Sample report · Conveyancing firm

Demo business — real audit patterns, anonymised

Buyers on a deadline are left waiting a day at a time.

A full demonstration report. The business is fictional; every pattern in it is one we have measured in real audits.

The online quote is instant and accurate and the fee earners are reassuring on the phone. But the callback took a day, the email quote didn’t match the firm’s own fee table, WhatsApp went unanswered — and ID documents were requested to a personal email address.

Business
Example Conveyancing Solicitors (demo)
Market
Greater Manchester, UK
Audit period
Aug – Sep 2026
Channels shopped
5 of 5 · 7 days each
Revenue at risk

Revenue at risk on three of five channels

WhatsApp never replied, the email quote was £255 over the published fee band, and a fee earner asked for ID by personal email.

  • Enquiry form · 70/100
  • Email enquiry · 52/100
  • Live chat · 49/100
  • WhatsApp · 0/100 · Not scored — no reply in 7 days
  • Phone call · 63/100
Slowest first reply
1d 1h

Phone enquiry went to voicemail after a 6-minute hold; callback the next day.

Biggest price gap
£255

£1,250 + VAT quoted by email vs. £995 + VAT on the firm’s fee table.

Red flags found
1

Passport and bank statements requested to a personal Gmail address.

What you're looking at

A demonstration report for a fictional conveyancing firm, 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 formInstant quote; human 3h 10m✓ £995 + VAT · matches your website2 in 7 daysFormal · 7470/ 100
Email enquiry5h 48m — Wed 15:02✗ £1,250 + VAT quoted · £995 + VAT according to your website0 in 7 daysFormal · 7052/ 100
Live chat2 min — outsourced receptionTook details; promised callback never came0 in 7 daysPolite · 7849/ 100
WhatsAppNo reply in 7 days— nothing to compare0 in 7 days—0/ 100

Not scored — no reply in 7 days

Phone callRed flagID requested to a personal email addressHold 6 min, voicemail; callback 1d 1h✓ £995 + VAT + searches · matches your website1 in 7 daysReassuring · 9063/ 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 time38/100
weakest: phone call

The online quote is instant, but a human took 3h 10m on the form and 5h 48m on email. The phone held us for 6 minutes, went to voicemail, and was returned 1 day 1 hour later.

Answered at all80/100
weakest: WhatsApp

Four of five channels replied. The “Chat on WhatsApp” button on every page went to a number that never answered in seven days.

Price accuracy vs listed price62/100
weakest: email enquiry

The website fee table lists £995 + VAT for a freehold purchase between £250,000 and £300,000. The form and phone quotes matched it. The email quoted £1,250 + VAT for the same purchase — £255 above the firm’s own published band.

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

Personalisation58/100
weakest: email enquiry

The phone fee earner used our name and the lender. The email reply was a standard fee letter with another client’s property type left in.

Qualification questions69/100
weakest: live chat

Tenure, lender, chain and target completion date were asked on the phone. Chat took a name and number only.

Follow-up cadence44/100
weakest: live chat

The form sequence sent two reminders. Chat promised a callback within the hour that never came; email and WhatsApp were never followed up.

Close attempt / next step47/100
weakest: email enquiry

The phone call sent an instruction link the same day. The email ended “please let us know if you wish to instruct”.

Tone & professionalism88/100

Clear, calm and professional; the phone fee earner explained searches without jargon.

Red-flag screen55/100
weakest: phone call

One flag raised — see below.

03 — Red flags, in plain English

What the shopper found first

Red flag

ID documents requested to a personal email

On the callback, the fee earner asked us to email a passport and three months of bank statements to a personal Gmail address “because the portal is slow”. That puts client identity documents outside the firm’s systems. We report what the evidence shows; we make no claim about intent.

Evidence: Call recording and the address are attached in the full report.

Fix → Documents only through the secure client portal; remind every fee earner in writing this week.

Price mismatch

The email quote beat the fee table — upwards

The same purchase was quoted £995 + VAT online and on the phone, and £1,250 + VAT by email. A buyer comparing three firms drops the one that looks £255 dearer.

Fix → Email templates pull the website fee band; nobody types a fee by hand.

Missed revenue

A WhatsApp button nobody answers

Every page invites buyers to “Chat on WhatsApp”. Our message sat unread for seven days.

Fix → Staff the number in office hours with an auto-reply after hours, or take the button down.

