Question & Answers with Compass Founder, Bo Harvey
Welcome to our question and answer page. You are likely here because you are a retail furniture store owner, manager, marketing professional or maybe all three combined and simply realize you need more help and guidance in your business. What you want and need is more customer Brick & Mortar and Website foot traffic, a larger check average, a higher closing ratio, more profitability or dare we say, a dreadful combination of these factors.
Imagine we are sitting together face-to-face, perhaps in your office or showroom, you would want to ask me questions to better understand how I operate and what to expect moving forward, Let me try to answer a few of those questions right here. Drop me an email, and let’s get started today.
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“Speaking of creative work, what happens if I don't like the creative direction?"
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“What happens to my investments if we decide to discontinue your services?”
“What furniture brands or manufacturers do you work with?”
It is safe to say we work monthly and even weekly with most of the top furniture and bedding manufacturers in the furniture retail and RTO space. A list of our top key manufacturers can be found here. Compass already has access to all the good content housed away by most any brand you might want to work with and best of all, we also know when their promotion periods are so you don't miss out on those coop savings.
“Do you offer consulting services only?”
Yes, every day. Although providing traditional and digital media services is what we do from day-to-day, it is a by-product of our core consulting efforts. A consultant by definition is someone who provides expert advice professionally. There are occasions, usually on an international level, where we only provide expert advice and the execution of our proposed strategies and tactics to those company’s internal staff members or network partners. Compass Marketing offers up customized suites of consulting for furniture retailers and in some cases furniture and mattress manufacturers. Some consults include establishing brand dominance in a marketplace or gaining operational excellence through establishing and streamlining processes. Other consults might include establishing an online presence, creating a superior visual display, building a marketing calendar and even constructing a solid annual content calendar for events, promotions, and social media engagement. We realize each client has different needs and varying budgets so each solution we offer tends to be customized for each and consulting is no different.
“How long will it take you to write my proposal?”
After we have discussed your goals or in some instances, we will actually sit with you to help you to even determine your objectives, we will define a scope of work. Typically, you’ll receive the first draft in 3-5 business days, depending on the true project size and scope. For small projects, you’ll receive the first draft in 24-48 hours.
When you get the first draft, please review it carefully. Also, have any applicable team members review it. The most important thing at this stage of the game is making sure that the scope of the work is accurate, everyone knows who is responsible for what task or objective, and expectations are in check. We’ll fine-tune the agreement in the second draft …sometimes it takes a third, then both parties will sign off and we will begin work on the agreed upon date.
“Do I have to be on a retainer?”
No, a retainer is never required. Many of our clients, in fact, are smaller retailers who handle many of the monthly marketing tasks themselves and simply use our services to augment their current efforts. A good example would be clients who simply purchase our $499 monthly social media package.
“If I am a retainer client, what does that entail?”
Depending on the scope of your monthly projects, you will receive a bank of hours which will be deducted from as our creative team bills hours against print circulars they build, graphics they create, maintenance work on your website, email blasts or any other creative work. If you do not completely use your bank of hours in a particular month, those hours do not expire but roll-over instead to the following month. We encourage you to use your monthly hours to their fullest.
“Speaking of creative work, what happens if I don't like the creative direction?"
Once we present completed work to you, you will have 24 hours to give us your thoughts on the work and what changes you wish to see. At this point, we begin our first round of revisions and there still may be some additional fine-tuning needed. You can be confident that our team will gladly work with you until you are delighted with the copy. In most cases, our clients find that one review volley is enough. When more revisions are needed, it is usually just one or two and the process goes quickly. Typically, we can get to a final copy within 1-3 business days.
“When do I make my payments?"
Typically, we bill at the completion of our work and the usual terms are net 15 days. Invoices go out around the 1st of each month.
“How do I make my payments?"
Although we can accept credit cards, most of our clients pay by check according to the payment terms outlined. Since digital is in our DNA, we also accept other electronic forms of payment such as Venmo, Zelle, Apple Pay and the like as these are quite convenient and actually lower your costs and save all of us more time.
“What happens to my investments if we decide to discontinue your services?”
All intellectual creative assets, logos, ads, websites, images and the like that have been purchased by you, built by us and paid for by you will remain your property. We will share those files with you and/or your future agency when you instruct us to do so. We will maintain your files and records until the time you ask us to release them and we NEVER hold any of your assets “hostage” just because you decided to move away from our services.
“What happens when we don't agree on the direction of a particular objective or strategy deployment?”
Sometimes, there are cases where our clients make suggestions that we feel certain will not work or our data suggests that the successful outcome of this project is at risk. In these rare cases, you can expect us to be candid and direct in our feedback. When clients insist on changes that we feel will not work, we will always look for a smart compromise together but expect truthful dialog always as we have your best interest at heart. Ultimately, we will defer to you, but not always without constructive objection.
“How do we begin?”
If you prefer, you can email me at bharvey@compassmarketinggroup.com. Tell me a bit about your project and describe your vision for the outcome in as little or as much detail as you like. What are your business goals, objectives or vision? Where does it hurt? We will happily set up a free 30-minute consultation. Together we’ll come up with a map and a course to adjust to that fits your business, your needs, and your budget. You’re welcome to reach out to me by phone, as well if you choose. If you have a need call me anytime at 407-955-2565. There is never a charge to discuss your project with you and provide you an estimate.