‘Naughty and Nice’ campaign gets some unexpected results

Were I making a list and checking it twice, the first entry on my naughty list would be the airlines who think it acceptable to leave passengers on the tarmac for three hours, and being so obtuse that Congress has to step in and tell them that is not OK and they need to get folks off those planes at the three-hour mark.

I don’t know a soul who does not moan about the involvement of government in our lives, but sometimes I wonder why business does not wake up and do the right thing to avoid further government intrusion.

Since early November, the BBB has been running an advertising campaign we refer to as the “Naughty and Nice Holiday Message.” Billboards and print ads are appearing all over the Inland Northwest, and the results have been a bit surprising. I have been to more open houses and holiday gatherings than ever this year, and at each one someone will approach me to talk about the campaign. Some of the comments:

•The first time I saw the billboard, I laughed out loud.

•I checked the car dealer I am having problems with, and I sure wish I knew they had an ‘F’ before I bought my car. Next time, I will check first.

•Thanks for making my drive to work include a smile every day. Love those ads!

•I saw the ad in the paper; you made me think to check before I had a new furnace installed, and boy, am I glad I did.

In the 22 years I have been doing BBB work, I have always preached that if more people checked first, we would get fewer complaints as buyers would choose to do business with companies who operate ethically.

The majority of the complaints we handle are against non-BBB accredited businesses, and a good portion of those are against companies who get complaints a lot.

Once someone files a complaint and then discovers the company has earned an F rating, they know to check first next time, and they do – in numbers I never thought possible.

The BBB serving Eastern Washington, North Idaho and Montana will exceed 600,000 pre-purchase requests for information this year, and that is almost 200,000 more than last year.

But the best news is that our complaint volume has remained fairly level in spite of more people finding the BBB a great place to turn before they spend or donate. I am convinced we have turned the corner.

Our ability to get the letter grade report into buyers’ hands before they purchase makes the likelihood of a complaint resulting from that transaction less probable. Now we can spend valuable staff time conducting investigations, developing full and comprehensive reports on companies that people are asking about, and doing outreach and training. Sure a lot more fun than handling complaints.

But one thing that came from the Naughty and Nice campaign that I never anticipated was the calls from business owners who have earned D and F grades. Those ads and billboards made them check bbb.org to get their own rating, only to find they have a grade they are not proud of.

We received a number of calls asking how the businesses could improve the grades, and we were happy to help. In most of these cases, the bad grade resulted simply from complaints that were never answered. The BBB is in the information and resolution business, but until we hear both side of a dispute, we really can’t do much resolving. So we received answers, got satisfaction and responses for some customers, and that moved those grades up.

The business-to-business part of checking before you buy grows every year. In fact, one of our most inquired-about companies only does business with other businesses across North America. Businesses are consumers, too, and more of them are being smart consumers.

Factors like Internet selling and research plus the lack of marketplace trust continue to grow the BBB system. That is why we are here, and that is why good businesspeople, in the spirit of self-regulation, support our mission. They would not need Congress to tell them not to hold their customers hostage in a steel container for hours on end.