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Proof is evidence a customer can inspect or test that bears on a particular claim — a record, a demonstration, a third party or terms — and the kept rate from the business's own records is the proof most owners already hold.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will match each kind of offer claim to evidence a customer could inspect or test, tell proof from a claim said again, and compute the rate at which the business actually kept a promise from its own records.
You can write an offer as a promise a customer could check. A stranger reading it still has to decide whether to believe it before paying. Proof is what helps them decide, and the best of it is usually already sitting in the business's own books.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Proof | Evidence a customer can inspect or test that bears on a particular claim. |
| Record | A count from the business's own books. |
| Demonstration | Something the customer can try or see for themselves. |
| Third party | A named person or business who was there and can be asked. |
| Terms | A written commitment the customer can hold the business to. |
| Kept rate | The share of occasions on which a promise was kept. |
Owners tend to answer every doubt with the same thing — more adjectives. 'We are fast', 'we are reliable', 'customers love us'. A doubtful customer has heard all three from every business in town. What changes their mind is evidence that bears on the particular claim and that they could check:
Evidence about something else does not count, however impressive. Twenty years' experience speaks to skill; it proves nothing about Friday deadlines.
Another way: table
Claims and the proof that fits them.
| Claim | Kind of proof | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ready on Friday | Record | 47 of the last 50 Thursday drop-offs |
| Feels good in the hand | Demonstration | A sample cup at the counter |
| Cafés rely on us | Third party | Two named cafés to ring |
| We fix it if it breaks | Terms | Written replacement within four weeks |
Another way: steps
Most small businesses already hold proof and never count it: the job log, the delivery sheet, the booking book. Counting it turns a claim into a figure. If Neighborhood Kitchen's log shows 188 of the last 200 deliveries on time, the kept rate is 188 ÷ 200 × 100 = 94 percent.
Publishing 94 percent can feel like admitting failure. It is the opposite. 'Always on time' is a sentence every competitor can print and no customer believes; '94 percent of our last 200 deliveries were on time' is specific, admits the misses, and so is believed. It also keeps the business honest with itself: the same count, taken again next month, shows whether the promise is getting easier or harder to keep. The one rule is that the figure must be true and must come from the records: an invented statistic is not proof, and the Federal Trade Commission treats advertising claims a business cannot substantiate as deceptive.
Name the doubted claim. Which promise would a cautious customer hesitate over? Usually the one about timing, reliability or results.
Choose the kind of proof. A frequency needs a record; a feel needs a demonstration; an experience needs a third party; a risk needs terms.
Count the record. Define the occasion (each Thursday drop-off, each delivery), count all of them in a fixed period, and count the kept ones.
Compute the kept rate. Kept over all, times a hundred.
Publish it where the claim is made. Next to the promise, with the period: '94 percent of our last 200 deliveries'.
Check the answer. The kept count can never exceed the total, so a rate above a hundred means the numbers are the wrong way round. The period must be stated and recent. And a third party named on a page must actually have agreed to take calls.
A record works because it covers many occasions, not the best one: a single glowing story could be the exception, while 188 of 200 is the pattern. A demonstration works because the customer's own senses are hard to argue with. A third party works because they have nothing to gain from the sale. Terms work because they move the risk: if the business is willing to remake broken pieces at its own cost, it must expect few to break.
Each works only for its own kind of claim. A sample cup proves the feel, not how many cafés reorder; a reorder count proves loyalty, not the feel.
Online reviews are a kind of third-party proof, and customers read them carefully. Their value depends on being genuine: the FTC's rules on endorsements and reviews treat fake reviews, and reviews written or bought by the business, as deceptive. A short list of real, named customers who agreed to be contacted is worth more than a page of glowing anonymous quotes.
Testimonials also share the weakness of the single story. 'Maya's cups transformed our café!' says one café was pleased. 'Nine of our first ten café customers reordered within a year' says how often that happens.
