As a business owner, I have been approached twice now by the Better Business Bureau pitching memberships. I have heard of them, and I know ostensibly what they represent. I just can’t wrap my brain around paying $400 to be a member of an organization that is pretty much as I understand it, a consumer advocate group. Is there any real direct benefit or is it just another of the multitudes of “lets come up with an excuse to milk some cash out of the small business owners pocket”
Probably depends on the business. When I decided to have the house sided this summer I checked out prospects at the local BBB website. Those that had consumer complaints against them didn’t get called.
I don’t do the same when deciding who to order a pizza from.
My business was a member of the BBB for a year. We ended up dropping our membership because it was pretty pointless, at least for our situation. I’m not sure what you do, but if you’re in a trade or service business it’s something to consider. OTOH being a member (IMO) is only slightly above not having any complaints. It would be different if they held you to some sort of (ethical) standards and maybe tested you once in a while. But they don’t. In some respects, the $400/yr get’s you a little membership sticker and that’s about it. And for a bunch more money you can put the BBB badge on your website. It’s kind of a tough call.
I just booked a trip to China and checked out the travel company on the BBB website. Not just for complaints but for length of business as well. To me, it was a bit of peace of mind considering there are a lot of fly-by-night travel agencies (no pun intended). I’ve used it for service oriented businesses, but really don’t care all much for product oriented businesses.
Computer repair. Considering there are alot of fly-by-night operators in the biz I can understand a certain amount of paranoia when selecting a computer shop.
While that number is probably usually correct, still be careful. When we signed up, she asked us what year we went into business, we told her 1979 and that was it. She didn’t check anything out whatsoever. We could have said 1939 and that probably would have been accepted as well.
We are building contractors, which I am sure you know, has a reputation for plenty of fly by night operations.
We belong to several national and regional organizations that have a fairly high profile in the area. There are requirements for membership. There are also requirements for licensing, and continuing education, through the state, although rather minimal. Chamber of Commerce as well.
The BBB is a bare bones organization in my opinion, and what they are certifying isn’t much.
I think it’d be more impressive to your clients to belong to a reputable organization of your peers, to be well known in your locality for quality and service, and to be known for always trying to improve your product or service. In addition, all those organizations I mentioned also have the potential for networking, which I don’t think the BBB has.
This is kinda my POV, I would much rather spend $400 on a class towards getting a microsoft cert and being able to advertise that. Small business specialist or something like that.
I took German in high school, and have mutated it over the ensuing years.
To paraphrase Twain:
“Whenever the literary philistine dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his preposition in his mouth.”
The BBB is a racket, pure and simple. Basically it is a boiler room operation that shakes down small businesses through intimidation. Being a boiler room, the odds that the person calling you is a meth head or an alcoholic are excellent. If that is what you want to support, go ahead, but you are wasting your money and encouraging crooks. The best response when they call is to threaten them with legal action should they have anything at all to say about you.
First of all, the Better Business Bureau is not designed to be a consumer advocate. They are a business advocate. While they do keep a listing of complains and sometimes try to work out problems, they are primarily interested in working to improve the local business climate, usually as an advocacy group in front of the local city government. If members are losing business due to a lack of parking, the BBB will work to try to get more. If there’s a local business tax that’s a burden on businesses, the BBB will try to get it repealed.
The BBB doesn’t certify businesses, or inquire into their operations. If the check clears, you’re a member. If they get complaints, their first action (which is rarely taken on the first complaint) is to contact you and tell you that it’d be really nice if you fixed things. If they get many complaints they might threaten you with kicking you out, but that’s usually only a last resort for a clearly fraudulent business.
If you want to help influence the local government to do better for businesses, then you probably should join.
Note that the surest sign that a business is a ripoff is a prominent mention that they are members of the BBB. Most businesses in the BBB are legit, but they don’t mention it, other than maybe a small sign in their front window. Scammers join and put “Member of the BBB” in all their ads.
I was a member for a few years, and then dropped it as I saw no real benefit to me.
In terms of your business’ reputation, not having unresolved complaints in the BBB’s files is a good thing (it’s also a pretty easy thing to accomplish). But actually being a member is essentially useless in my experience, and in that of fellow auto repair shop owners.
I find their sales techniques questionable. When they would call trying to persuade me to join (or rejoin), they had always just recently had a call inquiring about me :dubious: , and were just so upset for my sake because they didn’t know what to tell the caller. Of course, if they had really had a call, they would have told them there were no unresolved complaints, which is all that really matters.
BBB membership is very unlikely to impress any potential customers who have ever dealt with the organization to try and resolve a problem. My experience was that the BBB was not interested in mediating a complaint or trying to get a rogue member to behave responsibly. I was left with the impression that the BBB (as far as consumers are concerned) functions as a public relations arm of local business and is meant to provide (false) reassurance to consumers that business members have been vetted in some way as dependable.
Seeing a BBB member sign in the window of a business would therefore mean absolutely nothing to me. If I need to check up on a firm I see if they have a bad rep with the Consumer Affairs Division of my state attorney general’s office, or look them up with the online ratings service to which I belong.
As to whether the BBB is effective in lobbying local governments, I can’t speak to that, but I suspect this varies a lot depending on locale and whether the local BBB is just marking time or really gets aggressively involved in local affairs.
Well, if you do any kind of home improvement or repair, my wife won’t even call you without checking out your credentials with our local BBB.
Don’t know that that would matter at all, unless you worked in Akron, Ohio as a plumber, carpenter, electrician or landscaping type.
