Sample report · IT / managed service provider

Demo business — real audit patterns, anonymised

Best-fit leads are getting two different prices for one brief.

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 £1,900/mo and £1,100/mo, the WhatsApp never replied, and one follow-up came from a personal mobile with an off-book discount.

Business
Example IT Support (demo)
Market
Leeds, UK (demo)
Audit period
Aug – Sep 2026
Channels shopped
5 of 5 · 7 days each
Revenue at risk

Revenue at risk on three of five channels

The WhatsApp never replied, the same brief got two prices, and one follow-up offered an off-book discount from a personal mobile.

  • Enquiry form · 79/100
  • Email enquiry · 64/100
  • Live chat · 31/100
  • WhatsApp · 0/100 · Not scored — no reply in 7 days
  • Phone call · 38/100
Slowest first reply
4h 20m

On the phone line. Benchmark for an IT support company: call-back within 4 hours.

Quote spread, one brief
£800/mo

£1,100/mo on the phone line vs. £1,900/mo on the email. Nothing is published, so it isn’t scored — but a buyer notices.

Red flags found
1

A “this week only” discount from a personal mobile, “keep it between us”.

What you're looking at

A demonstration report for a fictional IT support company, 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

How each channel treated a real prospect

ChannelFirst replyQuoted vs listed priceFollow-upsCourtesyScore
Enquiry form11 minNo listed price to compare3 in 7 daysPolished · 8279/ 100
Email enquiry3h 02m£1,900/mo quoted · No listed price to compare1 in 7 daysConfident · 7664/ 100
Live chat1 min — bot only, no humanBot linked the FAQ; no human joined0 in 7 daysCanned · 4031/ 100
WhatsAppNo reply in 7 days— nothing to compare0 in 7 days—0/ 100

Not scored — no reply in 7 days

Phone callRed flagOff-book discount offered from a personal mobileVoicemail; callback 4h 20m£1,100/mo quoted · No listed price to compare2 in 7 days — from a personal mobilePushy · 5238/ 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

Nine criteria, scored across every channel

Response time57/100
weakest: phone call

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 an IT support company: call-back within 4 hours.

Answered at all80/100
weakest: WhatsApp

Four of five channels replied. The WhatsApp number on the website never answered in seven days.

Price accuracy vs listed priceNo listed price to compare
weakest: phone call

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 £1,900/mo on the email and £1,100/mo on the phone line.

Listed price = what you publish on your website or social profiles.

Personalisation71/100
weakest: live chat

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.

Qualification questions83/100
weakest: live chat

Good questions on the enquiry form: goals, budget, timeline and who makes the decision. The live chat asked nothing before pushing for a booking.

Follow-up cadence60/100
weakest: live chat

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.

Close attempt / next step72/100
weakest: live chat

The enquiry form offered a call-back at a specific time. The live chat ended “let us know if you’d like to go ahead” — no time offered.

Tone & professionalism66/100

Polished in writing; the follow-up turned pushy once price came up.

Red-flag screen50/100
weakest: phone call

One flag raised — see below. Also noted: response-time SLA not written anywhere.

03 — Red flags, in plain English

What the shopper found first

Red flag

A discount “off the books”

The phone line follow-up came from a personal mobile. A member of the team offered a monthly support plan for £1,100/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.

Price mismatch

Two prices for one brief

Nothing is published, so this isn’t scored — but a client who contacts you on the email and the phone line hears £1,900/mo and £1,100/mo for the same scope and trusts neither.

Fix → One internal rate card with scope bands, used by everyone who quotes.

Also noted

Response-time SLA not written anywhere

On the live chat: response-time SLA not written anywhere. 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.

04 — Reply A vs Reply B

The reply you sent, next to the reply that wins the job

Left: the reply the business actually sent. Right: what a best-in-class reply to the same enquiry looks like — the name, the exact question answered, the price from the business’s own list, the timeline, what happens next, something to keep, a concrete time to talk, and a real person to call.

What Jordan asked · Email enquiry · Wed 10:30
“Hi, we’re a 20-person office and need proper IT support. What would a monthly plan cost?”
Reply A — what the business sent56/100

From the audit record: the reply the business actually sent.

The team, shared inbox 3h 02m after the enquiry

Hi Jordan, thanks for reaching out. A monthly support plan would be around £1,900/mo. Let us know if you’d like to chat.
Speed
60
Answered
100
Price
—
Personal
35
Questions
10
Follow-up
45
Next step
25
Tone
76
Red flags
100
Reply B — the reply that wins the job96/100

What a best-in-class reply looks like — the standard your competitors are measured against

A named person at the IT support company, same email 15 min after the enquiry

Hi Jordan, Thanks for getting in touch — yes, we can help, and here is everything you asked. Price: for a brief like yours our fee is £1,900/mo — the same figure for the full scope, whoever you speak to here. Timing: call-back within 4 hours, as standard. What happens next: a call-back, then the exact figure in writing within 24 hours. One question so I can be exact: is there a date you need this sorted by? I’ve attached “Example IT Support — prices and what’s included” (PDF), so you have it all in writing. Can I call you Thursday between 5 and 7 pm to arrange a call-back? If another time suits, reply with it and I’ll hold it. If I don’t hear back, I’ll check in on Friday morning.

