The following represents an explanation of the Better
Business Bureau's complaint process. It does not encompass the complete
BBB operating policy.
The Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Missouri & Southern
Illinois has been processing complaints for more than 90 years; yet it is surprising how many companies do not
understand the process or do not recognize how complaints can actually
be beneficial to a company.
In recent years, the BBB has seen a sharp increase in the
number of companies that hire lawyers or threaten legal action in an effort
to improve their record at the Bureau.
Or, in a similar vein, the number of companies which dangle
a settlement in front of a customer, a settlement which is good only if
the customer withdraws the BBB complaint.
A review of BBB procedures may help companies in their dealings
with their customers and with the Bureau.
First, how can complaints be a helpful tool for a company?
Complaints are an indicator of how well you are satisfying
your customers. They also can tell you in which specific area you may
need to improve.
Remember that a complaint may represent many other dissatisfied
customers who didn't bother to complain, but who simply took their business
elsewhere.
Also, studies show that if a complaint is handled quickly
and fairly, the customer will become an even more loyal customer.
But if the complainant receives no satisfaction, he or she
becomes a powerful negative advertising force for your company, spreading
the word to as many as 50 of your potential customers.
What role does the Better Business Bureau play in handling
complaints?
The customer calls or writes to the Bureau with a complaint
and this is forwarded immediately to the company with a request that the
company respond to the Bureau with its position.
If the company fails to respond, the complaint is closed
as no response, and any inquiring consumer is so informed.
When a company responds, its answer is forwarded to the
customer.
If the customer is satisfied, or the company addressed the
disputed issues and exhibited a good faith effort to resolve the complaint,
it is closed as resolved.
But if the customer is not satisfied, the Bureau may try
to mediate the dispute or offer arbitration. Based on the outcome of the
dispute, the complaint will be closed accordingly.
Complaints remain on a company's record at the Bureau for 36 months from the date the complaint is closed.
As with almost all of the Bureau's services, this service
is free.
The Bureau is constantly seeking ways to speed up complaint
processing because the sooner a complaint is addressed, the better the
chances a company has of retaining that customer. Except for cases that
are arbitrated, the Bureau does not attempt to determine who is "right"
and who is "wrong" in a company-customer dispute.
Such a process would be a quasi-judicial proceeding and
the Bureau is not set up to process every complaint in this fashion.
This has proven to be one of the greatest areas of misunderstanding
on the part of companies.
Often, companies will ask that complaints be removed from
their BBB record because the customer was legally in the wrong. Sometimes
they will send in a contract to "prove" it.
The Bureau is concerned more with business ethics, not whether
a company was legally in the right.
For example, a company representative may promise the moon
in order to sell a job, but the contract falls far short of what was promised
verbally.
While the customer may not have a legal leg to stand on,
the Bureau would consider this a proper complaint.
Along the same line when the Bureau questions a company's
advertising, the response sometimes is made, "But we checked with
our attorney and he said it was okay."
Again, it's more important to the BBB whether an advertisement
is ethically "correct" and complies with the Bureau's Code
of Advertising rather than whether the advertisement merely adheres
to the law.
While on the subject of lawyers, companies are increasingly
hiring attorneys in efforts to "clear" their record at the Bureau.
Unfortunately, attorneys are accustomed to playing by a
different set of rules and often will seek to prove how their company-client
was in the right according to the law. Their appearance at the Bureau
often represents a costly outlay for the company-client with little, if
any, benefit.
A final practice which the BBB sees increasing is that in
which a company will privately offer to settle a dispute with a customer
if the customer will withdraw the complaint filed with the BBB.
The Bureau takes a very dim view of this practice. First,
the Bureau rarely removes a complaint from a company's record. Second,
if the Bureau were to allow this practice, the BBB in effect would become
a bargaining chip, but without a voice, in the settlement of a company-customer
dispute. Third, such a practice would skew the Bureau's reports to the
public regarding the number of complaints a company has.
With the support of its members, the BBB will continue to
provide its unique service of bringing complaints to the attention of
the companies involved to the benefit of both the companies and their
customers.