The Sher Agency

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founding director of an experiential marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Sher Agency?

We hired Max to implement our new website as well as make it easy for us to change and update things in the future.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

After interviewing multiple people online, I knew within the first 2 minutes that I was going to hire Max and his agency. He was prompt, had great communication, and understood our needs/wants.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Our in house designer created a new website for us, and we needed someone to code and implement it for us.

We started with an interview in March, we immediately booked Max the day we met with him. Max was prompt to get us all the information we needed in order to get started. Max was always in contact during the stages of the process and was always ahead of schedule. If anything needed to be changed, his team was very quick to implement those changes.

During the final stages of the process, I became very busy with work. Max was very patient with the delays on our end. Max and his handled moving everything over to the new server and safely making sure all redirects were taken care of. We are live and Max over delivered. I have an amazing new website, and the ability to make changes on my end if needed.

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

I worked directly with Max the entire time, this was great because Max understood our needs, and was able to communicate with his team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new website is live, and I couldn't be any happier with it, or the process leading up top it.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great, as stated before, they were always in contact and made everything easy for us.

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

I was blown away with Max's response time and availability. I felt like Max treated this website as if he was designing it for himself and made sure it was better than I asked for.

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

Nope, not at all

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the head of Marketing at Perblue which is a mobile game developer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Sher Agency?

Our website was in need of a re-design. It had been around 10 years since we had updated in in a significant way so they were started from scratch. The main reason we wanted to update the website was to improve our ability to recruit new talent.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We look through Upwork and reviewed around 5 proposals. We also talked to several local companies. We landed on The Sher Agency because their portfolio was the most impressive and their pricing was reasonable.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The Shery Agency had a very detailed process and timeline which was one of the things that I appreciated the most from the experience. The first couple of weeks was spent in design mockups and iteration, the second couple of weeks was spent in them implementing the final design, and the last couple of weeks was spent in migrating over content and final tweaks.

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

We personal interacted with only a couple people who mostly served as project managers. I'm unsure on how many designer and developers were working to implement that project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site looks fantastic and we're all super happy with how things turned out. I can only imagine it will significantly improve out ability to recruit new talent.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The worflow and communication from the Sher Agency was fantastic. They hit every deadline they set out and were great at communicating what they needed from us in order to keep the process moving on time.

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

I was very impressed by just how timely and thorough they were throughout the process. The end result of the website is fantastic as well. It looks polished and unique. Much better than many of the other options that we considered during our search.

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

I really don't thing there is any area that I would have liked to see improvements.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a technology consultant for the school. We advise and consult on projects for small/medium-sized education institutions to implement technology and integrate it within their operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Sher Agency, and what were your goals?

We hired Max and his team to design and develop a new website. The goal was to have a more substantial web presence and compete with nearby competitors.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We met with several web design agencies. We decided to go with Sher Agency after researching their project history, customer satisfaction, and learning about their process.

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

We initially had a meeting with Max to obtain a proposal. After delivering a detailed proposal and what was to be expected for the project, we had a kick-off meeting with Max and his team, where we developed a scope of work and timeline. At every milestone, the project manager delivered a detailed update to our team on what was needed to continue to the next milestone. After all, the steps were complete; we evaluated glitches with a prelaunch.

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

The project manager (Emily) was our main contact. We work with Max on several occasions to clarify any questions we had.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This has been a significant rise in web traffic.

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

Weekly communication and detailed videos from the project manager were provided.

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

The process. The Sher Agency team followed a well-defined process that kept the project organized and within schedule.

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

From the Scope of Work and project objects, The Sher Agency did excellent. My only advise would be to schedule a mid-project video conference so that expectation are clear on both sides.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a director of UX at a design agency in Los Angeles. I typically work with large corporate clients from around the world. On the side I manage a few of my own sites and take freelance work here and there to work with new teams This project with the Sher Agency involved making updates and tweaks to my uncle's law firm website out of Boston (Wordpress).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Sher Agency, and what were your goals?

The law firm website uses Wordpress. I needed someone to add new images/logos, QA the whole site to look for problems, and to adjust spacing and font issues. The site was in messy shape, and I needed to get things tightened up.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I put up a post on Upwork and got a ton of responses. I went through all of the candidates, and took my time deciding. Max and his team stood out from all of the others. I liked the way he presented himself, his agency, and his services. Max even took the time to create a video walk through of his process. As someone who is in the same industry, I was able to tell right away that he knew what he was doing. Max said all the right things and I was impressed thoroughly by his approach. And his portfolio links were excellent.

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

As soon I as picked Max, he got back in touch with me right away and he schedule a kickoff call for us. On that call, I knew I had made the right decision. Max has such a good personality and is very patient and likable. He took notes the whole time, offered excellent advice on how to move forward, and again - he has a process. And process is everything.

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

I worked with 2 people. Max and his developer Joseph. Joseph was wonderful as well. Always available, and did excellent and fast work. Between the 2 of them, I was treated like a king. You'd think I was paying them tens of thousands of dollars, but I just had a small project. When a big one rolls along, they will be the first team I call.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I hired Max and his team on behalf of my uncle's law firm. So the client (the law firm) was extremely happy with the changes. These were just simple website updates, but they were important to the client and to me - and Max and Joseph came through for us.

