Better Business Bureau Reaches Retention Milestone

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Carol Potter, president of the Better Business Bureau of Mahoning Valley, reports the nonprofit organization has reached a personal best in its member retention and that membership has been solid year in and year out.

“We retain our members. We have a 92.1% retention in all of North America right now, which is the highest number we’ve had in our history and in the entire business bureau’s history,” Potter said at the Better Business Bureau annual meeting Thursday at Davis Education and Visitor Center at Fellows Riverside Garden.

“Retention is important because it means that businesses are operating with our standards of trust and they use the best business practices for trust,” Potter said. “And they also realize that utilizing the torch on their website and different marketing materials lets consumers know that they are trustworthy.”

At the meeting, Potter and representatives of local accredited businesses in attendance recognized and celebrated the impact of businesses that value the importance of trust between themselves and their consumers.

BBB of Mahoning Valley held its annual meeting Thursday at Davis Education and Visitor Center at Fellows Riverside Garden.

“Our Better Business Bureau is so fortunate that the businesses here in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties are so supportive of our mission to grow trust in the marketplace,” she said. “With all of the uncertainty and a billion dollars reported lost in the past 12 months in the United States, we are the go-to source for information to find out who the good and bad players are, and our 1,200 accredited businesses support that mission.”

Some local accredited businesses that have seen success and gained consumers’ trust through the BBB and from their relationships with each other include Farmers National Bank, PNC Bank, VEC Inc., JAC Management Group, Cortland Bank and Michael Alberini’s Restaurant and Wine Shop, among others, Potter said. According to a survey by the BBB, 84% of consumers said accreditation builds trust and 58% said it adds prestige.

The BBB also employed a new marketing plan in the past year, Potter said. Website traffic increased to 320,000 viewers from 209,643.

“$10 million went into a new website infrastructure a year ago and it launched last November,” Potter said. “Now that we have a year’s worth of metrics to look at, we can say that our local website has seen traffic increase by 56%.”

The latest addition to the website was the BBB Scam Tracker, which has seen much success, said Potter, with 1,070 complaints closed in 2018.

“We have a Scam Tracker program to see how scams are moving throughout the country. If I could give anyone a tip, it’s don’t wire money to people you don’t know,” she said. “Also, use a credit card during transactions so you have that as a backup. There are still people approaching others by phone to try and get them to commit to security breach of their information.”

Pictured above: Carol Potter, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of the Mahoning Valley.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.