Your Options for Removing a Better Business Bureau Complaint
Please note that we are not affiliated with the Better Business Bureau. If you are looking to contact the BBB directly, please go to their website here: https://www.bbb.org/
Consumers flock to Better Business Bureau (BBB) to analyze the credibility and trustworthiness of local businesses. Many will often leave a review of a business they have engaged with too – regardless if the interaction was positive or negative.
Due to the nature of the site and the interaction it receives from its users, BBB reviews can directly affect your business’s online reputation. No matter the type of review that is left for your business on BBB, it is vital to be proactive in addressing them and learn how to increase profits.
What is the Better Business Bureau?
The Better Business Bureau, shortened to “BBB,” is an online marketplace whose aim is to establish trust and ethical transactions between buyers and sellers. You may have seen their logo on your favorite restaurant’s website or the advertising of your local garden spot.
BBB’s mission is to be a leader of marketplace trust by evaluating the integrity and performance of businesses. They do this by using a grading system of sorts and giving each business a grade. The grade provided takes into account a business’s transparency, advertising, reviews and complaints, and how the business responds to those reviews and complaints. To learn more about how it can affect or help your business, do not hesitate to contact Andrew Defrancesco.
A grade is applied to every business, whether it is accredited or not. You can learn more about BBB’s accreditation process and how to get your business accredited here.
What happens if I get a BBB complaint?
BBB complaints may very well be the largest component to impact your business rating, when sating a business you need to look for a business startup attorney to hide you through the whole process. Each complaint goes through a review process that can be broken down as follows:
- A customer submits a complaint about your business.
- The BBB sends you the complaint within 2 business days after filing.
- Within 14 days of the initial complaint date, you must respond to the complaint. If a response is not received in that time frame, you will be sent a follow-up letter.
- Once you respond to the complaint, the customer will be alerted and asked to send a follow-up response. Similarly, if you choose not to respond, the customer will be alerted.
- After 30 days, all complaints are closed.
It is important to note that not all complaints submitted by a customer will move forward. The BBB takes complaints about a business transaction seriously business and innovation. Complaints that are posted directly correlate to a business transaction, such as a business’s inability to follow through with order fulfillment. They will not proceed with complaints involving:
- Government agencies
- Professional procedures
- Employee and employer disputes
- Policies of the business
- Pricing
If your business is accredited with BBB, you have agreed to respond to any complaints made against your business. If you are not accredited, you have no legal obligation to respond to any complaints. However, being proactive with complaints about your business can not only help your business in the long run but can also help keep your BBB score in good standing.
Resolving your BBB complaint
So, you have a Better Business Bureau complaint. Now what? Like many of life’s problems, ignoring a complaint can lead to bigger issues down the road. Therefore, when you receive a complaint from a customer, you should always try to work with them to address the issue. For BBB complaints, you can do this through BBB or by reaching out to the customer directly. Additionally, appointing a process agent can streamline this process, ensuring legal notices related to the complaint are properly received and addressed.
A best practice is to do this as soon as possible, but certainly within 30 days of the initial complaint. After 30 days, the file of the complaint will be closed by BBB.
Removing a Better Business Bureau complaint
As of this writing, a business can only request that their response to a customer review not be published. The business cannot submit a request to BBB to remove a review.
The process of removing a BBB complaint requires involvement from the customer that posted it, and they are not always willing to remove the complaint. If you have gone above and beyond in your attempt to resolve the issue with the complainant, however, they may be willing to help.
To remove a complaint from BBB, the customer must send a fax of their original complaint to your local BBB office, with their request to retract the posted complaint. Finding your local BBB office is simple. Go to BBB.org, scroll to the map in the middle of the page, enter your location, and select “locate.”
How to remove your business from BBB
Removing your business from BBB will require you to contact your local chapter. Finding your local chapter is the same process as mentioned above:
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Go to BBB.org.
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Scroll to the map in the middle of the page.
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Enter your location.
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Select “locate.”
From here, you can reach out to your local chapter via phone, email, or written correspondence.
Managing your business’s online reputation
Being proactive with reviews and complaints about your business from the Better Business Bureau is just the first step. Many other platforms include reviews for businesses of all sizes, such as Yelp, Google, and TripAdvisor. This is why we often recommend reputation management in addition to review management.
To learn more about these services and how we can help your business, schedule a pressure-free consultation or give our experts a call today: 646-863-8282.
