Overview
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) Report helps you assess the credibility of a U.S. business or charity using data from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), an independent non-profit organization.
The report surfaces a business’s BBB accreditation status, rating, complaint activity, and reviews as a third-party reputation signal during the Know Your Business (KYB) process.
Why use this report?
- Add an external reputation signal: BBB data provides a trusted, third-party view of how a business is perceived by consumers — supplementing registry and website checks with real-world feedback.
- Flag elevated risk: Quickly identify businesses with low BBB ratings, high complaint volumes, or patterns of unresolved consumer issues for additional review.
- Verify non-profits and charities: BBB also covers non-profit organizations, making this report useful for assessing the legitimacy of charitable entities.
Report features
Inputs
To run the report, you must provide the following:
- Required: Business name, state
- Optional (but recommended): Website, street address, city, zip code. Note: Providing a website or address significantly improves match accuracy, especially for franchises or businesses with common names.
Outputs
When a match is found, the report returns the following sections:
- Business Summary: Displays the matched business name, category (e.g., Coffee Shop), founding year, and BBB file open date.
- BBB Accreditation: Indicates whether the business is BBB Accredited or Not Accredited.
- BBB Rating: Letter grade from A+ to F (or NR for No Rating), including the date the rating was last changed.
- Total Complaints: Total complaint count over the last 3 years, including a breakdown by complaint type and closure outcomes (e.g., resolved, answered).
- Reviews and Ratings: Average star rating out of 5, total review count, and a breakdown by star level (1–5 stars).
- Business Contact: Primary business URL, phone number, email address, and business address.
- People Contacts: Key contact roles listed by the business (e.g., Customer Care).
Not all BBB profiles include every field. Some businesses may have no reviews, complaints, or contact details listed.
Interpreting results
- BBB Rating: Ranges from A+ (lowest risk) to F (highest risk); NR means No Rating. Many customers treat B and below as a signal for manual review.
- Accreditation: Not Accredited does not mean a business is illegitimate — many legitimate businesses choose not to pursue accreditation.
- Complaints and Reviews: BBB feedback tends to overrepresent negative experiences, as it is typically submitted by consumers who had an issue. Treat complaint counts and review scores as supplemental signals, not definitive indicators of fraud.
- Data freshness: The report includes timestamps showing when BBB last updated the business record and rating.
- Match status: A business is considered Matched even if Not Accredited, as long as BBB returns a profile. If no profile is found, the report returns No Matches.
Workflows Integration
The BBB Report supports conditionals in Workflows based on Matched (true/false), Accredited (true/false), and Letter grade (A+ to F, NR). This allows you to automatically route higher-risk businesses to additional checks or manual review.
Frequently asked questions
Is the BBB a government agency?
No. The BBB is an independent non-profit organization.
Does “Not accredited” mean a business is unsafe?
No. Many legitimate businesses are not BBB-accredited.
Does the report include individual complaint details?
No. The report includes aggregated complaint counts, type distributions, and closure outcomes only.
What business inputs result in the best match rates?
BBB has its highest match rate with Business Name + State + Website. Adding a website improves accuracy by helping distinguish between similar businesses and increasing match confidence.