Impact Networking

Mar 2024

As a client who once placed their trust and resources into Impact's managed marketing services, I reflect on the journey with a mix of disappointment and enlightenment. The promise of being "better than an agency" had initially drawn me in, with expectations of a bespoke strategy that was supposed to revolutionize my business's market approach and align closely with our unique goals. Unfortunately, the reality fell short in nearly every aspect they boasted about. From the outset, it became apparent that their bold claim was more of an over-promise. The strategies and campaigns implemented were not the game-changers I was led to believe they would be. Instead, they felt generic and lacked the nuanced understanding of our specific industry challenges and opportunities. This one-size-fits-all approach failed to capture the essence of our brand and the intricacies of our target market. Their team, while enthusiastic, seemed to stretch thin across expertise and resources. It was evident that they did not possess the depth or breadth of knowledge necessary for the varied and specialized tasks at hand. This limitation was a critical stumbling block in executing the effective tactics we were promised. Furthermore, the lack of industry-specific knowledge was a significant oversight. The nuances of my sector, which could have been leveraged to our advantage, were largely ignored or misunderstood. This oversight led to strategies that were out of sync with industry trends and consumer expectations. As our business needs evolved, the scalability issues of Impact's services became increasingly problematic. Adjusting strategies or scaling efforts up or down was a cumbersome process, lacking the agility my business required to navigate the dynamic market landscape. Cost concerns also emerged as a persistent issue. The continuous nature of the partnership did not justify the investment, especially when the results did not surpass or even meet those achievable through project-based work with specialized agencies. Communication breakdowns and misalignments on objectives further exacerbated the situation. What was meant to be a collaborative partnership often felt disjointed, leading to frustration and setbacks in our marketing efforts. Perhaps the most jarring revelation was their approach to attracting customers. Despite marketing being one of their primary services, their reliance on aggressive and desperate-sounding sales reps to pester potential clients with non-stop cold calls was a glaring red flag. This strategy, far removed from the competent marketing tools like SEO they should have been championing, indicated a profound misalignment with the modern, effective approaches to business growth and customer acquisition. In hindsight, the experience served as a costly lesson on the importance of due diligence and the pitfalls of entrusting a service that promises more than it can deliver. The journey with Impact's managed marketing services was a testament to the fact that high claims need to be backed by high competence -- something that was glaringly absent in this partnership.

Aug 2023

I am not one to leave a review of a company but feel that the experience we had is worth sharing. We signed a five year contract with Impact and over that period of time had a vCIO and engineer change at least once a year. While I understand employee turnover, with each transition that was made we heard "why is this set up this way" which we would invariably have to reply "because that was the way the last Impact people set it up". The one main project we had over the term of the contract was an office move that they were notified of 6+ months in advance. We took at least two different vCIO's and two different engineers through the new location prior to the move and they told us all the great stuff they would do to get us set up. As the move approached, I had to reach out to them to try and get them to do the simplest tasks for the relocation, which we ultimately performed 90% of ourselves with them performing absolutely none of the "great stuff" that they had promised. Four and a half years into the contract, my email was hacked and what an outside consultant determined was that over a period of a few months this individual was able to have a supplier change an ACH routing number for a payment to us for over $1M. Their response to the issue was basically an unapologetic response of we didn't have the right protections in place to prevent something like that, but if we renew with them and for over three times the original contract amount, they now would be able to prevent or at least notice that a threat actor was inside our system. Once I notified them that I would not be renewing their contract, they clearly turned off all spam filters and protections to our systems because our spam amount skyrocketed. We ended up buying out their contract so we could get somebody competent on board to protect our systems. The extent of their disregard for the security of our systems was astounding once new IT professionals were brought onboard to take over. Horrible experience.

Feb 2022

I would seriously recommend reading all the fine print and taking their "amazing" VCIO services with a grain of salt. Shame on me for spending $10000 for the consultation and discovery portion and then thinking that they would actually take the information that they gathered and then use it to help recommend good platforms that could be implemented within my organization. They pretty much just provide routine maintenance for computer updates and security software which you could get for a fraction of the cost elsewhere. I would certainly NEVER consider them a "strategic business advisor". You are essentially selling your soul for 5 years when you contract with them. The sales pitch that you would be paying more to hire a full time IT person is a joke considering when you hire them you essentially have to put a full-time person on your internal team to manage them. And then when there are issues, their response time is far longer than it would take to have resolved the problem internally, if they can resolve the issue at all. As a business owner of almost 20 years, it is likely one of the worst decisions that I have ever made.