Counting the record sometimes shows the promise is not being kept: 31 of 50 Friday deadlines met is 62 percent, not a figure to publish next to 'ready Friday'. That is still useful. Either the promise needs a tighter boundary (drop-off by Wednesday), or the work needs changing until the rate improves. Publishing a false figure is not one of the options; quietly dropping the unkept promise is.
A kept rate needs a record of every occasion, kept as the work happens. For a delivery promise, that is the time each order left and arrived; for a repair promise, the drop-off day and the ready day; for an inspection promise, the result of each inspection. A column in an existing log is usually enough, as long as it is filled in every time and not only when things go well.
Decide the period in advance and stick to it: the last 200 deliveries, the last quarter, the last year. Choosing the period after looking at the results, so that a bad month falls just outside it, makes the figure misleading even if every number in it is true.
A new business has few occasions to count, and a kept rate of 9 out of 10 is fragile: one more miss makes it 82 percent. Until the record grows, lean on the other kinds of proof. A demonstration, such as a sample cup or a free first estimate, works from day one. Terms, such as a free re-clean, cost little when the work is good. A third party can be the first two or three customers, asked after a job well done whether they would take a call.
As the business grows, the record takes over, because it covers many customers rather than a chosen few, and that is what doubtful buyers trust most.
Proof works only where the doubt arises. A customer weighing a Friday-ready promise doubts it at the moment of booking, so the kept rate belongs next to the booking button, not on an 'about us' page three clicks away. A café owner doubting durability doubts it while holding the price list, so the wash-test record belongs on the price list. A tenant worried about the inspection doubts it when choosing between cleaners, so the property manager's name belongs in the first reply to her inquiry.
Keep each piece of proof short: a figure, a period and a source. '92 percent of our last 50 Thursday drop-offs were ready Friday (from our job log)' is one line and does more work than a paragraph of reassurance. Update it on a fixed schedule, monthly or quarterly, so the figure a customer reads is always recent and always from the same kind of count.
Good proof does more than win a sale; it supports a price. A customer who believes the Friday promise because 92 percent of drop-offs were ready on time can weigh that reliability against a cheaper shop that offers no record at all. Without proof, the only thing a customer can compare is the price, and the business competes on price alone. With proof, it competes on a promise kept, which is usually worth paying for when the job has a deadline.
A two-truck moving company in Cleveland competed with larger firms that all advertised 'careful, on-time movers'. The owner went through two years of job sheets: 412 moves, 397 started within the promised two-hour window, and 9 involved a damage claim, all paid within two weeks.
He replaced 'careful, on-time movers' on his website with three lines: '96 percent of our last 412 moves started on time', '9 damage claims in two years, every one paid within 14 days', and the names of two property managers who had agreed to take calls. The first two are records, worked out as 397 ÷ 412 and a straight count; the third is a third party.
Inquiries that turned into bookings rose from about one in five to one in three over the next season. Customers told him on the phone that the figures were the reason they called: nobody else had said how often they were late, and the admitted misses made the rest believable.
The Federal Trade Commission requires that advertisers have a reasonable basis for objective claims before making them, and its rules on reviews and endorsements prohibit fake or bought reviews. A kept rate counted from the business's own records is exactly the kind of substantiation those rules expect, which is one more reason to keep the records and count them honestly.
Repeating the claim makes it proof. 'We are the fastest' said three times is one unproven claim.
Any impressive fact will do. Proof must bear on the claim being doubted.
Admitting misses weakens the case. A kept rate below one hundred percent is more believable than 'always'.
Proof is what the owner finds convincing. It is what the doubtful customer could check.
Name the claim.
$\text{a clean to property-manager inspection standard}$
An outcome that happens many times: a record fits.
Count last year's move-out cleans.
$120$
From the booking book.
Count those needing a re-clean after inspection.
$6$
The misses, from the same book.
Find the kept rate.
$114 \div 120 \times 100 = 95$
Passed first time.
Add a third party.
