Anyone can write "fast, friendly service". This one is measured.
A shop earns a badge by answering a real customer enquiry it did not know was measured. The badge is issued on that measurement, checked again every quarter, and withdrawn when the answers stop.
How a shop gets one
- The enquiry arrives first. Every business in the trade with a published email address receives the same customer question, on a weekday morning, from an ordinary customer. Nothing is sold and nothing is offered.
- The reply is measured from the minute the enquiry was sent to that address: how long it took, whether it carried a price, whether it said when the work could be done.
- The badge follows the measurement. It cannot be bought without one, and payment never changes what the measurement says.
The three badges
Prices are in Canadian dollars. A second and every further location of the same business is 40 percent less. A shop holding the $690 badge may display the two below it.
What the fee covers
| Licence to display the badge | on the site, in the window, in email and print, for 12 months |
| A verification page | the badge links to the shop's own line: date, reply time, what was quoted |
| Re-measurement every quarter | a new enquiry, sent the same way, from an address the shop has not seen |
| Withdrawal when it stops being true | 2 missed quarters and the badge comes down |
The withdrawal rule is the reason the badge is worth paying for. A mark that is never taken away means nothing, and a customer learns that within a year.
What it does not buy
It does not buy a place in the index. Every shop measured appears there, badge or no badge, and the line reads what the measurement found. It does not buy removal of a line, a better reply time, or silence about a slow one.
Getting yours
Write to [email protected] with the name of your shop. If a measurement already exists, the answer says which badge it earned and carries the invoice. If it does not, an enquiry goes out on the next weekday morning, and the answer follows the reply.