surefoot.me

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the web strategy and UX director for a building materials company called The Azek Company. We produce materials primarily made of recycled plastics, such as garbage bags, for our customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with surefoot.me?

We hired them for their conversion rate optimization and UI/UX design services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

surefoot.me has been testing web and digital experiences for our timber tech product. Additionally, they help us with implementing optimizations and developing hypotheses and analyses. They also conduct several UI/UX research studies and do some design work based on their findings. Their team uses Figma to produce designs.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2021, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since working with surefoot.me, they’ve helped us double the number of consumer leads we have.

How did surefoot.me perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style has been excellent. They always stay on budget; we never have to worry about it. Moreover, they communicate with us regularly via Slack and email and hold bi-weekly Zoom calls to provide updates. For managing tasks and data, the team uses Google Docs and Slides.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their strength lies in their attitude. They’ve become like an extension of our team, and they really care about the success of our business. Also, they have an incredible sense of humor.

Are there any areas they could improve on?

No, they’ve been an incredible partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Allow them to follow their process in executing your project. They have a really good process and framework for helping businesses achieve their goals.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a growth manager at a scalp health company. We are an e-commerce business that sells scalp health products including serum and shampoo, conditioner, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire surefoot.me, and what were your goals?

Our company hired surefoot.me to help redesign and optimize our website, including A/B testing and CRO. Our goals were to increase conversions on our website.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking for an agency to help us increase our overall web conversion rate and create a better online experience for our customers.

We had already looked into independent SEO agencies and web designers, but while they offered us aesthetic overhauls, Surefoot proposed a plan to make lots of small changes over longer periods of time, using thorough testing to see where we were succeeding and where we needed to change. This different approach makes so much more sense than a drastic overnight site makeover, where we really couldn’t see which changes actually increased conversions or bettered the customer experience.

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

The project began by Surefoot completing an initial overview audit of our site, pulling the elements they thought needed immediate change versus the changes we could make over time. They created a list of projects to start tackling, from presumably most impactful to least. We secured the necessary testing tools to move forward and had several meetings to get the ball rolling and continuing. Our key deliverables were overall conversion rate increase, and a few of the tools used included Hotjar, Google Analytics, and Convert.

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

We worked mostly with a team of four, minus our personal team who were involved. Brian and Laura as Surefoot cofounders (very hands on!), Jen Project Manager, and Robbie as Strategic Director.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching our new product page and collection page, our conversion rate has increased 14.5% so far. The team has loved the new design as well.

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

Weekly & sometimes daily communication via Slack - they are very quick to respond and work with our suggestions which is appreciated. We also have standing bi-weekly meetings.

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

They’ve worked well with our web developer, lead art director & growth director in order to get everything in place. They are quick to make changes based on what we’ve prioritized internally. Their experience is also very impressive.

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

Sometimes the testing process feels slow (weeks in between), but we understand that it needs enough time to really decide what’s the most successful!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Head of Marketing and E-Commerce

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire surefoot.me?

We hired SureFoot to help systematically A/B test into conversion-enhancing website optimizations for a site that had not been updated for several years.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a way to improve our website but didn't want to make changes without testing as we have inadvertently hurt the site in the past when we haven't tested into changes. Given that we have a small team internally, we needed an agency that could be someone full service from Design, to Web Development, all the way through to analysis of testing results. In our search for a conversion rate optimization agency I was given a strong recommendation from an industry friend who had used Conversion Path for several years at his company.

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

SureFoot has worked on multiple projects on our site from cart redesigns to visual navigation elements to mobile filtering optimizations. They are currently in the process of redesigning and testing into a complete overhaul of our checkout post cart. Their process is very systematic (and full service) as they pull from experience in results working with other clients as well as overall UX/UI best practices seen throughout ecommerce.

