Thread: BBB - Is it worth the price of admission?

I searched this topic on this forum and didn't get many results.
So, I thought I'd just ask the question.

Is your business accredited by your BBB and if so, is it worth the cost?
Do you get a return on paying the BBB?

I can join, just don't know if it's worth the cost...
Tell us your experience.

Thanks!

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My biz is not accredited with BBB.

However I have heard good and bad reviews about being listed.

Many prospective buyers will search BBB for either complaints against home inspectors or will go with an inspector who is listed on the BBB site and history of complaints and outcomes.

Again being a member of the BBB is a business decision and it depends on who you ask.

5 years ago I used to get 2-3 jobs a year that stated they found me thru BBB. I ask every customer how they found me. It took 1-2 jobs to cover the cost of membership.

I figured at the time that other customers checked me out but did not list BBB as their primary way of finding me.

Times got lean and I stopped paying. No noticable difference in business.

Originally Posted by Wade Hancock

I searched this topic on this forum and didn't get many results.
So, I thought I'd just ask the question.

Is your business accredited by your BBB and if so, is it worth the cost?
Do you get a return on paying the BBB?

I can join, just don't know if it's worth the cost...
Tell us your experience.

Thanks!

I've been a member for a few years now.
My experience, I get 2-3 customers comment they hired me due to my BBB rating, that was only after they found me somewhere else.
For the cost of, I think it was $445.00 last year I really don't know if it's worth it considering the other 300 plus didn't care if I was a member or not, if that's the case, it cost me $150-200 per customer to get their business.

The best free advertizing I've found is Angies List. To get on their list someone/ an Angies List member has to recommend you..

I occasionally get asked by clients if I am BBB accredited. I respond that no I am not; however, anyone can file a complaint against me on BBB whether I am accredited or not.

I think the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is just a protection racket – a legal one, but about as unethical as the illegal varieties. It’s supposed mission is to protect consumers, but it’s a revenue, or dues driven organization and it’s not the consumers who are paying the dues. That is, since it gets its funding from businesses that pay dues, its primary focus is protecting those businesses, but ONLY those that pay them their protection money, or dues.

For instance, I was told by a BBB representative who was trying to sell me a membership, that if I were to have a complaint lodged against me by a consumer while NOT being a member who is paying protection money (dues), that that complaint would be available for the public to see. HOWEVER, if I were a dues paying member, the BBB would go to work for me to “resolve” that complaint and those “resolved” complaints would not go on my record.

I told the BBB representative that that should be illegal and hung up the phone. It should be illegal – it’s a protection racket where the only difference between it and the mob’s version seems to be the type of force used. That is, instead of threatening to break my knees, they threaten to ruin my business. To hell with the BBB and their strong-arm tactics.

I dropped my BBB membership. Even though you're a member you have to pay additional fees depending upon how you want to use their logo. The Chicago office was very difficult to work with so I often had to call the Rockford office to talk with anyone. I also had received a mailing from the manager of the Chicago area in which he was promoting a member's business. The organization turned out to not be what I wanted to be associated with.

Great insights, thank you.

Starting to look like the BBB won't really be the best way to spend my way-to-limited marketing dollars.

IMVHO, the BBB is a legal form of blackmail..... If you pay you can have an A+ listing!

Get listed on Angie's List and you will do better than anything with the BBB.

Originally Posted by Scott Patterson

IMVHO, the BBB is a legal form of blackmail..... If you pay you can have an A+ listing!

Get listed on Angie's List and you will do better than anything with the BBB.

Working very hard on this.

Originally Posted by Scott Patterson

IMVHO, the BBB is a legal form of blackmail..... If you pay you can have an A+ listing!

X2

I listened to their phone spiel recently.... for the size of my company they wanted around $1200. I about fell off my chair. The lady quickly reduced in increments down to about $600 for a year as a kept refusing.

I finally asked her why I would give a company $600 for something they were trying to sell me 2 minutes earlier for $1200. She didn't have much of an answer.

40 years ago before the internet the BBB may have served a purpose..... but that time and purpose is LONG gone.

In a word, NO. ( I tried the short answer but the board rules dictate I must have more letters to post)

Originally Posted by Jim Luttrall

In a word, NO. ( I tried the short answer but the board rules dictate I must have more letters to post)

Well, with not a single post advocating the BBB, I suppose my decision is clear.

Thank you all for your insights.
You saved me $500.

Thanks can we invoice for our advice? Lets see $500 saved divided by...

Ha ha..

Originally Posted by Raymond Wand

Thanks can we invoice for our advice? Lets see $500 saved divided by...

Ha ha..

Mr. Luttral said he wanted to take care of this expense for me.

10 years ago... yes.

Now... no.

Another question is, will anyone ask this in 5-10 years from now? They may be gone.

Originally Posted by Wade Hancock

Mr. Luttral said he wanted to take care of this expense for me.

That's how you say thank you for saving you $500?

Originally Posted by Jim Luttrall

That's how you say thank you for saving you $500?

