Sample report · Marketing agency
Demo business — real audit patterns, anonymised
A full demonstration report. The business is fictional; every pattern in it is one we have measured in real audits.
The discovery questions are some of the best we’ve heard. But the same brief was quoted A$6,000/mo and A$3,500/mo, the WhatsApp never replied, and one follow-up came from a personal mobile with an off-book discount.
The WhatsApp never replied, the same brief got two prices, and one follow-up offered an off-book discount from a personal mobile.
On the phone line. Benchmark for a marketing agency: proposal within a week.
A$3,500/mo on the phone line vs. A$6,000/mo on the email. Nothing is published, so it isn’t scored — but a buyer notices.
A “this week only” discount from a personal mobile, “keep it between us”.
What you're looking at
A demonstration report for a fictional marketing agency, built from anonymised patterns we see in real audits.
One score, nine criteria
Speed, accuracy, personalisation, qualification, follow-up, close, tone, red flags.
Evidence on every finding
Timestamps, transcripts, screenshots and recordings attached in the full report.
Fixes ranked by revenue
What to change this week, in order of money at stake.
01 — Per-channel scorecard
| Channel | First reply | Quoted vs listed price | Follow-ups | Courtesy | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry form | 11 min | No listed price to compare | 3 in 7 days | Polished · 82 | 79/ 100 |
| Email enquiry | 3h 02m | A$6,000/mo quoted · No listed price to compare | 1 in 7 days | Confident · 76 | 64/ 100 |
| Live chat | 1 min — bot only, no human | Bot linked the FAQ; no human joined | 0 in 7 days | Canned · 40 | 31/ 100 |
| No reply in 7 days | — nothing to compare | 0 in 7 days | — | 0/ 100 Not scored — no reply in 7 days | |
| Phone callRed flagOff-book discount offered from a personal mobile | Voicemail; callback 4h 20m | A$3,500/mo quoted · No listed price to compare | 2 in 7 days — from a personal mobile | Pushy · 52 | 38/ 100 |
First reply, price accuracy, follow-up and courtesy are four of the nine criteria. A channel with no reply in 7 days scores 0 — there is nothing to judge, so it gets no partial credit. Listed price = what you publish on your website or social profiles. A quote at or above a “from” price counts as consistent; where nothing is listed we show “No listed price to compare” instead of a score. The overall score is the weighted total across the nine criteria.
02 — Criterion scores
Enquiry form 11 min, email 3h 02m, live chat 1 min and phone line to voicemail, callback after 4h 20m. The WhatsApp never replied. The slowest reply took 4h 20m. Benchmark for a marketing agency: proposal within a week.
Four of five channels replied. The WhatsApp number on the website never answered in seven days.
Pricing isn’t published on the website or social profiles, so there is no listed price to compare and no score. For the record: the same brief was quoted A$6,000/mo on the email and A$3,500/mo on the phone line.
Listed price = what you publish on your website or social profiles.
The enquiry form reply used our name and picked up what we’d asked about. The live chat reply was a template that could have gone to any client.
Good questions on the enquiry form: goals, budget, timeline and who makes the decision. The live chat asked nothing before pushing for a booking.
The enquiry form followed up three times, the email followed up once and the phone line followed up twice (from a personal number). The live chat never followed up. The WhatsApp never replied at all.
The enquiry form offered a strategy call at a specific time. The live chat ended “let us know if you’d like to go ahead” — no time offered.
Polished in writing; the follow-up turned pushy once price came up.
One flag raised — see below. Also noted: no case studies with actual numbers.
03 — Red flags, in plain English
The phone line follow-up came from a personal mobile. A member of the team offered a monthly retainer for A$3,500/mo “if you sign this week” and asked us not to mention it to the owners. We report what the evidence shows; we make no claim about intent.
Evidence: The recording or thread, and the sending contact, are attached in the full report.
Fix → Discounts only with owner sign-off, in writing; client contact only from company numbers and addresses.
Nothing is published, so this isn’t scored — but a client who contacts you on the email and the phone line hears A$6,000/mo and A$3,500/mo for the same scope and trusts neither.
Fix → One internal rate card with scope bands, used by everyone who quotes.
On the live chat: no case studies with actual numbers. Not a red flag on its own — but it is the kind of gap that sends a client to whoever spelled it out.
