At KBD, a digital advertising and branding agency for startups, Shahla Mahdavi is the VP of digital. In her role, she works with designers, developers and agencies, to create the website and branding startups need to get noticed.
Aligning large teams and clients is a full-time job, so Shahla is always looking out for tools that can increase success.
Why Marker.io?
"Before we used Marker.io, we used Google sheets... it was awful just trying to keep track of it! We would have to constantly ask clients 'what browser are you using? What kind of device are you on?' You know, to be quite candid, it was just a pain in the ass. Like it was awful, it was hard to manage, it was hard to diagnose the actual problems they were having."
So she went looking for a tool to help her make their process more efficient.
KBD manages everything through Trello. The tool they needed was going to need a powerful integration to save time.
So for Shahla and her team is it essential to have everything automatically collected in Trello by Marker.io. No more disruptions in their workflows.
Widget for retention
Shahla and her team also use Marker.io in two interesting ways to secure customer success and retention!
One, they install Marker.io on every client website, so the clients can be a part of the reporting process, without causing chaos in Trello. This customer success hack creates happy clients!
Right now we use Marker.io as part of the sales pitch, and clients love it. They like being able to report quickly, seeing the reports in the guest portal and knowing that it will be fixed quickly.
The clients can report anything they see on their websites, and report in seconds.
And the developers love getting complete Trello cards, even when the clients are not the most technical!
- Descriptive title
- Short description of the situation
- Steps to reproduce
- Reporter's information
- Source URL
- Console logs
- Technical environment data
- Screenshot
All of this information, except number 1 and 2 are added automatically by Marker.io!
The Marker.io installs take very little time, and work really well for KBD and their process. After setting up the specific boards connected to the specific websites, it is smooth sailing from there.
Second, they keep the widget active on certain clients's sites to assist in their customer retention!
This clever use of Marker.io ensures that clients stay happy with their websites, even when things break or go wrong later down the line.
We go ahead and install the new widget on our retainer clients' sites. They can just go in and report a bug, that bug automatically gets sent to a special Trello board that we have set up, which notifies us in Slack. So with Marker.io, we have automated the entire process.
QA and ticketing
Especially when it comes to client communication, KBD has been using Marker.io to the fullest.
They have significantly cut down on client spreadsheets and emails. Because they no longer need to translate other documents into Trello cards, they can respond quicker to bugs, issues and requests.
Marker.io has definitely helped kind of bridge the communication gap between client and designer, the digital director and developers. In terms of time-saving and communication, it's been an invaluable addition to our tech stack. It is super easy to use, very intuitive and easy for the client.
The Guest Portal allows KBD clients to keep track of all issues they have reported themselves.
With the new Guest commenting and issue sync, even more time gets saved! When someone has a question regarding a Trello card, they can comment within Trello to reach out to the client.
Multi-faceted Marker.io
Marker.io is a multi-faceted platform in my mind. Thanks to the seamless integration with Trello, which we also integrated into Slack, it has helped us with streamlining QA. It fits in seamlessly with our current tech stack.
Listening to Shahla and KBD’s unique approach gave us at Marker.io many great ideas to expand on the tool. Expect more features soon!
Thank you Shahla and KBD for the interview!