This year, the Better Business Bureau celebrates its one hundred year anniversary. Launched in 1912, the BBB was originally founded for the purpose of bringing advertisers together to combat false or misleading ads. Today, the BBB offers a valuable circle of services to consumers:
- Lists trustworthy businesses and charities
- Alerts donors and customers of scams
- Provides a venue for reporting complaints
The organization is an excellent advocate for individuals, but what’s in it for the small business?
The Better Business Bureau and the Trust Factor
When you visit my site at TicketPrinting.com, you’ll see the BBB Accredited Business Seal featured prominently in the upper right hand corner of the page. We knew early on that, as a web-based business, we needed a way to communicate accountability. When you’re in ecommerce, you need to appear trustworthy from the moment your page loads. How could we prove to visitors that our company was trustworthy?
We became members of the Better Business Bureau.
No other organization so clearly demonstrates that a business maintains good standing in the community, and our community is all of North America. Membership indicates that a company is run with integrity and the intention to treat customers fairly. This membership assures customers that our company lives up to the highest ethical standards. If, somehow, we fail to achieve this goal, then the customer can inform the BBB, which will address the issue for them. While we’ve always been accountable to our customers, being accountable to the BBB demonstrates our intentions in a bigger way.
Membership is a fast and convenient method for us to prove that we do warrant the trust required to do business with strangers online.
Of course, the BBB is more than a resource for consumers to gauge the trustworthiness of a business. They also offer businesses plenty of great incentives. Their blog and other links on their website provide us with plenty of great ideas for keeping our customers satisfied and maintaining our reputation. We especially like the new feature: customer reviews. This offers us yet another way to engage our customers in a dialog, which helps us improve our service, raise our standards, and create a positive buzz surrounding our business.
We’ve been a BBB Accredited Business and supporters of the BBB for some time now, and I’ve even joined the BBB Board for my region. I’m happy to attest to the benefits this organization has provided us. Happy Birthday, BBB!
can we Joined the BBB?
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Of course you can, if your company meets the requirements. Go to BBB.org and click on the FOR BUSINESS button. Follow that to Accrediation info and that should get you what you need as well as connected to the correct local BBB.
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We conducted a 3-year quantitative study on our ecommerce site to identify the key reasons consumers shopped with us. Our target is primarily, W50+ who are a key demographic for the BBB. What we found was that BBB was clearly not a purchase motivator. We believe this may be because its lost it relevancy over the past 15 years with the growth of ecommerce and emergence of major trust brands such as McAfee, etc. We communicated this data to the national office in Washington.
Then there was the major expose by Brian Ross on ABC News where he exposed the fraud within the BBB. The response was poorly handled on a reactive, not proactive manner.
Based on our data and the ABC report, we no longer pay for the accreditation, but still mention we are A+ rated by the BBB (without use of the logo of course).
I was also an advisor to our local BBB board and found that there was little attention paid to the bigger strategic issues. For example, how does the BBB rank on trust versus the top 10 trust brands by key demographic.
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Hi Tom—
Lance is away this week but asked me to respond to you. He says to keep in mind that each site may experience different results. McAfffee has helped his company as well, but the BBB still gives people trust in their dealings and gives customers recourse that isn’t really found anywhere else.
I would add that the BBB is not perfect. We make mistakes, like everyone. The difference between a legitimate company with a mission it believes in and one that isn’t sincerely trying to do the right thing is that when something is pointed out to us that doesn’t seem right, we change it.
In my experience answering phones at the BBB for five years, the fact that (formerly) only Accredited Businesses could achieve the A+ rating didn’t make a hill of beans difference to 99.9 percent of consumers, who only get concerned if the rating drops below average (C- and down.) The slight difference between A or A+ did not matter to the people I talked to, and I took dozens of calls every day. But anyway, now anyone can achieve an A+ rating if they truly deserve one, like your company.
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A further thought as to relevance: I feel the BBB is just as relevant today as it was 100 years ago. The same scams still prey on the unwary: some getting a modern spin and others not bothering. The same conflicts and misunderstandings still plague businesses and consumers. Also, the BBB is delivering its services in more modern ways; through phone Apps, social media, QR codes, customer reviews on our website, and Google Analytics.
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