We’ve worked with lots of clients in lots of industries.
Along the way, we’ve picked up a few things about managing expectations so we can best deliver the results you’re looking for.
We’ve written down a few simple things so that you know what to expect from us and what we’re expecting from you.
Great results require great communication. That’s why we’ve put systems in place to help keep everything on track. Communication goes both ways.
We’re going to do great things together. Your case study project starts with being on the same page. We’re riding together, pardner.
As our client, we encourage you to ask questions, offer feedback and provide constructive criticism. If our team is available when you call, we’ll pick up the phone. If you think your call will take longer than 10 minutes, we ask that you send an email first so we can book time to address your needs properly.
It’s important to note that while we don’t bill by the hour, we do schedule our workload hourly. For that reason, we ask that you make an effort to forward us your questions or topics via email first so that we’re prepared. We don’t want to unnecessarily eat up the time we budgeted for your project.
You can also schedule a meeting at your convenience.
Email and desktop calendars are still king, but we can use any system your team likes: Slack, Monday, Teamwork, you name it. Case studies have lots of moving parts, but we try and keep your time investment to a minimum. Communicating with us should not be onerous.
Many of our meetings are virtual (typically Zoom, but Google Meet and Teams are fine, too). That means that we all have to “dial in” at the agreed-upon time. If one of us is late, or a no-show, that means the other party has to wait on the meeting hoping the other party doesn’t forget.
Most of our meetings start with a calendar invite that you accept. We also add meeting reminders so that we can all show up on time. We encourage you to make sure that our scheduled meetings show up in your calendar. If you are going to be late or need to reschedule, simply notify us as soon as you know. We’ll do the same for you.
Plans change and so do ideas. If a video shoot at your client’s location needs to be postponed, please give us as much heads-up as possible.
We build in time for post-interview follow-up questions (when required) and ample writing time, since first drafts are a far cry from finished drafts, which is what we show you. You’re paying us for top thinking and first-class work, so when there’s a sudden rush partway through the project, it’s not ideal.
If you can help us to stick to schedule, it’s much appreciated.
We understand that you might be too busy to respond to us right away. We don’t expect you to sit by the phone or to prioritize our emails over many others. You’re super busy. If you weren’t, you might not need us! But if we assume that you received our message when you didn’t, we might be holding up your project waiting for a response that will never come.
For that reason, please quickly acknowledge that you received our message even if you can’t do anything about it right away. A simple “Got it! Back to you tomorrow” will suffice. That will allow us to make adjustments to the work we have planned while we’re waiting for you to get back to us.
The short answer is: probably you. Our philosophy is that you own everything that we produce, provided you pay your bills. We do reserve the right to use your material to promote our own services. If that’s an issue, we can talk.
Exceptions are any images or video that we buy or license on your behalf. Images and footage is properly licensed for intended use (ex: promotional videos) and that is fine, but you can’t make use of them for another purpose. If that’s what you desire, we can arrange licensing.
Case Study Roundup makes use of standard question/answer forms to gather background information, in addition to interviews. We’ll send you a link when needed; simply click through and type the answers into our secure, access-restricted forms.
We may need things that you already have: company backgrounders, your logo, portrait shots, photos of your facility, existing video footage and the like. We typically create an access-restricted Google Drive folder for your project, and sub-folders for assets and for materials that we produce: copy decks, shot lists, draft design and finished videos.
Emailing back and forth is just a pain…though we can do it! Simply drop materials into a folder and voilà, we’ll have it. Now, if you prefer to set up a folder system within your own environment, no sweat—we’ll do as you like.
Nothing will move your web development project along faster than timely feedback. If you take three or four days to get back to us every time we need feedback, that can add up to several weeks of delay. Conversely, quick feedback will get your project right back into our rotation. When our design team is “in the groove”, the results can be spectacular. Please help them stay in their groove.
Nobody likes surprises. We want you to know what to expect in terms of your investment with us, and our performance for you. If project scope changes, you will receive a revised estimate for approval. Otherwise, the amount estimated is the amount you will pay.
Please note that extra costs ( airfare, lodging, image & video licensing fees) are estimates and may vary, whether up…or down.
Our goal is for your project to be our best case study ever. We would appreciate you sharing the business results that you receive from our work so that we know what is working for you and what isn’t. This is at your discretion.
Creating five formats of one case study does not take five times the effort. It might take double the effort, on-site narrative video production aside. We price our work accordingly. The more you sign on for, the better the price. Commit to a case study every month for a year and you’ll save close to 40%.
If you have a healthy budget, we can do many things simultaneously for faster results. If you have a minimal budget, we will help you prioritize what should be done in which order. Note that creating three case studies involving three different clients is much more efficiently done at the same time than over a long period. Again, we price accordingly.
If we go over our budgeted time occasionally, you won’t hear about it. If we go over consistently, we’ll talk about it.
In general, we ask for 30 days’ notice to make strategic changes to your program with us.
This isn’t a contract. It’s just to let you know how working with us is going to look. We’ve included the things that years of experience have taught us about the most efficient ways to work so that you get the most out of our services. It’s not all-encompassing…so if we missed anything, round up the stragglers and let us know.
That shows commitment…so if you’re serious enough about your marketing to read through this entire overview, we think we should talk!