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

The Sher agency shines when it comes to process, including project management. Max uses all the right tools and is proficient with them. As someone that used to be a project manager, I can tell you that you will be in very good hands with Max and his team. They are at the top of their game, in terms of process and management.

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

I was surprised at how good they were, for the hourly price. I did not expect to get a full blown agency, with all the right tools, process, and experience. I was going to settle with a freelancer and got an agency instead. And as someone that works for an agency, I can tell you that in terms of accountability, you want an agency - there is more on the line for them, and more to lose - a freelancer can sometimes be flakey - but an agency is typically playing to win - and Max and his team are winners.

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

No areas for improvement. They hit my project out of the park and I will use them again and again.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

A creative environmental design consultancy, we offer a full-service approach for high-end, custom designs for donor recognition. I am in Marketing and Design.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Sher Agency, and what were your goals?

Our website was outdated and we were due for some upgrades in both design and function. We hired The Sher Agency to design and develop our Wordpress Site. We are hoping this helps increases leads and conversions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We interviewed a handful of consultants and The Sher Agency surpassed all candidates. He had wonderful reviews on Upwork and we decided to take the leap.

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

We started with a kick off meeting to review what the project needs are. Max provided us with wireframes that are UX friendly. Then we moved on to design phase where we found an appropriate design direction. From there they developed the new site with the last phase being post – launch.

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

We had three team members work with us. We had a designer, developer and project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Website launched today so we do not have results yet.

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

They used Monday.com for project management. They were effective with our timeline and communication.

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

Communicative skills and flexibility.

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

They could do a deeper dive in the design phase.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Socialistics is a social media agency and I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Sher Agency?

We hired The Sher Agency to redesign our website.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We did a thorough search for a web design agency and ultimately we went with Sher as we were most impressed with their proposal/pitch, overall design portfolio, and responsiveness.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We hired Sher to redesign and develop our website using an original design. We were taken through an in depth discovery phase, and multiple stages throughout the process to ensure we were happy with how the project was progressing. We went through design phases, feedback phases, content adds, and ultimately a launch.

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

We worked with Max the owner and Emily a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ultimately we get a new website that we are thrilled with. Unique, not templatized, and looks and works fantastic.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

This may be the most impressive part of working with Sher. They are extremely buttoned up when it comes to workflow. We knew exactly when something would happen, what was needed from us, and always responded to quickly.

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

I really love that they have a more balanced team in regards to gender. Most web agencies are dominated by males, and the fact that they have this balance allowed us to get some great balance in our design aesthetic that ensured our look and feel wasn't too masculine. I also appreciated their incredible attention to detail around process and workflow.

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

I really have no complaints. It was an incredible experience end to end. Highly recommended.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of an affiliate marketing website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Sher Agency, and what were your goals?

My business partner and I were looking for a web development team that could build a website from the ground up within our budget. Our goal was to get a functional, fast, and well-designed website running to support our affiliate marketing business.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We conducted a deep search and engaged with several agencies before finding The Sher Agency. Right from our first interaction, we were impressed by their communication, professionalism and punctuality. Their transparent pricing structure and well though out development process made us feel comfortable working with them.

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

The scope was to build an affiliate marketing website in WordPress that would support several internal pages and post types, each with their own unique design and features. The Sher Agency employed a 5-step process that became the backbone of our website build. We felt well informed of where we were at in this process at any given point. Max and Emily put forth high quality deliverables at each step of the way.

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

We worked most closely with Max Sher, the founder of the company and Emily Howard, Creative Director.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project deliverable was a v1 website and we are very happy with the result. The website they created has a professional look and presents a wide array of features.

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

The Sher Agency is extremely professional and maintains excellent communication with their clients. In the case of video calls, the team was punctual and prepared for the conversations. With email exchanges, the team was responsive and thorough. As far as project management, the team matched the pace with the client. We never felt rushed or slowed down at any point.

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

This is a truly capable and thoughtful team. My business partner and I appreciated the depth of their knowledge and their willingness to take the the time to discuss any and all details. The Sher Agency always made great recommendations for our path forward and leaned on their extensive collective experience in making those recommendations.

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

We are completely satisficed with their work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Development Manager of a nonprofit organization, the Osteosarcoma Institute, which funds research to develop new treatments for children with the most common form of bone cancer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Sher Agency, and what were your goals?

Our website was created long before we began to amplify our outreach efforts, and no longer suited our needs in terms of being a resource for both patients, doctors, researchers, and potential donors. We hired the Sher Agency to create a completely new website for us that was useful for all of our constituent audiences. Our goals were to increase website traffic and to launch a blog on our site, establishing ourselves as the expert in the field.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I located the Sher Agency on Upwork after reviewing around 65 applicants for our job posting. I found them to have the most applicable work experience, glowing reviews, and by far the most reasonable pricing. For this same job, we were quoted $60,000 by an agency. We were relieved that the Sher Agency was able to do it for less than a fraction of that cost. Additionally, Max from the Sher Agency provided me with the contact information of a previous client as a reference.

