As a small business owner with great intentions of giving THE best customer service experience ever, I submitted an application to my local Better Business Bureau. I wanted to place that highly coveted BBB logo on my website to show visitors at a glance their money is well spent with me. But while my intentions were good, the pricetag of getting that little logo displayed was…
…much higher than I anticipated. And being a new small business, I believed the money would be better spent on advertising until things really took off. So I thanked the super helpful people at my local BBB, and explained I wouldn’t be pursuing the application right now, and down the road when I 
was more established I’d be coming back. That was fine with everyone involved…
Flashforward 3 weeks to today when I’m doing a keyword search for my own website, only to find a BBB listing for MY company saying in a big bold standalone sentence, “This business is NOT BBB Accredited.” Don’t get me wrong, there was a very clear disclaimer a line or two below, stating that non-accreditation didn’t mean I wasn’t in good standing with the BBB, it just meant I either didn’t pursue the application and confirmed accredidation was not a requirement for any business.
As a web designer who makes a living from ensuring website content positively conveys intended services and messages, the single sentence stating your business is not accredited gives a very distinct impression you’re not affiliated with the BBB. It screams out to a new visitor, “Go find someone else who is!” Even with the disclaimer line clearly below, it’s that at a glance first impression that counts, and not everyone is going to look down to read any further.
Why do I mention this seemingly innocent BBB webpage? Because I want to clearly point out to small business owners pursuing BBB accreditation what may result online from not finalizing the BBB application process:
1. You end up with a BBB page stating you’re not accredited which may unintentionally convey the wrong idea to a quick peeker that you’re business isn’t in good standing.
2. If you’re a home-based business you’re going to need to specify to the BBB you don’t want your full home address associated with your business on the BBB internet page. I spoke to my local BBB office today and confirmed, you just need to let their office know that your town and state provides an adequate amount of information to display, if the type of work you do can be done remotely.
3. In the event you find yourself in this position, you can contact your local BBB and request that your ‘pending BBB’ page be removed until you finalize your application, and become an official member in good standing. This way you can avoid anyone mistakenly believing you’re not a reputable business to work with because you’re not yet BBB accredited.
4. If the BBB page stating your business is not yet accredited is very prevalent in search rankings, you may want to pursue trying to remove it. Once the BBB removes the pending accreditation business page, it should naturally fall from the search ranks. But if desired, you can place a request with Google to have the URL removed from their engines.
If you’d like to pursue accredidation with the Better Business Bureau simply contact the local Better Business Bureau nearest you…and now you know what to do if you don’t follow through!
