OptiWeb Marketing

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a psychotherapist at a clinical practice.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OptiWeb Marketing?

I needed support creating my practice's website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OptiWeb Marketing has designed and developed our website from scratch.

How did you come to work with OptiWeb Marketing?

OptiWeb Marketing was referred to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

OptiWeb Marketing's work has improved over time, and the website works properly. The team has fixed issues that have come up. I had initially written a negative review. However, OptiWeb Marketing has come around and improved. We have a decent working relationship now.

How did OptiWeb Marketing perform from a project management standpoint?

When I started working with OptiWeb Marketing, it was extremely difficult to communicate with them. The team made mistakes and didn't answer my questions. The team didn't provide follow-through and didn't perform the course of action we had agreed on. 
Now, OptiWeb Marketing is responsive and answers my questions. The team makes changes when needed and works pretty quickly. We typically communicate via email, but I prefer phone calls. OptiWeb Marketing has started answering phone calls, which is good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

OptiWeb Marketing has improved their communication and follow-through.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is nothing the team can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hopefully, new clients won't have the same problems I had initially because OptiWeb Marketing has improved.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on September 7, 2020.

Practitioner, Health Service ProviderHealthcare

Gibsons, British Columbia

1-10 Employees

Apr 2020 - Ongoing

Less than $10,000

Not verified

Project summary
A health-related service provider hired OptiWeb Marketing to create a website. The team was responsible for the design, development, and content.

Feedback summary
OptiWeb Marketing failed to deliver the client's selected website. Ultimately, the team's lack of communication, replies, and follow-ups soured the relationship and led to the termination of the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a practitioner provider of health-related services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To create a website

SOLUTION

How did you select OptiWeb Marketing and what were the deciding factors?

Personal recommendation

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

Create a website: choose an address, choose a theme, choose or recommend art work, edit and comment on content.

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

One

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Didn't even deliver the selected website. I chose my website from a list provided in June; I confirmed it again two weeks ago as it got ready to go live. I get a message we are going live with a website that I DID NOT chose, in fact it was a dormant site of mine that I specifically instructed him to relinquish.

I tell Brad Sacks, the owner and the person I deal with, that I was going to put an ad in. At the deadline I get an email that the wrong address was live. I had to change the ad to read "website under construction." While he claimed "someone" would fix it I could not trust that the site I chose was actually available.

I specifically asked for marketing expertise. Twice when I asked opinions I was told "It's up to you..." I told him that I wanted an opinion. I asked him about the content and he said "it's fine." It was not in any final form, it was disorganized and I wanted his opinion on what to fix. In no universe was the content at that point "fine."

So many more: There was a page where no matter what I did I could not get paragraph breaks on the view page. When the wrong website went live nothing was changed. No feedback, no acknowledgement. Simply ghosted.

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

Communication was only by email. Emails almost never got a response. But worse, there was almost never any follow up. I was never given a direct number to call or text. I got no feedback of any significant kind - positive, negative or anything of substance.

I requested a phone conversation when i saw that there was almost no follow up. It was either missed, simply blown off, or rescheduled several times. Twice within minutes of the scheduled time. When I finally got a phone conversation. I got a lot of promises and the questions that I collected from past emails were mostly answered. However, moving forward nothing changed.

There was no reply to any email, no follow-up on emails. There was no written plan even in point form, no timeline...It was clear that he did not keep a list of questions or tasks. I had to repeatedly look at old emails to cut and paste questions. Not one phone call was returned without several emails in which I had to go more and more ballistic.

I have only given the larger examples. I have a collection of more minor issues that were entirely blown off. In the end I just said I would not do his job any more by collecting my own sent messages: I told him to let me know if there was an email that he did not understand.

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

I wish I could find a positive. The final product is passable.

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

I got the sense that I did not rate at all. It was a project under 5k - a relatively small amount of money and it was abundantly clear that he had not organized the tasks, questions and issues.

Have regular phone meetings to discuss deliverables and progress on a periodic basis. Respond to emails in a timely manner Follow up on tasks or explain why tasks have not been completed Return phone calls Make a master list of decisions, questions and issues and use it to track progress on resolving these including reasonable turnaround times.

I did not request feedback on professional information but did request feedback on organization and clarity. I got nothing beyond "it's up to you..." or "it's fine."

STAR RATINGS
Overall rating: 0.5
Beyond dismal
Quality: 1
Putting a message to Optiweb into a bottle and throwing into the ocean is almost as effective as sending this man an email.
Cost: 3
price was not terribly high but too high for this muddled mess.
Schedule: 0.5
Impossible. I wish there was a minus star.
Willing to refer: 0.5
Wouldn't recommend Optiweb