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

This was a very detailed job as we were adding a significant amount of content to our site. The first step was the Sher Agency helping me organize the content into areas on the website that would make for a good user journey. We had an intake meeting where we discussed my end goals of the new site, and what we wanted our look and feel to be. The project was extremely organized from start to finish.

The Sher Agency team sent me a spreadsheet with the website's page names where I could go through and add feedback for each of the edits they had made. There were times when I wasn't even sure what I wanted from a page and just explained my feeling about it- and they were able to translate my thoughts into actionable ideas and designs for the page. The key deliverable was a new site and we did three revision rounds.

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

I mostly worked with Emily from Max's team. I cannot say enough good things about Emily. She is understanding, patient, and highly knowledgable. I'm sure there were many times my requests and indecisiveness could have been frustrating but if so, Emily never showed it and was highly professional and skilled. I also worked with Max for the actual launch of our site. He is highly knowledgeable on the tech side of hosting and making sure your old site and new site don't interfere with each other. I briefly met another team member named Laura, but my main two contacts were Emily and max.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching our new site, we have seen an almost 900% increase in traffic-- yes 900%. Our time on site has also increased significantly and sessions are up by over 1,400%. The most telling thing about the Sher Agency's performance should be that we have returned as clients of theirs two times already for the development of a landing page for fundraising campaigns and to add even more content since we have seen so much initial success.

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

At the beginning of a project we meet with the Sher Agency to discuss the vision for the job. Afterwards they're very transparent about when they can fit that in theirs schedule, but we have never waited more than one week to get our project started. From there, once the site is ready for review, we get an email (I would hear from Emily usually) to check out the site with a link to the spreadsheet for our feedback. I let Emily know when my feedback is complete and she gets to work right away on implementing changes. The workflow was very organized, and they were easy to communicate. They are also incredibly fast to respond to email.

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

They are able to understand your wishes for a website even when you don't know the terminology or technical language to get your vision across. They were able to translate it for me and that has shown in the success of our site. Second, they are super fast. Our entire new website was up and running in 4 or 5 weeks. Third, they make themselves available for follow up work at a very reasonable cost.

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

I can't think of anything major. The only minor thing we experienced in all of our iterations of the site was that some filler copy was still present, which would have resulted from copy-pasting my new content into the site without removing notes. But once that was noticed the team removed it within minutes.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Digital Marketing Manager. I oversee all of the firms online marketing efforts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Sher Agency?

We hired them to design new templates, to replace all of our old outdated templates.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I put out an ad on Upwork. I looked over around 100 applicants, literally I looked for hours. The Sher Agency stood out because they made an impressive video sharing the ideas they would implement into our design. I chose them over the other applicants.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Instead of having someone build us a completely new website, we decided to take an approach where we would just replace each template on the entire site with a new one. We would meet with The Sher Agency once a month. At that meeting I would share with them the template we wanted them to redesign. They would share ideas, we would discuss them, and select one. Their team would then send us over a new design of the template. We would have occasional revisions for them but for the most part they did an unbelievable job.

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

We worked with two of their designers, and the owner.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were very creative. Their ideas and designs were unconventional, ahead of the curve for their industry, and professional. It has helped our website look sharp, and it resulted in more traffic. We specifically saw our Google search rankings increase after they worked on our local pages.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They have a very simple work flow. They don't forget about your project, and they follow up if you do not respond so the project keeps moving forward.

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

Th creativity. We would take a really boring page and implement such creative ideas. It would make it so the page had life, and was interesting to be on.

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

I wouldn't change a thing about them or their process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and managing member of a financial planning firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Sher Agency?

We just needed a website to function as our virtual storefront and virtual office.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a WordPress website that was professional but still targeted our market — Gen X and millennial professionals. Our site needed to help us build trust so we could get our information and content out there as well. The site is hosted on WP Engine.

What is the team composition?

There were four people on our first call, but I worked primarily with a project manager and Max (CEO).

How did you come to work with The Sher Agency?

I found them through Upwork. We received several proposals, but they were very process-oriented. Unlike the other proposals we received, they used videos and outlined their process.

How much have you invested with them?
We spent $4,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May–June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t completely launched the site yet, but those who have seen it have been impressed. The Sher Agency met all of the goals that I set for them.

How did The Sher Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They utilized some great tools to keep the project organized. They used spreadsheets and Google Docs to communicate changes to the site throughout development. They also created video tutorials to show me how to do stuff on my own. I really appreciated that they used video and other screen-sharing tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

During the project, I always knew what stage they were working on. It was really easy to follow because they had a clearly defined process with clearly defined goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, they did a pretty good job, but they didn’t have a ton of experience working with financial services. We went back and forth a bit to dial in on what they needed, but it didn’t create very many issues and I was very happy with the result.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you want. Generally, people assume that others know what they’re thinking, but that isn’t always the case. You need to provide clear, concise guidance and that will save you time on revisions.