BBB reviews and complaints: what business owners should know
Short answer: A BBB complaint asks you to fix something and affects your letter rating if you ignore it. A BBB customer review is an opinion with a star rating and does not affect the letter rating. Respond to both, and answer complaints within the deadline BBB gives you.
The Better Business Bureau confuses many owners because it shows two different things on one page: a letter rating from A+ to F, and customer reviews with stars.
Reviews and complaints are not the same
| Customer review | Complaint | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An opinion about an experience | A request for the business to resolve a problem |
| Shown as | Stars and text | The complaint and your response |
| Affects the letter rating | No | Yes, especially if unanswered |
| You can respond | Yes | Yes, and you are expected to |
How the letter rating works
BBB says the letter rating reflects how a business deals with its customers, based on things like the number of complaints for a business of that size, whether they were answered and resolved, how long the business has operated, and whether it is open about what it does. Customer reviews are not part of it.
The quickest way to lose a good rating is to leave a complaint unanswered.
Responding to a complaint
- BBB sends you the complaint and a deadline to respond.
- Answer within it, in plain language: what happened, and what you offer to do.
- The customer can accept or reply. BBB records whether the matter was resolved.
Even when you believe the complaint is unfair, respond. An answered complaint counts very differently from an ignored one.
Responding to a review
You can reply publicly to a BBB customer review. Keep it short, specific and free of private details. BBB checks reviews before publishing them and may ask the business to confirm that the person was a customer.
Asking for BBB reviews
You may ask customers to review you on BBB. As everywhere else, ask all of them and offer nothing in return.
Disputing a review
If a review is not from a real customer, or contains abusive or private content, tell your local BBB. It investigates and decides. A critical review from a real customer stays.
Accreditation
Accreditation is a paid membership with standards a business agrees to meet. It is separate from the letter rating: a business that is not accredited still gets a rating, and paying does not buy a higher one.
A short checklist
- Claim your BBB profile and check the details.
- Decide who answers complaints, and make sure BBB’s emails reach that person.
- Answer every complaint before the deadline.
- Reply to reviews, good and bad.