To all: I am thankful for thier insights and knowledge.
To me: I am thankful for my ability to gleem knowledge off of those who have come before me.

To you: I am thankful for paying that invoice!

Nah, I appreciate the ability to sidestep some land mines.
I just hope I can pay it back/forward.

BBB is the 'blue hair's' version of Angies List and Yelp. They had some very bad press recently regarding shady biz practices. They are not worth the money in our market. On the other hand, Yelp and Angies List have been 'berry berry good for us'. We close well over 90% of the Angies List calls we get and the clients who come from AL are usually very trusting of us from the get go. We don't go through the 45 minutes of 'fish eye' that we sometimes get from clients who don't know us from Adam. That un-trusting look goes away soon enough after the clients figure out that we are there to help them and that we are quite competent at what we do, nevertheless, it's nice to have that warm feeling at the very beginning of the job. Yelp has been phenomenal for us. It's so good that I'm reluctant to tell you all! Best of luck!

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVES TO THE BBB

Did you realize that there are other more affordable Accredited Business programs out there?

The National Association of Small Business Professionals (www.Join-NASBP.com) recently launched an Accredited Business Program which is included absolutely free to “Premier Certified Members”. You also get a bunch of other trust seals to display on your website and printed stationery.

Membership costs just $12.95 a month, so it’s well worth looking into. Hope this info proves helpful to those small business owners who may be operating on a very tight budget!

Once upon a time there was only Diners Club credit card. Used for food/entertainment.
Once upon a time there was only BBB to check out a business.
Today with the internet and search engines (thanks Al Gore) it is possible to obtain a massive amount of information on a business. In addition to the ability of everyone to post the good and bad on a company or person.

The BBB had a good function in the day of the dinosaurs (speaking as one) but to day it seems that it has morphed into, like others have commented, something of a protection racket or black mail organization. The cost far exceed their benefit. Something like paying 1976 price for a calculator ($395) that you can purchase for $40 today. BBB has to struggle today like the Yellow Pages for members/advertisers.

All I know is that some of the biggest scoundrels in this area have good ratings at the BBB. When they came jonesing for membership, I told them I really couldn't see joining anyone that would have those scoundrels as members.
JLMathis

It may be different in my market but it has worked well for me. I get an instant email every time someone clicks on a link to my BBB profile (which is promoted though website, facebook, emails, twitter, newsletters, etc) almost without fail I have a phone call within 10 minutes following that click to book an inspection. Yeah people can research any company on the internet but many are too lazy to. They see a BBB A+ and often times that is enough for them to get on the horn and book it. I would estimate that it helps book 3-4 inspections a month for me. Getting to the A+ rating helps out more than the A rating does (the A+ comes over time with no unresolved complaints). Yeah it may be a racket but if in the client eye its sets me apart from the competition it is worth the $500 a year.

I just served as a EW on a case where a roofer was being sued. He had an A+ rating, however, he also had a huge amount of complaints against him. What the atty found out was all the roofer had to do was respond to the complaints in writing, and the BBB wrote it off as resolved. His A+ rating was worthless.

Originally Posted by Jack Feldmann

... His A+ rating was worthless.

No, his A+ rating wasn't worthless, it was worth at least $500

BBB is no different than paying to be on an agent's "Preferred Venders List". Angies List isn't much better. You can be an Angies List member for free, but to get the top spots you have to pay them.

Originally Posted by Ken Rowe

BBB is no different than paying to be on an agent's "Preferred Venders List". Angies List isn't much better. You can be an Angies List member for free, but to get the top spots you have to pay them.

Some of my clients who found me on Angie's List said they know the ads at the very top are the paid ads and they skip down to the next ones that are not paying to be on the list (like me .

Originally Posted by Nick Ostrowski

Some of my clients who found me on Angie's List said they know the ads at the very top are the paid ads and they skip down to the next ones that are not paying to be on the list (like me .

I'm also a non-paid member of Angies List. I ask every client who find me through them if they know the top listed people are actually paid advertisers. None of them d0 and most were actually pissed that Angies List was doing that.

I've been a non-paying member for about 2 years and I'm really getting tired of the constant emails and phone calls from Angies List asking me to pay for advertising.

Angies list has evolved over the years and is a for profit corporation. Its is no different from the BBB. If you are a paying member and you have a complaint, you can buy up $$$ to retain your rating. We have been solicited several times to join $$$ and have declined.


//Rick

Originally Posted by Wade Hancock

I searched this topic on this forum and didn't get many results.
So, I thought I'd just ask the question.

Is your business accredited by your BBB and if so, is it worth the cost?
Do you get a return on paying the BBB?

I can join, just don't know if it's worth the cost...
Tell us your experience.

Thanks!

For me the the BBB A+ rating is a marketing tool. A pretty effective one, too. I may have only received a few inspections directly from the BBB site but when people go to my site because of my organic search rankings or paid ads the BBB logo legitimizes my business in their minds. If the potential client looks at several inspector sites and my site is the only one BBB accredited I usually book the inspection, at least this is what my clients are telling me. You are perceived as a very customer focused business.