Fix → Write down how the team handles this, and check it in next month’s audit.
05 — Review snapshot and monitoring
41 reviews on Google
1–3★ in the last 90 days
No owner reply on the profile
Still waiting for an owner reply
What it means Rating is excellent. The one unanswered 2★ is the first review a prospect sees when sorting by “lowest”.
The audit reads every profile once. Watch keeps reading them every day — and when a negative review lands, you hear about it within hours, with the reply already drafted.
01Watched daily
Google, ProductReview, Facebook, Trustpilot and any other review site we find. Every negative review in each profile’s full history is captured on the first sweep.
02Alert within hours
A new 1–3★ review triggers an alert, with the review quoted in full and the profile it is on.
03A drafted reply
Empathetic, de-escalating, no admission of fault — marked “review before use”, ready to paste.
04A removal path, when the rules allow
If the review breaks the platform’s own policy, you get the rule it breaks and the exact appeal route.
One of the 1 unanswered reviews above, as the alert would arrive
Review alert · Google
Sent within hours“Good first conversation, then slow to reply once we’d signed.”
Policy check: a genuine customer experience — not removable. Reply publicly, and fix the cause.
Drafted replyReview before use
Hi M., thank you for taking the time to tell us, and I’m sorry this wasn’t the experience you expected. That isn’t how we want anyone to be treated. I’d like to understand what happened and put it right — please call me directly on 0491 570 156.
— Alex, Example Marketing Co.
When a review breaks the rules · Google
SalesWitness Watch: the appeal drafted for you, citing the rule — you file it.SalesWitness Watch Pro: we file the appeal for you.
Platforms remove policy breaches, not bad opinions. We never file a false report, and we never post or solicit reviews — the public reply goes up either way, because it is the part prospects actually read. Every platform we read has its own route; the same checks apply.
06 — The tape: one enquiry, two replies
Our enquiry · email enquiry
📨 Prospect emails hello@abc-company.com asking for a quote.
✅ Reply 1 — from the company
sales@abc-company.com · quotes list price · books a call
🚩 Reply 2 — from a rep, personally
j.smith.freelance@gmail.com · “I can do it cheaper directly” · asks to move to WhatsApp
07 — Evidence excerpt
[Thu 10:05] Auditor → Voicemail: “Hi, Jordan here — we’re a growing online brand looking for an agency to run our marketing. What would a monthly retainer cost? Could someone call me back?”
[Thu 14:25] Personal mobile → “Hi Jordan — I can do a monthly retainer for A$3,500/mo if you sign this week. Keep that between us; the owners quote higher.”
[— two more follow-ups from the same personal contact over 4 days —]
08 — Case closed: what changes next month
None of this needs new software or a new hire. In order of revenue impact.
Scope bands and prices everyone quotes from; discounts need owner sign-off.
Any pricing or “talk to someone” message reaches a named person within 10 minutes.
Route it to the shared inbox with an auto-reply, or take it off the contact page.
Before → after
Illustrative — what the three fixes typically change within 30 days.
Quotes for one brief
via One rate card, internal
Slowest first reply
via A person on every first reply
via Staff or remove the WhatsApp
Confidential. Prepared under the written authorisation of the business owner. Findings reflect the audit record only and are phrased to describe evidence, not intent. Not legal advice. The business and every figure above are illustrative, not a guarantee.
09 — What this costs
Typical for a marketing agency
20% · lost to slow or missed replies: 3 in 10 of those
What one client is worth
A$756,000 a year
35 enquiries × 20% close rate × 30% lost to slow or missed replies = 2.1 clients lost × A$30,000 = A$63,000 a month
One recovered sale (A$30,000) pays for a whole year of SalesWitness Watch (A$990, 2 months free) — 30 times over.
Typical figures for this kind of business, not a benchmark and not a promise. A lost enquiry isn’t a lost sale, so only the share you’d normally close counts. Put your own numbers into the calculator for your figure.
Your report looks like this — with your channels, your prices, your evidence
One SalesWitness Audit shops every channel you offer — enquiry form, email enquiry, live chat, WhatsApp, phone call — twice, 15 days apart, scores them against your own fact sheet and lands in your portal. Owner-authorised, evidence-led.
Compare plans — Watch adds daily review monitoring →