PPB October 2021

Web Content/Functionality Silver Winner Business Services Category Quality Certification Alliance (QCA) The Quality Certification Alliance (QCA) blog (www.qcalliance.org ) publishes educational content targeted to suppliers, distributors and end buyers. The blog offers intuitive navigation and high- quality photography to enhance reader engagement. Each post is categorized with a link that connects to additional content and is intended to provide clarity and access to compliance resources. Having fulfilled its mission, the organization was discontinued in mid-2020, but the materials on its site are still available. The Story Behind Gold Bond’s Winning Website The orderly and visually pleasing design of supplier Gold Bond’s website belies the breadth and depth of information and products available. And everything is easy to find. The company’s mission is to bring brands to life through innovative promotional products and imprinting methods, and give customers more than they expect. The company’s award-winning website does just that. PPB spoke with Britney Godsey, chief sales and marketing officer, and Inna Nasledova, director of marketing, for the back story on why the new site was created and how their customers helped guide the design and functionality. PPB What problem were you trying to solve with the new website? Britney Godsey: Gold Bond is constantly looking for ways to adapt to the advancing needs of our client portfolio. Giving them real-time access to common touch points was a way for us to service those who work before 8 am and after 5 pm, or just when they need a quick check to keep a sale progressing forward. Helping customers gain peace of mind with real-time insight on their in-house and future orders while helping them speed up their sales cycle was a big part of our mission to service the client needs. PPB What was the process you used to develop the site? Were any distributors involved in the brainstorming or testing? Inna Nasledova: Here at Gold Bond, we believe that a well-designed website is more than just aesthetics. It was designed with our customer experience in mind. We relied heavily on customers’ feedback that we’ve collected through direct interactions, surveys and forms. We added a “Report Site Issues” button on the website where our customers were able to share their experiences, provide suggestions and be part of the development process. Once we had a good idea on what kind of experience our customers were looking for, we were able to determine our goals, define scope and move on to the development and implementation. We constantly look for ways to improve our customer experience and serve them the best we can. PPB Was the site developed in-house or did you work with an outside company? Nasledova: We have a great in-house team of marketing and IT professionals who are responsible for overseeing the website development process. We’ve done a portion of web design in-house, such as creating wireframes and prototypes, and we used an outside company for the development, testing and implementation. PPB When was this new site rolled out and in what ways has it helped Gold Bond’s business? Nasledova: The website was launched in 2020 and it’s been a great tool for our customers so far. It helped our business by giving our customers a clear idea of what our brand is about and what types of products and services we offer. It also gave our customer base an opportunity to interact with our business in multiple ways. We don’t believe in a launch-and-leave approach; therefore, we strive to continuously improve our website by focusing on optimizing performance and experience based on site analytics, performance metrics and user research and feedback. Tina Berres Filipski is editor of PPB. FEATURE | PPAI Pyramid Awards In Technology 28 | OCTOBER 2021 |