Example IT Support — prices and what’s included (PDF)

Alex Rivera
New enquiries, Example IT Support
Direct line: 07700 900461

Speed
95
Answered
100
Price
—
Personal
95
Questions
90
Follow-up
90
Next step
100
Tone
95
Red flags
100

The difference · 40 points

Same enquiry, same business, same facts.

  • Answered in 15 minutes, not 3h 02m.
  • Gives one figure for the full scope — the same one everyone quotes.
  • Greets Jordan by name and answers the question that was asked.
  • Says what happens next and when: call-back within 4 hours.
  • Asks one question that moves the booking forward.
  • Attaches a fact sheet the client can keep.
  • Offers a specific call — Thursday, 5–7 pm — instead of an open “let us know”.
  • Signed by a named person with a direct line, and a dated check-in if nobody replies.

Reply B is written by us from the facts the business already had — its own published price, its own next step — so the gap is the reply, not the offer. It is the standard, not a named rival: this sample is fictional. In a live audit this panel is built from your own replies, and on SalesWitness Watch Pro the quarterly competitor benchmark shops two real competitors and scores their replies the same way. Follow-up on Reply B is scored on the dated check-in it commits to.

05 — Review snapshot and monitoring

What prospects read before they enquire

Rating
4.9

41 reviews on Google

Negative reviews
1

1–3★ in the last 90 days

Negatives unanswered
1 of 1

No owner reply on the profile

Oldest unanswered
64 days

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”.

On SalesWitness Watch, the next one never waits 64 days

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.

  1. 01Watched daily

    Google, Trustpilot, Checkatrade, Yell, Facebook, Houzz and any other review site we find. Every negative review in each profile’s full history is captured on the first sweep.

  2. 02Alert within hours

    A new 1–3★ review triggers an alert, with the review quoted in full and the profile it is on.

  3. 03A drafted reply

    Empathetic, de-escalating, no admission of fault — marked “review before use”, ready to paste.

  4. 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
M. H.
“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 07700 900461.

— Alex, Example IT Support

When a review breaks the rules · Google

  1. 1Check the review against Google’s “Prohibited and restricted content” policy — e.g. not based on a real experience, a conflict of interest, personal information.
  2. 2Gather the evidence: most often, no matching booking, order or enquiry on your records.
  3. 3Report it: Business Profile → Read reviews → Report, or Google’s Reviews Management Tool. Google says decisions typically take several days.
  4. 4If it’s refused: one appeal through the same tool, with the case ID and the evidence. That decision is final.

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

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

What the report says“The enquiry was answered from an address not on the authorised staff list, with an offer to transact off-channel (evidence attached).” Evidence-led, defamation-safe — and the kind of leak that costs more than a year of SalesWitness.
One customer enquiry receiving two separate replies — one official, one from a personal phone

07 — Evidence excerpt

The call, from the call notes

[Thu 10:05] Auditor → Voicemail: “Hi, Jordan here — we’re a 20-person office and need proper IT support. What would a monthly plan cost? Could someone call me back?”

[Thu 14:25] Personal mobile → “Hi Jordan — I can do a monthly support plan for £1,100/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

Three fixes, under two hours

None of this needs new software or a new hire. In order of revenue impact.

  1. 01

    One rate card, internal

    Scope bands and prices everyone quotes from; discounts need owner sign-off.

    60 minOwner
  2. 02

    A person on every first reply

    Any pricing or “talk to someone” message reaches a named person within 10 minutes.

    30 minOps lead
  3. 03

    Staff or remove the WhatsApp

    Route it to the shared inbox with an auto-reply, or take it off the contact page.

    15 minOps lead

Before → after

Illustrative — what the three fixes typically change within 30 days.

  • Quotes for one brief

    2 prices1 range

    via One rate card, internal

  • Slowest first reply

    4h 20munder 10 min

    via A person on every first reply

  • WhatsApp

    no replyunder 1 h

    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

What slow and missed enquiries cost a business like this

Enquiries a month
35

Typical for an IT support company

Close rate
2 in 10

20% · lost to slow or missed replies: 2 in 10 of those

Lifetime value of one client
£15,000

What one client is worth

Lost a month
£21,000

£252,000 a year

35 enquiries × 20% close rate × 20% lost to slow or missed replies = 1.4 clients lost × £15,000 = £21,000 a month

One recovered sale (£15,000) pays for a whole year of SalesWitness Watch (£990, 2 months free) — 15 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

See yours.

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 →