Before & After
Transformation, not features. The shape of the change.
When we engage with a UK SME, the change tends to look the same shape across four dimensions: website speed, workflow, SEO visibility, and owner-time spent on admin. This page is the visual shorthand for that change. The four detailed case studies linked at the bottom show real engagements; the comparisons on this page are illustrative shorthand for those patterns.
1. Website speed: slow vs optimised
Typical pre-optimisation site
- INP: 420 ms (poor)
- CLS: 0.31 (poor)
- Lighthouse Performance: 38
- JS bundle: 1.4 MB unused-heavy
- Mobile bounce rate: ~62%
After speed-optimisation engagement
- INP: 180 ms (good)
- CLS: 0.05 (good)
- Lighthouse Performance: 92
- JS bundle: 380 KB, code-split + lazy
- Mobile bounce rate: ~38% (40% better)
Same content, same hosting (often). Difference is image format (WebP/AVIF), critical CSS inlining, third-party script deferral, JS bundle splitting, and CDN tuning. Typical engagement: 1–3 weeks, fixed-price £650–£6,500 depending on site complexity. See our speed optimisation service.
2. Workflow: manual vs automated
This is the single biggest unlock for most SMEs we work with. The diagrams below are a generalised quote-to-cash flow; the specific shape varies per business (booking flows, recurring-service flows, B2B sales flows all map to the same pattern).
Before
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ MANUAL QUOTE-TO-CASH (typical SME today) │ │ │ │ Enquiry comes in │ │ ↓ (24-48 hours) │ │ Owner remembers, drafts quote in Word │ │ ↓ (2-5 days) │ │ Sends as PDF email attachment │ │ ↓ (1-3 days) │ │ Customer reads, may or may not respond │ │ ↓ (1-2 weeks) │ │ Owner chases, eventually books job │ │ ↓ (work done) │ │ Owner manually drafts invoice in Excel │ │ ↓ (Net-30 terms) │ │ Owner manually chases late payments │ │ ↓ │ │ Owner forgets to ask for a review │ │ │ │ Total cycle: 5-8 weeks. ~5 hrs/week admin. │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
After
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ AUTOMATED QUOTE-TO-CASH │ │ │ │ Enquiry hits system │ │ ↓ (within seconds) │ │ AI scores + enriches, triggers first response │ │ ↓ (15-30 min on mobile) │ │ Owner finalises quote on phone, send via SMS link │ │ ↓ (customer accepts in one tap) │ │ Auto-converts to scheduled job in calendar │ │ ↓ (work done; "complete" tapped on phone) │ │ Invoice auto-drafted, sent within 2 minutes │ │ ↓ (Stripe / GoCardless link) │ │ Payment auto-chased; reminders every 7 days │ │ ↓ (48h after paid) │ │ Review request fires automatically — SMS + email │ │ │ │ Total cycle: 1-2 weeks. ~30 min/week admin. │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Real engagement walkthrough: Invoice Automation case study. Service page: Local Business Automation UK.
3. Local SEO: pre vs post 6-month engagement
| Metric | Before | After 6 months |
|---|---|---|
| Indexed pages | 22 | 148 (programmatic + content) |
| Google Business Profile completeness | ~40% | 100% + weekly posts |
| Google reviews | 3 reviews, 4.0 avg | 34 reviews, 4.7 avg |
| Local citations (NAP) | 2 inconsistent listings | 10+ consistent listings |
| Schema markup coverage | None | LocalBusiness + Service + FAQ + Breadcrumb |
| Map Pack appearances (target keywords) | 2 of 12 | 10 of 12 (top 3 on 7) |
| Monthly organic traffic | ~180 sessions | ~1,400 sessions (illustrative) |
Illustrative pattern from a typical 6-month engagement. Specific results vary by industry, competition, and starting baseline. Real engagement: SEO Automation Suite case study. Tool: audit your own local SEO.
4. Owner time: admin vs strategic
Where the owner's week goes
- 5 hrs / week: drafting and sending quotes
- 3 hrs / week: chasing invoices
- 2 hrs / week: scheduling jobs
- 2 hrs / week: customer status updates
- 1 hr / week: asking for / chasing reviews
- 1 hr / week: reporting / pulling numbers
on repetitive admin
What the owner does instead
- 30 min / week: review automated quotes (mobile)
- 15 min / week: exception-handling on payments
- 15 min / week: light scheduling overrides
- 0 hrs: customer status updates (automated)
- 0 hrs: review requests (automated)
- 30 min / week: review the dashboard
~12 hrs / week reclaimed for selling, customer relationships, strategy
Use our ROI calculator to put real numbers behind this for your own situation.
5. AI customer support: deflection rate
| Metric | Before (humans only) | After (AI + escalation) |
|---|---|---|
| First-touch coverage | 9am-5pm Mon-Fri | 24 / 7 / 365 |
| Tickets resolved by bot alone | n/a | 50–70% (FAQ-class) |
| Median first-response time | 2 hrs (business hours) | < 5 seconds (24/7) |
| Hallucination / wrong-answer rate | n/a | < 3% (RAG-grounded + confidence-routed) |
| Human escalations with full context | Manual ticket triage | Auto with summary + history attached |
Real engagement: AI Chatbot Cambridge case study. Service page: AI Chatbot Developer Cambridgeshire.
Real engagements (named outcomes)
The four case studies below are real engagements walked through end-to-end — the only place on this site where you'll find specific named numbers.
What we can't (yet) show
For transparency — the things we don't put on this page:
- Fabricated client testimonials with stock-photo faces. See /credentials for our honesty stance.
- Video walkthroughs of real client systems — these are under NDA. Sanitised demo repos coming on GitHub (see /credentials).
- Vanity metrics like "we've helped 500+ businesses" without naming them.
Pick the package that fits
A 30-minute call confirms which packaged offer fits your situation, and what the realistic timeline and ROI look like.