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President's Column: Spring has Sprung and Change is in the Air...
BBB Reinvents the Reliability Report: Find out how your business will benefit

Last year alone, consumers looked to the BBB more than 65 million times for help finding trustworthy businesses. Maybe they needed a plumber, an IT specialist or a safe place to find deals online. Whatever type of business they were looking for, they all turned to the BBB because they knew they could trust the nearly 4 million Reports the BBB maintains on businesses across North America.

As an Accredited Business, your business report is a testament to your track record for treating customers with respect. The seal on your report shows that you uphold the BBB's Standards for Trust and customers know that you will stand by your word.

While your dedication to ethics and integrity doesn't change, your business evolves over time to better meet customer needs. For the same reason, BBB has redeveloped our business reports to provide more information to consumers as well as help Accredited Businesses highlight their products and services.

For starters, our reports will have a new name: BBB Business Reviews. The value of accreditation will be given greater note. Accredited Businesses will be able to upload photos to their Business Review in order to showcase their business, services or products offerings.

You will also have the opportunity to highlight your professional affiliations and add more information about your business, including your products and services, hours of operation, refund and exchange policy and service areas.

Your BBB Business Review is now an even better way for your business to stand out from the competition online. Contact us at info@dm.bbb.org to learn more about how you can take advantage of all the new features and promote your good name.

Another big change that we are initiating later this year is a new, improved and expanded quarterly written newsletter mailed to every AB. A monthly newsletter will continue to be provided by email only, so it is more important then ever that we have an email address for each and every one of our Accredited Businesses. Please forward your email address or any recent changes that you may have to barb@dm.bbb.org.

One last reminder while we are on the topic of Accreditation benefits. As an AB you qualify for authorized use of the BBB seal on your website. More and more people are now buying online. Even customers who are not yet buying online are gathering information from Web sites to make purchasing decisions. The BBB online seal sets your site apart from other sites and boosts the trust and confidence of potential customers. Our seal is backed by the standards, credibility and high name recognition of the BBB, which brings its almost 100 year old reputation for marketplace trust to the Internet.

Use of the seal will verify that your organization is:

• BBB Accredited.
• Commits to the BBB Code of Business Practices, including online standards.
• Has been in business for more than a year.
• Respects the privacy and email preferences of its visitors.
• Commits to work with its customers and BBB to resolve disputes.