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

We work primarily with 2 of their account managers. The owner has also made herself available as needed. Additionally, they have been accommodating when one of our developers has needed to speak directly with their development team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've had both winning and losing tests in just a few month working with SureFoot. The losing tests are just as important to uncover as the winning tests are. The losing test (that we though for sure would have been a winner) would have cost us over $700k in revenue per year had we implemented it without testing. We also found a winning test relating to visual navigation that is expected to increase revenue for mobile users by more than $600k per year.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It's important as a client to stay on top of the back and forth communication needed (mostly related to approvals of designs and planning). But the SureFoot team is undoubtedly one of the most efficient and organized teams that I've worked with in my 12 years in eCommerce. And I've worked with dozens I've vendors over the years. Can't give a high enough recommendation to the SureFoot team in this regard.

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

They're simply on top of things. I don't have to manage them to make sure I'm getting value out of the agreement. They're consistently coming to me with new ideas and making sure the road map is well populated as needed into the future to ensure a consistent pipeline of testing. No one is ever waiting. There's an efficient assembly line.

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

Not that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief marketing officer at Peak Design, a product design company that creates photography and outdoor gear.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with surefoot group LLC?

We hired surefoot group LLC to help optimize our website. We wanted an enhanced site UX to generate more conversions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They researched our company, products, and website users. They also conducted in-depth interviews with us. After analyzing the site, they pinpointed areas on the platform that could be improved and created profiles of our core site users. Then, they helped us put together a testing plan for the next few months.

What is the team composition?

Laura (Co-Founder, surefoot group LLC) and Brian (Co-Founder, surefoot group LLC) are our two main contact points.

How did you come to work with surefoot group LLC?

I met Laura at an event in Austin, Texas. We were giving a product away, and she won it. Then, she mentioned she does web optimization, and we began talking about our website needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $50,000 and $199,999 with surefoot group LLC since we began working together.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2018, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Through their optimization testing, we’ve increased our yearly website revenue by hundreds of thousands of dollars. The increased revenue is a result of enhanced conversion rates. More people click deeper in the sales funnel than before, and there’s also been an increase in people adding items to their cart. 

All of the key performance metrics of our website have either remained steady or grown significantly, and I attribute much of that to their work.

How did surefoot group LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They are a very responsive team with fantastic project management. surefoot group LLC feels like a part of our team, and I can’t say a bad thing about them. 

They’re in our Slack channels, and we’re in constant daily communication. We have a weekly standing meeting where they share results and plans for future testings. Every once in a while, they’ll conduct an executive summary of all the results they’ve driven so far. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re super easy and fun to work with. They curate the clients they partner with—I respect them for that. They want to maintain a relaxed, mission-driven culture, and so they choose to work with kindred spirit companies. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve only had positive experiences with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Future clients should proceed with an open mind. They should be willing to test out methods that don’t match with their understanding of their website and customers. Some of our biggest improvements have been due to completely surprising things. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Senior Director for OXO.com

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire surefoot.me?

We are constantly iterating on our feature sets online. There are too many to mention one-by-one. In order to do that, we use an iterative approach that involves insight, planning, building, testing, and analysis. We have empirically grown our business using these methodologies.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We inherited the vendor (prefer partner) but through QBRs and a successful roadmap we stayed with surefoot.

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

Each project has it's own nuances but generally everything starts with a business case and/or a hypothesis. surefoot helps us establish baselines, UX and success criteria, and next steps during their analysis. One really helpful part is we have them plugged into our Atlassian stack (e.g. Jira) which makes baking successful tests into our code base a lot more effecient.

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

I work with 4-5 people through out the year - from strategy and accounting to design and project management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We tested into a free shipping threshold that 100% gave us insights on how we approach not only the dollar threshold but carriers, timing, and messaging around our communication channels.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have a very effective workflow. They have enough people to have a decent "bench" of talent but not so big as requests get lost in the ether of Outlook scheduling.

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

They are not constantly trying to sell us on various opps.

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

Ideally more benchmarking data around similar situations/tests/industries.