Nowadays, if you want to learn more about an organization or a person, you need to only hop online. Different companies have set up online rating scores to measure popularity based on a complex math equation. If you want to learn more about a company, you can read about an online score instantly. These are two resources anyone can use in determining the trustworthiness and reliability of a company.
Better Business Bureau
One place you may want to check if you want to learn more about a company is the Better Business Bureau’s website. This website will have a listing of those businesses who have registered with the BBB, which is a trusted organization that assigns a rating to a company based on such factors as:
- the length of time that business has been in operation;
- the BBB’s experience in that business’ industry;
- advertising issues or problems that the BBB has found;
- the business’ response to those complaints (including response time and if the complaints have been resolved);
- any government sanctions against the business; and,
- if the business’ BBB accreditation has been revoked due to a failure to work with the BBB in solving customer complaints.
the number of complaints that BBB customers have logged with the BBB and the seriousness of those complaints;
The BBB will use the score to assign a letter grade (called a Reliability Report) to that company for consumers to use as a guide. This letter grade is a symbol of how trustworthy the business has been in dealing with the BBB, and the faith the BBB puts in the business when dealing with consumers.
TrustLink
As part of the BBB, TrustLink has been set up to connect trusted businesses with consumers. TrustLink does this by linking the BBB Reliability Report with businesses and consumer feedback to offer a triple perspective – for free. This new way of rating businesses online allow customers to post feedback about a business encounter, as well as allowing consumers to pass the word along about a positive – or negative – experience. Word-of-mouth advertising still carries great weight with consumers, whether vouching for a company is done virtually or literally.
Reseller Rating
Reseller Ratings mission is to offer first-hand customer accounts of online retailers to highlight the best and help shoppers avoid the rest, and to help great retailers excel. They began back in 1996 as the original online rating guide for consumers. More than 1,250 retailers use Reseller Ratings to monitor reviews and resolve issues and over 28,000 stores have reviews. Reseller Ratings features the highest quality consumer reviews from actual customers. They require an order number with each review, as well as allow merchants to post replies in response to reviews. They have become a standard in the industry and their ratings can be commonly seen on many Google web searches.
What This Means For Consumers
The reports are free to the consumer. People want to deal with companies that they feel they can trust; this is what leads to customer loyalty. When consumers see that a trusted organization such as the BBB or Reseller Rating have rated a certain business highly, consumers are more likely to select that business over a random business found in a (virtual) telephone book.
