The Recommendation Integrity Audit: What to Verify Before Referring a Reader
A due-diligence system for checking product facts, merchant operations, audience fit, evidence quality, and commercial incentives before recommending anything.
Pillar 12
Trust & Customer Experience
Connect onboarding, support, refunds, disclosure, case-study standards, and long-term audience relationships.
Published guidance
25 reviewed field notes
Disclosure Makes a Relationship Visible; It Does Not Create Editorial Independence
Understand how funding, access, evidence, ranking, drafting, approval, disclosure, correction, and reader interests shape affiliate editorial independence.
Build an Affiliate Workflow That Keeps Commission Out of the Verdict
Create a controlled path for topic origin, candidate set, evidence rules, access labels, conflict data, scoring, disclosure, approval, and correction.
Seven Signals Commercial Influence Has Reached the Editorial Verdict
Diagnose payout-shaped candidates, shifting criteria, merchant copy, asymmetric criticism, hidden paid placement, remote disclosure, and delayed correction.
Article, Comparison, Email, or Social Post: Where Should Disclosure Live?
Compare four formats by disclosure timing, proximity, repetition, truncation, visual hierarchy, relationship clarity, accessibility, reuse, and correction.
Onboarding Is Where the Sales Promise Meets Operational Reality
Understand how confirmation, delivery, prerequisites, effort, timing, progress, support, accessibility, recovery, consent, and feedback shape onboarding.
Build a First-Use Path That Answers What Happens Next
Map the promise, success state, transaction record, prerequisites, task order, time ranges, progress, help, recovery, feedback, privacy, and change triggers.
Seven Signs Onboarding Has Broken the Original Promise
Diagnose ambiguous confirmation, surprise prerequisites, false progress, hidden help, inaccessible recovery, promise conflict, and stalled feedback.
Self-Serve, Guided, Cohort, or Concierge Onboarding?
Compare four onboarding models by complexity, risk, variability, volume, timing, accessibility, support capacity, handoff, recovery, and total burden.
A 17-Point Audit Before a New Customer Starts
Audit promise, state, record, next action, prerequisites, order, timing, progress, support, accessibility, privacy, recovery, ownership, and feedback.
Customer Support Is a Resolution System, Not an Inbox
Understand how intake, severity, ownership, status, channel fit, accessibility, handoff, escalation, resolution, and service learning create reliable support.
Build a Support Path from First Contact to Owned Resolution
Design a case path for intake, consent, category, severity, channel, owner, target, status, handoff, escalation, resolution, appeal, and learning.
Seven Signs Support Has Become a Customer Trap
Diagnose blocked intake, repeated context, channel mismatch, ownerless handoffs, empty status, circular escalation, premature closure, and stalled repair.
Self-Service, Messaging, Phone, or Specialist Escalation?
Compare four support routes by urgency, complexity, evidence, privacy, accessibility, dialogue, authority, continuity, staffing, recovery, and failure cost.
A 17-Point Audit for Customer Support and Escalation
Audit entry, reference, data, category, severity, channel, owner, target, status, handoff, escalation, accessibility, resolution, appeal, and learning.
Cancellation and Refund Design Are Part of the Product
Understand how policy, eligibility, timing, status, records, payment, access, return, exceptions, escalation, and correction shape post-purchase trust.
Build a Cancellation and Refund Path Customers Can Verify
Map policy, jurisdiction, request, identity, eligibility, service stop, return, refund amount, payment status, records, exceptions, appeal, and learning.
Seven Signs the Exit Process Is Working Against the Customer
Diagnose hidden entry, channel asymmetry, repeated retention, unclear states, moving eligibility, refund silence, inaccessible recovery, and premature closure.
Cancel, Pause, Refund, Replace, or Repair?
Compare five resolutions by customer goal, service state, eligibility, timing, cost, continuity, data, evidence, reversibility, effort, and correction risk.
A 17-Point Audit for Cancellations, Refunds, and Recovery
Audit policy, request access, identity, eligibility, service stop, return, calculation, payment, records, accessibility, exceptions, appeal, and learning.
A Case Study Is Edited Evidence, Not a Neutral History
See how purpose, selection, consent, baseline, intervention, outcomes, attribution, editing, relationships, privacy, and correction shape credible cases.
Build a Case Study from Consent to Correction
Create a workflow for selection, permission, privacy, baseline, intervention, evidence, attribution, editing, disclosure, follow-up, and correction.
Seven Signs a Success Story Is Manufacturing Certainty
Diagnose proof-seeking, selected winners, missing baselines, blended causes, weak outcomes, causal leaps, hidden relationships, and frozen correction.
Interview, Survey, Support Signals, or Longitudinal Follow-Up?
Compare four feedback methods by decision level, depth, population, timing, burden, selection, privacy, aggregation, interpretation, action, and continuity.
A 17-Point Audit for Case Studies and Customer Feedback
Audit selection, permission, privacy, baseline, intervention, evidence, outcomes, attribution, edits, relationships, disclosure, follow-up, and correction.