$\text{the Mill Lane property manager: ask them}$
A record and a third party, each checkable.
Count the Thursday drop-offs.
$50$
The last fifty.
Count those ready on Friday.
$46$
From the job log.
Find the Friday rate.
$46 \div 50 \times 100 = 92$
Proof of the speed claim.
Count first-time fixes in the last 25 repairs.
$22$
No return visit.
Find the first-time rate.
$22 \div 25 \times 100 = 88$
Proof of the quality claim.
Publish each beside its claim.
$\text{92 percent ready Friday; 88 percent fixed first time}$
Each figure proves one claim and nothing else.
Count March's deliveries and on-time ones.
$42 \text{ of } 50$
From the delivery sheet.
Find March's rate.
$42 \div 50 \times 100 = 84$
Not good enough to publish next to 'by 12:15'.
Change the work.
$\text{leave 15 minutes earlier for far offices}$
Fix the process before advertising.
Count April's on-time deliveries.
$47 \text{ of } 50$
The same log.
Find April's rate.
$47 \div 50 \times 100 = 94$
The promise is now being kept.
Find the change.
$94 - 84 = 10$
Ten percentage points better.
Decide what to publish.
$\text{94 percent of April's deliveries by 12:15}$
True, recent and from the records.
Name the kind of claim.
$\text{where and when the produce came from}$
A claim about origin.
Choose proof a shopper could check.
$\text{the farm's name and collection time on a board}$
A third party and a record.
Say why it beats 'really fresh'.
Match each of Maya's claims to the proof that would support it.
| A test record of $810$ wash cycles with photos | A sample cup to hold | Two named cafés happy to take a call | Written terms: broken pieces remade in the same glaze within four weeks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Survives commercial dishwashers | ||||
| You'll love how it feels in the hand | ||||
| Cafés rely on us | ||||
| Replacements match your set |
Complete the worked solution: Neighborhood Kitchen delivered $50$ lunches in March, $44$ of them by 12:15, and $50$ in April, $46$ of them by 12:15. Find each month's kept rate and the change between them.
Find March's kept rate.
$(\text{on time}) \div 50 \times \text{a hundred} =$ m
The promise kept, as a share.
Find April's kept rate.
$(\text{on time}) \div 50 \times \text{a hundred} =$ n
The same count a month later.
Find the change in percentage points.
$(\text{April}) - (\text{March}) =$ d
Whether the promise is getting easier to keep.
Say what the business can publish.
$\text{April's rate, from the log}$
A true figure from the records, misses admitted.
Northside Repairs claims 'bikes dropped off by Thursday noon are ready on Friday evening'. Which of these is proof of the claim?
Bright Home Cleaning's page about its move-out clean. Mark every sentence a customer could check.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
Neighborhood Kitchen promises delivery by 12:15. Its log shows $183$ of the last $200$ deliveries arrived on time. What percentage of deliveries kept the promise?
Answer:
A plumber in Milwaukee claims 'most jobs fixed on the first visit'. His job book shows $19$ of his last $25$ jobs needed no return visit. What percentage of jobs were fixed on the first visit?
Answer:
A bookkeeper claims 'your records filed accurately, first time'. Which proof would most help a doubtful new client?
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
Northside Repairs checks two claims against its records. Of the last $50$ Thursday drop-offs, $49$ were ready on Friday. Of the last $25$ repairs, $19$ were fixed first time with no return visit. Fill in the kept rate for each claim, as a percentage.
| Kept | Kept rate, percent | |
|---|---|---|
| Ready on Friday | 49 of 50 | |
| Fixed first time | 19 of 25 |
You can pair a claim with proof that fits it and count the kept rate from the records. Tell someone why '94 percent on time' is more believable than 'always on time'. Next: the limits an honest offer has to disclose.
20. Your turn: Monica's 'picked this morning' sign, step 3
$\text{a shopper could ask the farm}$
Checkable, not just warm words.