To whom it may concern:
I am the CEO of Bodytrends Health and Fitness, Inc. (BTHF). BTHF is a leading online provider of in-home health and fitness equipment. We are merging with another fitness partner and moving our operations to Florida. Unfortunately for us Frank will not be making the move.
Frank joined us in June of 2001 as a Junior HTML Programmer, but quickly advanced and eventually served as our Senior Webmaster. When we hired Frank he was greeted with a tremendous task -- to help us maintain a multi-million dollar commerce web site, retailing thousands of products, while working with our Marketing department to build additional online stores, produce periodic promotions and publish a regular email newsletter with a 100,000-subscriber base. Frank quickly put his creative, analytical and problem solving skills in high gear and carried out all of his job duties while improving our operations in several ways.
Specifically, his contributions include: increased efficiency, documentation, statistical analysis and target marketing.
Increased efficiency: Frank completely reorganized our website and structured it so changes could be made quickly and efficiently. Being able to make changes quickly and uniformly has been an essential element in Bodytrends' success.
Documentation: Making hard- and soft-copy notes of operational routines and procedures. This served as a first step to his efforts in increasing not only his own efficiency, but the Web department's efficiency over all. It also allowed others to know exactly how and why to carry out certain tasks and eliminated the need for guess work by his coworkers and outside contractors.
Statistical analysis: After gaining a full understanding of our web-statistics reports he recognized where our site was underperforming. He completely overhauled our home page's source code, produced fast-loading graphics and recommended design changes. The end result was a 70 percent reduction in the time it took our home page to load on a client's browser. Frank extended these efforts to other areas of our site, which greatly improved our customers' experience.
Targeted Marketing: A particular strong point for Frank is his focus on target demographics. He would always ask, "Who are we designing this (promo, affiliate site, banner campaign) for?" Once he ascertained who the customer was, he developed web sites for Bodytrends and our partners that had the proper look and feel for the target audience. These sites are esthetically designed and user friendly in the mapping and navigation.
Frank is an agreeable employee and team player who doesn't scoff at taking on new job tasks, no matter how unrelated to his regular job. When we needed someone to be on call 24/7 to manage our building's alarm system (administering pass codes, keys, and serving as a liaison to our alarm vendor and locksmith company), we asked Frank, who assumed this role without hesitation.
On thing we've always appreciated about Frank is his concern for our financial limitations as a small business. When it came to his compensation, he looked for win-win situations and found innovative ways to increase his bottom line with minimal pressure on our payroll expenses. For example, Frank prefers to commute by public transportation. He found a way for us to reimburse his monthly commuter expense through a Federal transit program for employers who promote public transportation.
Since continuing education is a high priority for Frank, in lieu of straight raises, Frank would simply request slightly reduced work schedules at the same pay rate, allowing him more time for study. Though in effect we were paying him more, there was no direct increase in our payroll expense, and the basic quality of Frank's work didn't suffer since with longevity, he was working smarter and more efficiently. Plus, we gained an increasingly more skilled and educated employee.
Frank has made a significant contribution to our organization and I am confident that he will prove to be an asset to you if you add him to your team. Do not hesitate to call me personally.
Sincerely,
Rex Bird, CEO
Body Trends Health and Fitness
(805) 684-8404, Ext. 100.