How the mark is earned — and lost.

SalesWitness Certified is a mark a business can show on its website when an independent mystery audit has found that it answers enquiries promptly, accurately and properly on every channel it offers. It tells the business’s own customers one thing: when someone like you gets in touch, this business was checked, by people who did not work for it, and it replied well.

It certifies observed enquiry handling over a defined period. It does not certify products, services, workmanship, prices, legal or regulatory compliance, or the business as a whole.

This is SalesWitness’s own published standard. It is not an ISO standard, it is not issued under any government scheme, and SalesWitness is not accredited by any accreditation body to certify against it. The mark means exactly what this page says and nothing more. We publish every rule so that anyone — the certified business, its customers or a competitor — can see how the mark is earned and lost.

The nine audit criteria. Every mystery enquiry is scored 0–100 on nine criteria. A channel’s score is the weighted average, less 8 points per red flag (capped at 24). A channel that never replied inside the 7-day window scores 0.

Every enquiry channel the business offers. The enquiry form, email, live chat and WhatsApp on the business’s website, and a phone call where the business’s plan includes one. A channel the business does not offer (no chat on the site, for example) is recorded as not offered and is never held against it. A channel it does offer cannot be left out to improve the result.

Certification per site on SalesWitness Multi. A business with several websites, service lines or locations is certified per site: each site is assessed on its own channels against these rules and receives its own certificate, number and verification page.

Review response. How the business responds to its public reviews is monitored and reported alongside the audit. It is reported, not a pass/fail condition: it never earns or loses a certificate.

• Owner authorisation. The business owner authorises the audit in writing before any enquiry is made. No authorisation, no audit, no certificate.
• Independent mystery enquiries. A human-led shopper, using a realistic prospect persona for the business’s sector, contacts the business through its real channels. The business’s team is not told which enquiry is ours.
• A 7-day observation window. Every reply, follow-up and quote in the 7 days after each enquiry is recorded.
• Evidence kept. The full thread, timestamps, screenshots of forms and chats, and the scoring justification for each criterion are kept for the life of the certificate and 12 months after it ends.
• Human review. Scores are reviewed by a person before they are published to the business. Only published audits count towards certification.
• Freshness. An audit counts towards certification for 90 days after it is published. Older audits do not count towards the most recent full audit.

The overall score is the average of the most recent published score on each channel audited.

Below 80: no public mark. In the portal the business sees Working towards certification — the exact gaps to close and the date of its next audit.

Eligibility is computed from the audit record, but nothing is issued automatically. A SalesWitness reviewer checks the evidence behind the result and confirms the issue. Each certificate has a unique number (SW-YYYY-NNNNNN), a public verification page and a record of every change made to it.

A certificate is valid for 6 months from issue.

Businesses on SalesWitness Watch (monthly or annual billing): continuous.

• The business is audited every month, and those audits are the surveillance. Each monthly audit cycle whose published results meet the certificate’s tier moves the valid-until date to 6 months from that cycle. Nothing needs to be booked, and the certificate stays valid for as long as the scores hold.
• If a cycle falls below the tier, the valid-until date does not move and the downgrade and suspension rules below apply (30 days to remediate).
• If the business leaves Watch, the valid-until date stops moving; the renewal rules below apply from the date it had reached.

Everyone else (the one-time SalesWitness Audit, or after leaving Watch): renewal.

• A re-certification audit is required before the valid-until date to keep the mark. It is a SalesWitness Audit run on the same method; if its results meet the tier’s thresholds, the certificate is renewed for 6 months from that assessment, under the same certificate number.
• We send renewal reminders 45, 30, 14 and 3 days before the valid-until date, on the day it expires, and one follow-up 14 days after. Each states the expiry date, what happens to the badge, and the two ways to keep the mark: book a re-certification audit, or move to Watch so it does not lapse. No further reminders are sent after the follow-up.
• A surveillance audit falls due from month 5; for these businesses the re-certification audit is the surveillance audit.

When a certificate lapses.

• If it has not been renewed by the valid-until date, the certificate expires. Its verification page shows Expired and the badge image changes to Not current — Certificate expired within an hour. The holder must stop describing the business as certified and remove the mark within 30 days.
• An expired certificate can still be renewed under the same number when a re-certification audit meets the thresholds; the badge code on the holder’s site then shows the certificate as current again.

• Downgrade. A Gold holder whose latest assessment meets Certified but not Gold is moved to Certified.
• Suspension. If the latest assessment falls below 80, a channel stops answering, or a red flag is found, the certificate is suspended and the business has 30 days to remediate — fix the problem and pass a re-audit of the affected channels.
• Reinstatement. A suspended certificate is reinstated when the re-audit meets the thresholds.
• Withdrawal. A certificate is withdrawn if remediation does not succeed within 30 days, if the mark is misused, if the business misrepresents the certificate, or if the business asks us to withdraw it.
• A suspended, expired or withdrawn certificate is shown as such on its verification page, and the badge image changes to “Certificate not current” within an hour.

A holder may display the mark only while its certificate is current, and only:

• using the embed code from the portal, with the link to the verification page — the link is a condition of use, and a badge that does not link to its verification page is misuse;
• unaltered — no redrawing, recolouring or cropping — and at the tier shown on the certificate;
• for the business and website named on the certificate;
• without implying that SalesWitness certifies its products, services, prices or legal compliance, or that the mark is an ISO or government certification.

On suspension the mark updates itself. On withdrawal or expiry the holder removes it within 30 days.

Every certificate has a public verification page showing the business name, tier, certificate number, issue and valid-until dates, current status, the channels audited, the score band (90+ or 80–89; the exact score only if the holder opts in) and a link to this standard. An unknown certificate number or address shows No such certificate.

The public directory lists only current certificates whose holders have opted in.

• Holders may appeal a score, a refusal, a suspension or a withdrawal within 30 days. The appeal is reviewed against the evidence by someone other than the person who scored the audit, wherever our team size allows, and we reply in writing within 14 days.
• Anyone can report a concern about a certified business from its verification page. We acknowledge reports, may run an unscheduled audit, and act under the suspension and withdrawal rules where the evidence supports it. We do not publish the reporter’s details.

• Fees are the same whatever the audit finds. A certificate cannot be bought, and no plan guarantees one.
• Businesses cannot choose which enquiries are scored or see the shopper’s identity.
• Audit evidence is confidential to the business. Only the fields listed under public verification are public.

The standard is versioned. We give holders 30 days’ notice of a change, and a change applies to a certificate from its next surveillance audit.

Changes in version 1.1 (30 September 2026): continuous validity for Watch clients and the renewal and reminder rules for everyone else; Gold’s follow-up requirement applies to email and enquiry-form enquiries only; certification per site on SalesWitness Multi; the 90-day audit freshness and review response (reported, not pass/fail) stated explicitly.