See what your customers see. Fix what's costing you sales — from $3,500.
We help businesses and business owners up their game. Flat-fee undercover audits for West Island retail shops, restaurants, clinics, salons, and community organizations. Two to four in-person visits, competitor comparison, a Bill 96 / OQLF review, and a written plan you use right away. No retainer. No hourly creep. No surprises on your invoice.
Four things you get every time — the details scale with the tier you choose.
2–4 undercover visits
We shop and experience your place the way a first-time customer would. Two visits in The Brief, three in The Mission, four over three months in The Accelerator.
2–3 competitor scans
Remote scans in The Brief. One in-person in The Mission. Two in-person in The Accelerator. Benchmarked against your actual neighbours.
A plan you can use right away
A marketing brief in The Brief. A six-month plan in The Mission. A full rebuild with templates, signage specs, and launch plan in The Accelerator.
Bill 96 review, every tier
A language review in The Brief. A compliance review in The Mission. A full OQLF compliance guide and project plan in The Accelerator.
An audit, a 6-month plan, or a full rebuild.
Three fixed-scope engagements, priced flat. You know what you're getting before you sign. You know when we're done. No retainer, no hourly creep.
An outside-eye audit. Find out exactly where you stand and know what to fix first.
- Two in-person undercover visits to your location
- Review and comprehensive recommendations for your online presence
- Two competitor scans (remote)
- Bill 96 / OQLF language review
- A written marketing brief with clear priorities
- One 90-minute working meeting to walk through it
Strategy, competitor benchmarks, and a 6-month marketing plan you can run yourself.
- Three in-person undercover visits to your location
- Two competitor scans (one in-person visit, one online)
- Bill 96 / OQLF compliance review with recommendations
- Brand and customer-experience strategy report
- Marketing plan for six (6) months with actionable steps
- Two working sessions and a 30-day check-in
A full marketing rebuild in 3 months. Templates, signage specs, and a launch plan included.
- Four in-person undercover visits over three months
- Three competitor scans (two in-person visits and online)
- Marketing plan for six (6) months with four template graphics for ads and social
- Customer service materials and session based on the undercover visits
- Full Bill 96 / OQLF compliance guide and project plan
- Signage and print collateral specifications
- Launch plan and 90 days of light-touch support
For the kind of business where the owner still opens the door — and fixes the POS at 4pm.
Most of our West Island clients are shops, restaurants, organizations, clinics, salons, studios, and community spaces. Small teams. Owner-operators. Places where the person who unlocks the front door in the morning is also the one fighting with the POS during the evening rush.
Here's what an undercover visit actually looks like:
- 1We walk in cold. No appointment, no heads-up. We time how long until we're greeted.
- 2We make a real purchase, book a real service, or ask a real question — whatever fits your business.
- 3We photograph your signage, storefront, menus, and interior, and check them against current OQLF rules.
- 4We pull your Google, Yelp, and Facebook presence and match the online story against the in-store one.
- 5We do the same for up to three competitors, with two in-person visits on the highest tier.
Then we write it up. Plain English. Clear priorities at the front, so your Monday morning is already planned.
“Undercover inspectors will be doing French-language checks in thousands of Quebec stores”
Since Loi 96 passed in 2022, every Québec business with a storefront, menu, price list, window sticker, or customer-facing sign is in range of the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF). Fines start at $3,000 and climb to $30,000 per infraction, doubled for repeat offences.
For storefront businesses, the exposure is physical. Your sign over the door. The sandwich board on the sidewalk. The menu clipped to the window. The closed-on-Mondays sticker. The "50% off" banner in July. The 2:1 French predominance rule applies to all of it, and the OQLF is actively inspecting West Island businesses where many owners are used to operating mostly in English.
This simple investment could spare you a huge fine or a public relations headache. Each tier includes a Bill 96 / OQLF review. Depth scales with the engagement:
- The BriefLanguage review of your signage and customer-facing materials
- The MissionFull compliance review with prioritized recommendations
- The AcceleratorFull compliance guide and project plan, with signage and print collateral specs
We are not lawyers and do not pretend to be. Where legal sign-off matters, we refer you to trusted legal counsel.
From first call to audit in 2 weeks. No deck required.
Book a 20-min call
Twenty minutes. Free. No discovery deck, no sales process. We figure out if we're a fit, both sides.
Sign one page
One-page agreement. Half paid up front, half on delivery. No lawyers required, though you're welcome to bring one.
We go undercover
We visit your place the way a customer would. Then we report. Then (if you picked a bigger tier) we build alongside you.
Senior people. Fixed prices. We're neighbours, not vendors.
The offers are the point. But if you're curious who you'd be working with, here's the short version.
Senior people, start to finish
No junior account managers. No handoffs. The people who sold you the work are the people doing the work.
Based in the West Island
We shop at Pointe-Claire Village on Saturdays, eat from spots on Boulevard Saint-Jean and Sources during the week, and know which corners are quietly getting rebuilt. Neighbours, not vendors.
Built against the agency model
A queer-owned creative accelerator, values-led, deliberately small. We built this pricing because we got tired of watching good people get ripped off or sign contracts that felt like rent.
Nine questions. Straight answers.
What exactly happens during an in-person undercover visit?
We walk in cold, without calling ahead, and spend 20 to 60 minutes depending on your business. We time how long until we're greeted and note what language it was in. We make a real purchase or ask a real question. We note the vibe, the staff, the flow, the signage and its languages, the temperature, the music, the handoff from online to in-store. We take photos of anything public-facing. Then we leave. Nobody knows we were there unless you tell them.
Do I have to tell my staff they might get shopped?
That's up to you. Most owners don't. The whole point is to see what a regular customer sees. If there's a reason your team needs a heads-up (medical practice privacy, for instance), tell us on the call and we'll figure out a version that works.
Is the written deliverable actually usable, or one of those 80-page decks nobody reads?
Usable. Plain language. Clear priorities at the front. Your team reads it in one sitting and knows what to do on Monday. The Brief delivers a marketing brief; The Mission delivers a six-month plan with strategy report; The Accelerator delivers the full rebuild with templates, signage specs, and launch plan.
Are prices in CAD?
Yes. Canadian dollars. Québec sales tax (GST/QST) is added on top of sale price.
Can we pay in installments beyond 50/50?
Yes. The Accelerator can be split into three or four payments if that helps cash flow. Ask during your introduction call.
Is the Bill 96 / OQLF review really included in every tier?
Yes. The Brief includes a language review. The Mission adds a compliance review with recommendations. The Accelerator delivers a full compliance guide and project plan, plus signage and print collateral specifications.
What if my business doesn't fit neatly into one tier?
Tell us on the call. In about a third of cases we customize the scope of a tier within the same flat fee so the deliverables suit what you actually need. If it's genuinely bigger than The Accelerator, we'll quote separately.
Do you work in English, French, or both?
Both. Primary working language is English; we deliver French materials, run French-language interviews, and coordinate bilingual launches routinely. For nuanced French copywriting, we work with a vetted roster of native French-speaking collaborators.
Do you work with businesses outside the West Island?
Yes. We take on clients across Montréal and further afield on a case-by-case basis. The West Island framing is about where we're rooted, not a geographic limit.
One 20-minute call. No deck. No pressure.
No agenda, no slide deck, no pressure. We'll tell you honestly which tier fits, or if none of them do.
Book a 20-minute call →