79%
clients left a competitor for us
100%
EU Safe Harbor Compliant
Helping clients build trust through deep insights
Key
Highlights
Highlights
Technical flexibility enables innovation
to meet client needs
Support along the way inspires confidence
The ability to personalize at scale supports growth
The Story
The challenge
To power growth, Synergy needed a robust system and a supportive partner
When Synergy International Limited, Inc. opened its doors as a marketing strategy agency in 2002, founder Dr. Rachel Talton and her team knew immediately that they would need a vehicle to conduct qualitative and quantitative research.
Of the three strategic activities Synergy focuses on with clients – informing clients with rigorous data and insights, activating strategic insights to drive meaningful change, and inspiring clients’ most important stakeholders to believe in the brand – data is critical at every stage, and finding a trusted partner to support that data collection and analysis was foundational to Synergy’s success.
Early on, Synergy found that Zarca (part of the Sogo family!) was a good fit to meet their needs, and the platform helped Synergy to deliver marketing strategy insights to clients from several industries.
When a client asked Synergy to use Qualtrics for their projects, the team decided to make a change. Over time, though, the expense and complexity of the Qualtrics platform led them to look elsewhere, and they ended up trying FluidSurveys. However, the simplicity and lack of functionality of that platform led Synergy to a new search, and they returned to Zarca.
“We were really glad to come back,” said Synergy Project Manager Crystal Ogden, “and it was absolutely fantastic to be able to pick up from where we left off.”
The solution
We’ve been pretty happy with the system, quite frankly,” shared Synergy Chief Operating Officer James Talton. “And being a research firm, we needed a very robust organization to support us.”
A key decision point in Synergy’s choice to return to the partnership was based on the support they received.
“We’ve always found that Zarca – now Sogo – has been very supportive in terms of onboarding and responsive in dealing with any challenges we’ve faced,” said Talton. “Someone’s always been willing to get on the phone with us and help work through any questions or issues we may have. That’s why we elected to come back and stick with the system that’s been very reliable for us for the last twenty years or so.”
While Synergy started out with more basic quantitative studies, the drive to be responsive to clients’ needs has encouraged their evolution over time. Today, the team also conducts employee surveys, culture studies, assessments, and even personality tests that organizations can use to support leadership trainings and other professional development goals.
Beyond surveys, Synergy also conducts research through focus groups – which, interestingly, has led them back to the platform as well. “This tool has been great for us to recruit participants for our focus groups,” said Ogden. “We send invitations to folks who are interested in our panels and they complete initial screener questions, which helps us determine who's a good fit and who's available for each particular research study.” Because of the time saved from having to do as much individual outreach or in-person screening, “We can spend more time figuring out how to balance the groups for the best outcome.”
An unexpected benefit the Synergy team has found in using the Sogolytics platform is the ability to share additional links and proactive communication through the system. Beyond sending just survey invitations, the team also sends outreach and other resources to their clients through the platform.
“One of the most important things we’ve found is the flexibility to go in different directions, and sometimes we can get pretty innovative to respond to the needs of a particular client,” noted Talton.
Synergy’s dedication to service has enabled them to provide support to a variety of community initiatives outside the scope of their paid work. In keeping with their core mission, these engagements are designed to foster trust, build psychological safety, and enhance engagement.
“As far as community service, we’ve been able to help churches, counties, and other organizations looking to learn more about how to best support their communities,” added Talton.
The result
“It’s been great that it’s a system that’s easy to use,” noted Ogden. “I found that when we were using Qualtrics, sometimes we needed technical support from them just to do something I would have considered relatively simple to do within the Sogo platform.”
Along with the expertise of the Synergy team, the Sogolytics platform’s ease of use has helped to enable Synergy’s growth over the years in a wide range of directions. One especially exciting project is a leadership development program that delivers training and monitors impact across an organization over time. Rather than a one-off check-in survey, Sogo provides a continuous feedback mechanism to track learning and growth.
Flexible functionality and features that allow the Synergy team to adapt to a wide range of client feedback needs have ensured that engagement is always a key part of every project.
“It’s the system itself that’s actually helped us to be more engaging,” said Talton. “It’s a big plus that Sogo provides a variety of ways to engage our respondents and our clients, and the ability to personalize as we need to for each unique client.”
From advanced design logic that ensures the right participants get the right questions to customized reports that deliver the right answers, Synergy can now pull key takeaways on their own terms. “It's great to be able to pull what you need and own it yourself,” said Ogden, “and Sogo lets me do that!”
As consultants, the Synergy team is proud of helping their clients learn and grow, and while key takeaways are client-specific, one finding has been surprisingly consistent. “A lot of companies are doing a lot of great things, and we find that their employees don’t always know about them,” shared Ogden.
In the future, Synergy looks forward to continued growth and supporting clients in building their brands, as well as building their own brand through continued feedback. “There’s nothing better than feedback to help you grow,” said Talton, “and we’re always learning as we build relationships with our clients and our communities.”
On a final note, Ogden shared, "We're thankful for how Sogo makes our jobs easier and adds to our professionalism!"
We're thankful for how Sogo makes our jobs easier and adds to our professionalism!
About Synergy International Limited, Inc
Synergy helps large corporations and institutions earn the trust, loyalty and most of all, passion of their customers and employees. Their goal is to dramatically enhance every brand they engage by leveraging the science of passion across every facet of the brand experience.
Explore other case studies
Join the strongest brands on the planet.