When we moved into our house just before Christmas there was not much that we wanted to change with the landscaping.

As the weather gets nicer, we keep finding things that we want to change. We have removed a garden area and yard space in order to widen the driveway, took down a large Holly tree on the side of the house, and just completed pulling the English Ivy from a large portion of the front yard.

We are slowly making the space ours, rather than someone else’s. Next on our list is to have the large, over-grown, diseased Spruce tree that stands 15 feet outside our front door taken down and hauled away. As we search for the best price, I am amazed at the lack of customer service that these tree service companies offer.

On Friday, an estimator from one of these companies came to my house. As he was inspecting the tree and doing what it is they do to price taking a tree down, he kept asking me questions about the other estimates that we had received. I was not going to lie to him so I told him what the ballpark price was of the estimates. As I said the price he stopped everything he was doing, looked at me and said that he could not beat that price so he was not going to give me an estimate. With that, he got back in his truck and pulled away.

Customer service is usually someone’s first impression of a company. At DDA, we put our prospective and existing clients at the top of the list. We take pride in our quick turn-around time for estimates as well as our attention to detail. DDA offers an array of services to meet your marketing and advertising needs. Whether you are looking for website design, video, illustration, print design and production, or SEO services we can answer your questions and meet you deadlines.

DDA subscribes to several business practices and principles that directs everything we do. They are transparency, ethical conduct, and doing the right thing. The practice of these are both just good, sane, logical and practical approaches to client and vendor relations and emotional, cerebral and feel-good-about-yourself practices and beliefs that allows one to look himself or herself in the mirror each morning and sleep well at night.

Some definitions through the eyes of DDA:

Transparency. I like to think I am a good communicator. I know I am a lousy listener. My other career path might well have been as a history teacher and I sometimes wonder if the excitement of the advertising and business world overwhelmed my common sense.

Despite my best efforts, I recognize that four people in a meeting or discussion will leave with four slightly or largely different understandings of what just happened, what information was shared, what conclusions were drawn, and what the next steps are. Since we believe strongly that good process is at the core of all efficiency, somehow each successful advertising, branding, or marketing meeting must result in common understanding, shared goals, and a focused unified vision of the end game.

Transparency tools are woven into and heaped upon every advertising, branding, or marketing project we undertake. DDA TRAC (Time Resource and Accounting) is an in-house developed, Internet-based time tracking database tool. The result is that every hourly billed project including programming, logo design, graphic design, copywriting, photography, video, 2D and 3D animation, illustration, trade show displays, large format graphics, print design and print production for sell sheets, catalogs, brochures, flyers, direct mail, business cards, training portals and tools, CME design and development and even search engine optimization (SEO) is invoiced accurately. No time, not one minute is rounded up or added on, and every invoice is accompanied by a detailed minute-by-minute description of how the time was spent. On time, On budget, On TRAC every time.

Additional tracking and reporting tools abound. DDA’s search engine optimization (SEO) work has a series of metrics that perpetually report website visitation, usage, pathways, experience-based mapping, rankings, and much more. Website analysis means corporate websites can be better understood, improved, and managed.

Online proofing development websites are assigned to each client and each project. Our clients see every project unfold, improve, and take shape and their input is welcomed, requested, and insisted upon every step of the way.

Transparency is as much an attitude as it is a report or tool. At DDA, we believe that direct communication is the hallmark of a truly professional service-oriented vendor. We answer the phone, have project coordinators for each client, welcome questions and love client interaction. Every project is a blend of skills, expertise, information, and point-of-view provided by both the client and DDA.

Call us anytime. At DDA, the Transparency is clearly better.

Ethical Conduct to follow Monday.

Doing the Right Thing to follow Tuesday.