The approach
Most reports answer with adjectives. Ours answer with evidence.
The rule behind every brief is simple: keep what we saw, what we think, and what we advise separate — and rank hard.
Principles
Seven rules the work follows
Independent and outside-in
We have no platform to renew and no media to sell. The work starts where your systems end — outside the business, where customers decide.
Built for one business
A report that fits every business helps none. Each project is built for your business, your real rivals and your real question.
Evidence before opinion
Every finding comes with its source and date. If we can't back it up, we say so — or leave it out.
Privacy-safe by design
We never track or identify individual customers. We report only in aggregate, analyse for recurring patterns, and identify clusters and segments.
Always compared
A number on its own means little. Every signal is read against the businesses your customers really consider.
Ranked for action
Interesting is not the same as important. A brief ends with a short, ranked list — not forty findings of equal weight.
On your team's side
Your agency, your systems and your staff keep their jobs. We give them one shared outside view to steer by.
Three kinds of sentence
You always know which kind of sentence you are reading
Every line in a brief is one of three things, and each is labelled:
01
What we saw
What the outside record shows, with source and date. You can check it yourself.
“Friendly staff is the top theme in recent customer praise.”
02
What we think it means
Our reading of the evidence for this business, clearly marked as our view.
“Customers are giving the business a service-led position it hasn't claimed.”
03
What we advise
What to act on first, and why it ranks above the rest.
“Claim the proven strength before a rival does.”
The method
Four steps, from scattered signals to a decision you can make
01
Agree the questions
We agree what you want to know, which customers matter, and which businesses you compete with.
02
Read the outside signals
We study what sits outside your systems: customer reviews, where customers also go, when they come, rivals, prices and demand. Nothing to install. Nothing to connect.
03
Sort what matters
Many findings are interesting. Few deserve action. We separate the two — and say which is which.
04
Brief your team
You get a short brief, a ranked action list and a working session — and, where it helps, a private page you can keep coming back to.
A note on method: every brief explains what we examined and how we reached each conclusion. We don't publish our methods or name our data suppliers here. We're happy to walk you through the evidence behind your own questions.
Built around an owner's time
Everything we study sits outside your business, so we need nothing from your systems or your staff to start. Your time goes on the findings and the decisions, not on feeding us data.