Turn a weak BBB profile into an A+ trust signal.

The Better Business Bureau is different from most review platforms because its headline number isn’t a star rating — it’s a letter grade from A+ to F. That grade is driven far more by how you handle complaints than by how many five-star reviews you collect, which is exactly why so many otherwise well-reviewed businesses are surprised by a mediocre BBB score.

On top of the grade, BBB carries separate customer reviews and a public complaint record. A prospect deciding whether to trust you with a large purchase frequently checks all three: the grade, the pattern of complaints, and whether the business actually responded. BBB reputation management is the work of improving all three deliberately and legitimately.

Why the BBB grade behaves differently from a star rating

BBB’s letter grade is a proprietary calculation. The factors BBB says it weighs include complaint volume relative to business size, whether complaints were answered and resolved, the business’s transparency about its practices, time in business, and whether it has any government actions or advertising issues on file. A single unanswered complaint can weigh more heavily than a dozen glowing reviews.

That is the single most important thing to understand: on BBB, ignoring a complaint is actively worse than receiving one. A complaint that you answer and resolve can leave your grade intact or even strengthen it, because responsiveness is exactly what the grade is designed to reward. The businesses with the worst BBB grades are usually not the ones with the most complaints — they’re the ones who never replied.

Accreditation is a separate layer. Being "BBB Accredited" is an opt-in, paid program with its own standards, and it is not the same as your grade — an accredited business can still carry complaints, and an excellent, unaccredited business can hold an A+. We work on the underlying grade and review record regardless of accreditation status.

Reference: BBB’s overview of how its ratings work.