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 Tom asked · Email enquiry · Wed 09:14
“Hi, offer accepted on a freehold house at £285,000, first-time buyer, mortgage with a high-street lender. Could you quote for the conveyancing?”
Reply A — what the business sent45/100

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

Conveyancing team, shared inbox 5h 48m after the enquiry

Dear Mr T____, thank you for your enquiry. Our legal fee for your leasehold purchase would be £1,250 + VAT plus disbursements. Please let us know if you wish to instruct.
Speed
45
Answered
100
Price
30
Personal
25
Questions
10
Follow-up
10
Next step
30
Tone
70
Red flags
100
Reply B — the reply that wins the job94/100

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

Conveyancer, his own firm address 20 min after the enquiry

Dear Tom, Congratulations on the offer. Here is everything you need to decide. Our fee: for a freehold purchase at £285,000 with a mortgage, our fixed legal fee is £995 + VAT — the price on our website. Searches and Land Registry fees are extra, and itemised in the attached quote so nothing is a surprise. Timing: we order your searches the day you instruct, and you’ll hear from your case handler every week until completion. One question: which lender is it? We’ll confirm we’re on their panel before you instruct. I’ve attached your itemised quote and our first-time buyer’s guide (PDF). Can I call you Thursday between 5 and 7 pm to take your instruction? It takes about 15 minutes. 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.

Itemised quote and first-time buyer’s guide (PDF)

Daniel Reid
Conveyancer, Example Conveyancing Solicitors
Direct line: 0161 496 0213

Speed
85
Answered
100
Price
100
Personal
95
Questions
90
Follow-up
90
Next step
100
Tone
95
Red flags
100

The difference · 49 points

Same enquiry, same business, same facts.

  • Answered in 20 minutes, not 5h 48m.
  • Quotes £995 + VAT, the firm’s own published fee, instead of £1,250 + VAT.
  • Gets the tenure right — freehold, as Tom said — instead of “leasehold”.
  • Itemises the extras so the fee isn’t a surprise later.
  • Says what happens next and how often he’ll hear from them.
  • Asks the one question that matters now: which lender.
  • Offers a specific call — Thursday, 5–7 pm — to take the instruction.
  • A named conveyancer 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
4.4

167 reviews on Google

Negative reviews
9

1–3★ in the last 90 days

Negatives unanswered
6 of 9

No owner reply on the profile

Oldest unanswered
112 days

Still waiting for an owner reply

What it means Five of the six unanswered reviews say “no updates” — the same follow-up gap the shop found.

On SalesWitness Watch, the next one never waits 112 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, Facebook, Clutch, Yell, Houzz, Sortlist, Sitejabber 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 6 unanswered reviews above, as the alert would arrive

Review alert · Google

Sent within hours
A. P.
“Instructed them for our purchase and had to chase for every single update.”

Policy check: a genuine customer experience — not removable. Reply publicly, and fix the cause.

Drafted replyReview before use

Hi A., thank you for telling us, and I’m sorry you felt you had to chase for updates. That isn’t the service we aim to give. I’d like to understand what happened on your file — please call me directly on 0161 496 0213.

— Daniel, Example Conveyancing Solicitors

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 email thread

[Wed 09:14] Auditor → Hi, offer accepted on a freehold house at £285,000, first-time buyer, mortgage with a high-street lender. Could you quote for the conveyancing?

[Wed 15:02] Firm → Dear Mr T____, thank you for your enquiry. Our legal fee for your leasehold purchase would be £1,250 + VAT plus disbursements. Please let us know if you wish to instruct.

[— no further contact by email during the 7-day window —]

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

    Quote from the fee table, every time

    Email fee letters pull the published band automatically; check the property type before sending.

    30 minPractice manager
  2. 02

    Documents only through the portal

    Written reminder to all fee earners: client ID never goes to personal email, whatever the reason.

    20 minCompliance lead
  3. 03

    Staff or retire the WhatsApp button

    Office-hours cover plus an after-hours auto-reply, or remove the button from the site.

    15 minMarketing

Before → after

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

  • Callback time

    1d 1hunder 2 h

    via Staff or retire the WhatsApp button

  • Email quotes on the fee table

    0 of 1every quote

    via Quote from the fee table, every time

  • ID outside the portal

    1 request0

    via Documents only through the portal

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.

Your report looks like this — with your channels, your prices, your evidence

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