What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
I won’t have a baseline to compare to until next year, but we’ve gotten positive feedback. A lot of our residents and professionals have been very impressed with the new website and have enjoyed the community on social media.
A competitor now runs simplified versions of our ads in the newspaper alongside ours because they’ve resonated so well with the public.
They’ve also saved us a lot of money. It’s more economically feasible to use Stevens & Tate than it would be to hire another vendor, because they have so many additional capabilities. They can do graphics, online work, recommendations, and even budgeting.
How did Stevens & Tate perform from a project management standpoint?
They do a great job. I do a lot of operations and I’m all over the place, so I gave them permission to tell me if I dropped the ball on something. They’ve kept me and my team organized, on-task, and on-schedule all year.
They also laid out what services we will use during which months, where the ads will go, when we will do radio, whether we’ll do anything with television, and which ads we need to run for each area.
Sometimes our focus will change, and they’ve been accommodating of that. Everything is fluid. We may focus our spending one month on memory care and switch to filling vacant beds the next month. Their flexibility as we change gears, along with their careful planning, has been really helpful for us.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their investment in us as a nonprofit is most impressive. They took the time to secret shop our competitors and see what they had to say about St. Catherine’s. It was great to have that outsider’s perspective. That passion is hard to find outside of an organization’s direct employees, and wouldn’t likely be displayed by other vendors.
We never had a contract that specified a certain number of years that we’d work with them. The partnership has worked so well for us that we want it to continue.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No. They’ve accommodated our work process and nonprofit financial needs very well.
The finished products will launch at a future date, but beta users respond positively to the look and feel. Stevens & Tate Marketing was communicative and provided guidance throughout the process. Their process and methodology are strong.