MaxMedia is the #1 ranked UX-strategy leader in the nation. And why Clutch reviews matter.
It’s not enough to simply earn recognition—it matters where that recognition comes from.
On March 8, Clutch—a B2B review and rating platform—released its annual list of leaders and top performers for 2022, specifically highlighting the UI/UX design industry. And, once again, MaxMedia tops the lists.
Clutch’s announcement reminds us how leaders in the industry have repeatedly proven the importance of UI/UX work to anyone doing business online. Research has shown that, on average, every $1 of investment in UX brings $100 in returns and the most common services driving demand for UI and UX services are UX strategy, user research, and usability testing.
So, we’re very proud to see MaxMedia ranked at the top (or near enough) among all three of those categories:
- #1 in UX Strategy
- #4 in User Research
- #7 in Usability Testing
Not too shabby.
We’ve recently published a fair amount of content about our focus on UX research and strategy and some tips for preparing your UX portfolio, so we’re excited how well these rankings align with our foci. But for those unfamiliar with Clutch ranking and the process by which they arrive at them, you might wonder why we value these rankings so highly—both to us and to our customers.
Let me tell you…
The organic sales challenge.
Like a lot of small- and mid-sized agencies, MaxMedia doesn’t employ a dedicated sales person. Rather, our leadership team pursues new business opportunities and one of our primary channels for new client acquisition is word-of mouth referrals from past and current clients. For over 25-years, we’ve found this method delivers a high percentage of qualified leads and fruitful work.
But there’s an obvious limitation to this organic form of sales: How do we reach beyond the network of folks who already know us?
One way we break out of our network is by sharing portfolio pieces on Adobe’s creative social-media platform Bēhance. We also share thought-leadership and news pieces here on Medium. And, of course, all this content is distributed across more conventional social-media platforms: LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
But how do we share our client experience in form analogous to word-of mouth referrals?
How Clutch delivers for vendors and customers.
Every day, companies struggle to find good business-to-business (B2B) service providers to help them with a wide variety of technology and creative needs. And, every day, salespeople and business leaders struggle to share the good word about work they’ve done well—especially across noisy and sometimes toxic social-media platforms.
Clutch.co solves both these problems.
- For the vendor, Clutch collects data about their company and customer insight feedback in the form of verified and scored customer interviews. Clutch also employs a rigorous testing process to recognize and reward the most deserving service providers in a series of press announcements throughout the year (such as this one!).
- For customers, Clutch presents vendor and client input to visitors—both positive and negative—in a variety of different ways. Search results, ranking matrixes, and the scored interviews combine to go beyond conventional marketing testimonials and show a more complete picture of a vendor.
Why Clutch reviews and rankings matter.
We often describe Clutch as a Yelp for B2B companies, providing both scores and verbatim customer feedback to help customers make informed decisions before they reach out. And like Yelp, Clutch is widely used—each month, more than half a million buyers and sellers of services use the Clutch platform. And the user base is growing more than 50% a year!
Clutch operates as an independent third-party to both the vendor and the customer, collecting objective feedback and performing in-depth interviews with clients and customers about the quality of their interactions with each Clutch-registered company. Based on the data gathered (some of which is self-reported by the vendor, but not paid for), Clutch formulates a fair rating of all the firms and categorizes companies by their areas of expertise, hourly rates, typical project sizes, number of employees, and geography.
The real backbone of Clutch’s value to businesses like ours is their approach to customer reviews. To leave a review, customers are verified and interviewed over the phone or online via LinkedIn. And the conversation isn’t necessarily a short one. Some of our clients have spent a hour on the phone with Clutch. The result, is a compact testimonial infinitely more valuable than the typical marketing site blurb.
Each review consists of:
- A score based on the project’s quality, schedule, and cost as well as the customer’s willingness to refer
- A summary of the project, including budget and timeline
- A summary of customer feedback
Of course, the more positive reviews you earn, the better a vendor ranks for the services they provide. And in combination with self-reported company foci, skills, and portfolio content, Clutch analysts prepare contextual leadership matrixes to help customers find the right vendor for their specific need.
These assessments and rankings mean more to us than any ordinary agency award. As our design leader JD Jordan points out:
The past two years have been challenging for agencies of all sizes. But I’m thrilled our clients — past and present — have seen fit to score us well and tell their stories. These testimonials are why Clutch’s recognition means so much to me. I typically eschew awards. Helping clients succeed means more than any award — and is much more likely to bring them back for more! It’s the same with Clutch. It’s not an award we can buy — it’s an award we can only earn by overdelivering, every time.
— JD Jordan, Executive Design Director
MaxMedia is an innovation agency whose nimble and diverse team of creatives and technologists use empathy and design-thinking to create killer solutions for real problems.
We’re excited to show you how our nimble and diverse team of creative problem solvers (with their fingers on design thinking, custom development, motion graphics, and rapid prototyping) is the right team to help you. Because we do a lot more than just create beautiful, functional solutions — and that “lot more” informs how we approach every problem — including yours.
Contact us for a free remote consultation with our design and innovation leaders to see how we can help you and your company bring your visions to life and be more innovative than ever.
