Growing With Client's Needs

One of the most fascinating attributes of Sanger & Eby is its ability and willingness to shift with clients' needs as they evolve and times change. The firm has grown from a print graphic-design studio into a company that creates interactive Web sites and business-application tools, as well as print and identity work.

Although the partners never originally intended to take on Web development, they followed their hearts when it came to their beloved client, Federated. "In 1994, they approached us about doing a Web site," Eby says. "We'd never done a Web site before, and we told them that. They said, 'Well, neither have we.' They trusted us to do it. We were honest with them, and we went into it together."

Today, about 35% of Sanger & Eby Design's work is Web-based. The firm recently launched Federated's corporate recruitment site, Retailology.com, which lists job openings for all its properties. They also built a system that processes customer feedback on Federated's intranet, constructed Roto-Rooter's Web-based tool that allows customers to schedule plumbing appointments online and are developing Web sites for a long-time print client, the U.C. Foundation.

"Sometimes we'll work with a client for so long doing one type of work, and we'll forget to mention that we do Web or business-application tools," Sanger says. Roto-Rooter was a print client for years, then one day complained to Sanger and Eby that the vendor to which they'd paid thousands of dollars for an online-scheduling tool had gone out of business, leaving the company high and dry. "We said, 'Well, actually, we can build that for you,'" Sanger says. "They didn't know we did that kind of work."

The firm is so committed to its relationships that it will do nearly anything to make its clients happy. "We can probably do it for you, and if we can't, we outsource it," Eby says. With that attitude, employees have found themselves doing things that aren't in their job descriptions. They've hung banners to advertise a client's United Way drive, coordinated the entry for a table-decorating contest at an AIDS benefit and designed materials for the Cincinnati Corporate Olympics, which benefits Special Olympics.

As if acting as clients' right hands isn't enough, the partners express their gratitude to their loyal customers throughout the year with small gestures: tickets to Cincinnati Reds or Bengals games, flowers when somebody gets a promotion or wins an award, holiday gifts with themed packaging. This year, the partners built an NCAA-picks Web site and invited clients to participate, treating the winners to lunch after the college-basketball tournament was over.

Most of the companies on Sanger & Eby Design's client list have been with the firm since the beginning, and in all of the work they do, the partners never forget that they and their steady clients are working together toward a common goal. "Our clients are almost an extension of our staff," Sanger says. "They really are partners with us."