Reviews & references
How to check whether we are any good
This page contains no testimonials and no star rating. Here is why, what we will give you instead, and how to evaluate any agency you are considering — including the ones that do have a wall of five-star quotes.
Straight answer
SBPO Consulting reviews: why this page looks different
Most agency review pages are a grid of headshots next to sentences like "they were a pleasure to work with". You cannot verify any of it. The agency chose which quotes to publish, edited them, and approved them. As evidence about whether they can solve your problem, it is worth approximately nothing — and everyone involved knows it.
Google has reached the same conclusion in the specific case of star ratings. Its review snippet documentation states that where the entity being reviewed controls the reviews about itself, pages using Organization structured data are ineligible for the star review feature. In other words, self-published ratings do not appear as stars in search results no matter how genuine they are. So there is no upside to publishing them and a real cost in credibility.
What is actually useful to you is: a real client on a real phone call, an independent platform that verifies reviewers, and a method for evaluating any supplier that does not depend on trusting their marketing. This page is those three things.
Independent platforms
Where SBPO Consulting reviews can be checked
We do not have public review profiles live yet. That is the honest position, and we would rather state it than manufacture the appearance of a track record.
When profiles on independently verified platforms go live, they will be linked from this page and nowhere else — so that you can always tell a genuine profile of ours from one belonging to a similarly named business. In the meantime, the reference route below is the real thing, not a consolation prize: a conversation with a client is better evidence than any profile.
Due diligence
Eight questions worth asking any agency
Including us. Several of these are uncomfortable to answer, which is exactly why they are useful — the answers separate suppliers far more reliably than a portfolio does.
-
Ask to speak to a client directly, not to read a quote
A testimonial on an agency website has been chosen, edited and approved by the agency. A fifteen-minute call with a current client has not. Any agency that will not connect you with one — with that client's permission — is telling you something.
-
Ask what went wrong on the last project and what changed as a result
Every agency has had a project go badly. The ones worth hiring can describe one specifically, name their own contribution to it, and point at a process that changed afterwards. A blank look here is the single most useful red flag available to you.
-
Ask who is actually doing the work
Find out whether the people in the pitch are the people on the project, whether any of it is subcontracted, and to whom. Ask for the names and the seniority mix. This is the most common gap between what is sold and what is delivered.
-
Ask for a scope document from a previous engagement
Redacted is fine. You are looking for whether exclusions are stated as clearly as inclusions, whether assumptions are written down, and whether change control exists. A one-page scope on a six-figure project is a warning.
-
Ask what you own at the end, in writing
Source code, design files, domain, hosting accounts, analytics properties, ad accounts. Ask specifically whether ad accounts and analytics are created under your organisation or the agency's — accounts held hostage after a relationship ends is one of the most common disputes in this industry.
-
Ask how they will measure whether it worked
Agree the measure before the work starts, and make sure it is a business measure rather than an activity measure. "Twelve blog posts published" is an activity. "Qualified enquiries from organic search" is an outcome. If the proposal only contains the former, the agency has decided in advance what success will be allowed to mean.
-
Check the things that are hard to fake
Run their own site through Lighthouse and an accessibility checker. Look at whether their case studies name a method or only an outcome. Look at whether their writing teaches you anything. None of this is conclusive, but all of it is evidence that was not curated for you.
-
Treat star ratings as the weakest evidence available
Self-published ratings on an agency's own website are unverifiable by construction, which is why Google does not show them as stars in search results. Ratings on independent platforms are better, but read the text of the reviews rather than the number — a specific three-star review tells you far more than a generic five.
Our side
What we commit to in writing
- A written scope before any work starts, stating exclusions as clearly as inclusions.
- Full ownership of everything produced transfers to you at handover.
- Analytics and advertising accounts are created under your organisation, not ours.
- A named escalation contact, in the scope document, from day one.
- No non-disparagement clause. You are free to say publicly how the work went.
- A reply to any enquiry within one working day, from someone who does the work.
If any of those is not in the document you are sent, that is our mistake and you should say so before signing.
Questions
About references and reviews
Does SBPO Consulting have public reviews?
Not yet on public platforms. Rather than fill this page with quotes you have no way to verify, we would rather say that plainly and offer you something better: ask us for a reference and we will connect you with a client directly, with their permission. As independent profiles go live, they will be linked from this page.
Why are there no testimonials or star ratings on this page?
Because they would not be evidence. Testimonials on a company's own site are selected and approved by that company, and self-hosted star ratings are so unreliable that Google's own documentation states pages where the reviewed entity controls its own reviews are ineligible for star treatment in search results. Publishing them would gain us nothing and would ask you to trust something unverifiable. References and independent profiles are the honest versions of the same thing.
Will you give me a reference before I commit to anything?
Yes, once a conversation has gone far enough that it is a reasonable request — we ask clients before passing their details on, and we are not going to spend that goodwill on a first email. Ask when you are seriously evaluating us and we will arrange it. We will try to match you to a client with a comparable problem rather than the happiest one.
How do I check that a review platform profile is genuinely yours?
Follow the link from this page rather than searching for the name, and check that the profile links back to sbpoconsulting.com. Several unrelated businesses trade under similar names, so a profile found by name search alone may not be us. If a profile is not linked from this page, treat it as unverified.
What if a project with you goes badly?
Then we would rather you tell us than tell the internet, and the scope document names an escalation contact so you have somewhere to go. Beyond that: our contracts do not contain non-disparagement clauses, and we do not ask clients to agree not to publish criticism. An agency that requires silence as a condition of working together has already told you what it expects to happen.
References
Ask us for a reference.
If you are seriously evaluating us, ask and we will connect you with a client who had a comparable problem. Not the happiest one — the most relevant one.