic?

At first, we were pleased with them, but their staff turnover rate seemed extremely high. Our developer and project manager were both replaced with new hires who didn’t have the same context or knowledge about our project. When these staff changes happened, it became much more difficult to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a total of $86,000 on this engagement. They billed us $18,000 more than we expected. Two external web developers agreed with our assessment based on the website’s quality and functionality compared to the price.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together for eight and a half months and have completed our contract.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

The owner, Adam (Founder and CEO, Noticed), is a very good salesman, but I felt like the company as a whole didn’t deliver on their promises. Based on that takeaway, I had a negative experience overall.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

I didn’t feel like the project manager they assigned fully understood our project. They left the company before our build was completed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive thing is their owner’s marketing abilities. Unfortunately, the staff members assigned to my project didn’t stay at the company long enough to deliver what I discussed with him.

In what specific areas can they improve?

I suggest they focus on retaining their employees and quality of work. I felt like they overbilled me and yelled at me on a phone call, and that they compromised on my project. They should deliver the quality that I expected based on what they described.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

I suggest using a different vendor. I felt like they overbilled me for a website that seems poorly constructed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of StarfireDirect.com which is a one-stop shop for patio, barbecue, fireplace, umbrella, grilling, and outdoor furniture needs. All of our pieces have been curated and designed for high-end consumers and commercial applications. We work with some of the best brands in the industry. We are primarily a .com that services consumers, contractors, hotels, restaurants, and commercial applications, nationally and internationally. We also have a brick-and-mortar location where we service local southern-Californian customers.

We really care about our customers and customer service, so every facet of our business is tailored to the overall experience that the end user will have by purchasing a product from us.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Noticed?

We were using a Magento platform for our website which was built in-house. When we realized that 1.9 was being phased out and was no longer available with security updates, we saw the need to revise our site, even though we just launched the new site in 2015.

With a need to improve our site and update it, we set up a meeting with Noticed. We had a chance to get to know them, what they’re about, their operating style, and their work methodology, their processes and flows, and, also, their critiques and experience with Shopify Plus. Those conversations resulted in hiring Noticed and switching our platform from Magento to Shopify Plus. We needed custom work to be done for our particular industry, our needs, and our site. We wanted it to have the look and feel of our brand that we’ve developed over the years, and Noticed had experience with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They modified a template to our needs, which saved us quite a bit of money versus starting from scratch. In addition, they offered an analysis of our site to see what things were not necessary that were bogging it down and adding clutter. When we received their review and analysis of our existing site, we quickly realized that whatever design they were going to implement for us was going to be data-driven, current, and relevant to our industry. Obviously, we had input, but, for the most part, we let them decide the structure, and they advised us on how to do that.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with our team manager, Jake, and Pierre and Josh on design, and Gina on the development team. They took the lead and told us exactly what to do, and changes happened quickly.

How did you come to work with Noticed?

When we went to Shoptalk 2017 in Las Vegas, one of the sponsored meetings that we scheduled was with Noticed. We talked with them, and we liked what they had to say.

This wasn’t the first time we’ve been down this road. In 10 years, we’ve redesigned our website and put it on a new platform 5–6 times. We were very skeptical and cautious as to who we were going to partner up with this time. Noticed had the best presentation and best strategy going forward.

How much have you invested with them?

What we are getting is worth what we paid. They achieved a lot in an efficient manner due to the way that they handle their operations and the way their infrastructure is set up. They don’t have big fancy offices that require overhead and a constant stream of revenue coming in to maintain it. That’s a value-add for us. We received great value for a great site.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them 4 months, and we’re set to launch the site next week. We’re talking to them about another website that we’d like them to do for us. I can’t see the point in using anyone else at this point.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’d give the site an A+. Our team is loving our new site. Our processes and overall workflow have become simpler and more refined.

We outsourced a company to do our custom Magento gallery for close to a year. It cost $10,000–$15,000 just for this gallery feature, and it never worked right. When Noticed saw what we were trying to do, they had it built and live within a week and it works a thousand times better. It’s fast, and it has a better design. That’s just an example of the quality that you get from Noticed and the functionality of working within Shopify compared to Magento. Adding those images or products to link to those pictures in the gallery is much easier for our team now.

How did Noticed perform from a project management standpoint?

We are 2–3 weeks past our deadline, but that is only because we added some things during the process. Communication was excellent. They set up ActiveCollab, which made it easy for us as a team to communicate with them. We’d always get responses right away, and everything was documented. Our weekly or bi-weekly meetings were always on time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing bad to say about Noticed, and I’ve never had that experience with a developer before.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a wholesale food company located in Pennsylvania.

What is your position?

I am the marketing coordinator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Noticed?

We needed web design and development work.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Noticed took over the maintenance of our current web property and created a website for a new brand. They're currently working on two new websites for us and are also in charge of web maintenance. We're currently considering using their e-marketing services as well.

How did you come to work with Noticed?

We found Noticed through a database of trusted Drupal developers. We needed relevant experience for our website's technology. The previous agency we were working with sold their business to a bigger company, and we were not interested in collaborating with that party. We moved over to Noticed and saw them as a good vendor and a potential partner for developing our new brand's website, as well as reworking our old site. We were entering a completely new market.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total project scope has been over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Noticed two years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

When it comes to design work, Noticed has a very skilled team. They made a lot of recommendations based on their experience with search engine optimization [SEO] and the general limitations of the work environment. The ease-of-use for an e-commerce experience was determined by what we could do with Magento or other platforms which we were using.

What distinguishes Noticed from other providers?

We have a very strong relationship with them. I have always been able to get a hold of them when I needed to. Noticed understands our brand well and they've brought a lot of experience from working with other clients. They understand confidentiality concepts, but have still been able to guide us based on their past work.

Is there anything Noticed could have improved or done differently?

We had some trouble with stressing out the importance of certain design elements. We even had to come up with our own designs at times. Noticed was open to accommodating us, but it required a bit more effort than what we would have thought.