Speaker: Traci Ward, Marketing Director
My name is Traci Ward. I work at Kurtz Brothers in Independence, Ohio and we’ve been with Valpak for the past two years. We are a landscape supply manufacturing distributor, but we’re also a leader in the waste to resource industry. When we initially tested Valpak we were very hesitant to commit anything print-wise because we didn’t see successes in the past.
But working with Jennifer, she kind of assured us and really encouraged us to test it out and we tried, I think, a couple zones around each store the first year and saw a huge return on it. And we’ve kind of grown out from each store every year since, so we’ve expanded. I think we’re up to four or five zones now around each store and, with that, we’ve seen the growth and return on it as well.
The importance of being able to track any marketing campaign idea is, like, supercritical. I am such a numbers-driven person, so I want to be able to see the return we’re getting on whatever dollar amount we’re investing into something. And with Valpak, it’s 100% transparent. I get my weekly dashboards, I get reports, whatever I need them from Jennifer. And, you know, I review them constantly to make sure what we’re sending our customers is working and that we’re getting the return we’re anticipating on it.
I love the call tracking aspect of our program. It has not only shown us how much phone traffic we’ve gotten into our stores, but we were able to evaluate the customer experience with our personnel. And from that, we’re able to make adjustments to better improve either our service or product offerings for the customer.
So we’ve worked with a variety of marketing agencies over the years in different avenues and stuff like that. And I think what differs from you guys is you’re not just selling the service. You’re really investing into the success and growth of our company. You’re not just trying to hit a sales quota, like you generally care. And having that type of environment or relationship is really important because I don’t want to feel like a dollar. I want to feel like a partner and a friend. And you guys, I want to feel like you’re generally taking interest in our company and I think that’s what sets you apart from others.
