BBB: 25 years and counting

The first Better Business Bureaus, established in the early 1900s, were originally called Vigilance Committees or Advertising Clubs, and their goal was to correct advertising abuses. In response to marketplace demands, BBBs quickly expanded to monitor business performance and to provide consumers with reliable information to avoid pitfalls in the marketplace.

Twenty-five years ago, the Better Business Bureau of Northern Colorado was born out of a master’s thesis by then-CSU student Lisa Curtis. Her research indicated there indeed was interest in a self-regulating organization such as the BBB in Northern Colorado and with the help of 19 founding board members, it was up and running on May 17, 1983.

Today, the BBB serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming is one of 128 BBBs in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Our Bureau continues to grow in terms of both the number of Accredited Businesses affiliated with us and the territory we cover. We have 4,300 businesses in 38 counties in Northern Colorado, the I-70 Corridor and Wyoming. And in 2007, we had more than 600,000 contacts for service.

But in the early years, the BBB of Northern Colorado was a quiet watchdog. Lisa Curtis stayed on to head up the BBB and made presentations at local service clubs and organizations to help get the word out. BBB staff took calls from consumers and businesses by phone, took notes in longhand and mailed information via parcel post.

Both the size of the BBB and number of programs offered grew exponentially with the increase in sophistication of technology. Ninety-eight percent of all contacts for service, for example, are now by Internet. The BBB offers numerous programs to both consumers and businesses, including BBBOnline, BBB AutoLine, BBB Military Line, dispute resolution services, charity reports, and consumer information that includes business reliability reports, scam alerts and a consumer how-to book series.

As we move into our next 25 years, we will continue to work with businesses of all sizes to encourage, support and showcase marketplace integrity, business ethics and reliability, and best practices. We will enlist businesses in voluntary initiatives to set standards and practice self-regulation, and to provide forums for dispute resolution. We will offer trustmark programs for businesses to showcase their trustworthiness. And we will expose substandard marketplace behavior.

Ultimately, our value to our accredited businesses is driven by the ability to deliver consumers to trustworthy businesses. So while we strive to be the partner of choice for businesses on marketplace and consumer trust issues, we have an equal and compelling commitment to be the resource of choice for consumers. We educate consumers. We gather and provide the reliable data that allows consumers to do business with companies they know are ethical and trustworthy. We build consumer demand for the trustworthy marketplace.

In becoming the go-to source for issues of marketplace trust, the BBB is now everywhere – nationally and locally – in promoting best practices and best businesses, and the BBB torch is universally recognized as a symbol of those who meet the BBB standards. Additionally, the BBB Torch Awards for Business Ethics, going on 11 years, are cherished by businesses that receive them.

The next 25 years promise to bring even more growth and change for businesses and consumers alike. What will never change, however, is this: The BBB will remain true to its mission to be the leader in advancing marketplace trust.

Pam King is president/chief executive officer of the Better Business Bureau serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming.

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