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With a client list that includes Google, YouTube and Nordstrom, Canary Marketing is at the top of its game. But what’s most impressive about this small business is that it reached this point through word of mouth alone. Cadi and her team at Canary don't pay for advertising — they let the quality of their customer service speak for itself.
Name: Cadi Stephenson
Business: Canary Marketing
Started: February 2001
Tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to Canary.
Before becoming part of Canary Marketing, I worked in retail as a General Manager at Banana Republic and spent a brief period of time working for an internet startup. When I heard about Canary and what it was trying to achieve, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I was the company’s first employee and now co-own it with five other partners.
Canary sets itself apart by offering complete creative solutions. We don’t just show up in our client’s offices with a catalog — we go outside our industry to look for special products and we offer free artwork to make any budget stretch further.
Because we’re smaller than a traditional agency, there’s not a lot of red tape here. This means that if anyone has an idea they want to run with, they’re given the support they need to see it through. As an example, I worked with Vans this year to produce 3,000 pairs of custom shoes for Workday. I was involved with the project from the start and went to the company’s offices to help deliver the shoes to each employee when they were finished.
What are your favorite examples of how businesses you’ve worked with are showing their customers love?
For me, it’s more a case of employers showing their employees love, because those are the types of accounts I usually work on.
I’m organizing an incredible presidents’ club event right now in the Bahamas for one of my favorite clients. It’s a surprise, and everyone on the guest list will receive an invitation attached to their very own beach cruiser bicycle, delivered right to their home.
What are some of the most popular items happy customers love to get?
Everyone loves getting a thoughtful and creative gift that’s been personalized for them, and it’s even better when it’s functional. So if we were creating products for event planners, we might choose something like a personalized cell phone charger, which would be so useful when they’re working on site.
We give gifts to our staff every year, and this year we made everyone a scarf. For every person that posted a picture of it on social media, we donated another to the women’s non-profit Dress for Success. Having the option to give back after getting a gift always makes people happy.
What are some of the big lessons you’ve learned so far working with different brands and customers to create swag and promotional gifts?
Companies are very particular about their branding, so it’s really important that we get the message right. Color plays a big part, and finding a way to tell the brand’s story in a unique way is essential.
Each customer is different — I wouldn’t show the same products to Gap as I would to Banana Republic or Old Navy, for example. They’re all part of the same company, but their brands are completely different. While silly putty might be appropriate for Old Navy, Banana Republic would get a black key chain.
I learned the importance of perfection the hard way. I once had 14,000 jackets embroidered with a logo on the right-hand chest instead of the left. Nobody told me this wasn’t standard until it was too late and I had to redo the whole lot!
How does Canary show off their happy customers?
Clients always thank us for doing a great job at the end of a project, so we ask them if we can publish their feedback for the world to see.
We know we’re great at what we do, but we’re only as good as our last referral. We feature positive testimonials from clients down the side of our website and publish them on social media whenever we can.
In your experience, what is the best way to ask a happy customer for a testimonial?
We try to spend as much face time with our clients as possible. We have some pretty amazing customers, but all our business comes from word-of-mouth and referrals.
We make personal connections with everyone we work with, rather than just seeing them as part of a brand. We know that if we make our clients happy, we stand a better chance of being booked by them again, or by one of their contacts. Even if they leave to go to another company, they might just take us with them.
Unfortunately, time restraints mean we have to communicate a lot by email, which is often how we receive our testimonials. But we always develop our relationships face-to-face first.
On their website, Canary features recent testimonials from customers
What are you most excited about working on next?
I’m most excited about that trip to the Bahamas where everyone’s going to get a beach cruiser. It’s just a really fun idea, and I know that if it were me, I’d be thrilled to get a gift like that!
What is your #1 goal for the coming year?
I always set my goals for the year ahead in December. I decide what I’m going to achieve and work out who and what I need to help me along the way.
My biggest aim this year is to spend more time with my customers. I get much better results when I make time for this, but sometimes I'm so busy that it can be hard to leave the office. l’m seeing clients every day this week, which doesn’t happen often enough.
Today I’m off to Netflix to show them the new merchandise we’ve created for their company stores, which I’m really excited about!
Has anyone else here in QB Community had a similar problem? Can you give me some tips on organizing my time to make sure I get to visit my clients?
Do *you* have any tried-and-true tricks that will help Cadi schedule more face time with her customers?
Calling time-management maestros! Have you ever been too slammed to make those all-important face-to-face meetings? What kind of tricks or resources do you use to set a schedule and stick to it?
Share your story with us below. :-)
