It happens to every business eventually. A project goes sideways. The fates align in the worst possible way – late items, a key worker quits, an expensive unforeseen complication was revealed behind a wall.

Your  client or customer was unhappy and took it to the BBB or worse – social media.

And you’re worried about your reputation.

Here are the next steps you need to take in order to repair your BBB rating and fix the damage done to your reputation.

Claim your company name with the BBB

You have contacted the Better Business Bureau to claim your company’s name, right? The worst situation is when your company is listed with the BBB and you have not yet claimed it, and the complainer gets there first.

Now, suddenly, you have only one rating, and it’s bad.

Make sure you register with the BBB here. Every day, thousands of people check on local businesses at the BBB, and registering is a crucial first step in managing your company’s online business with a trusted rating company.

This allows you to respond to complaints and explain your side. The BBB will also weigh in on efforts and list reasonable responses to complaint. Fair minded future clients will be able to tell if you made a good faith effort to fix the problem.

Make a good faith effort to fix the problem

The BBB knows that bad things happen. That is not how they determine your rating.

They judge a company by whether you took fair steps to resolve a problem. This means working directly with the customer to reach a fair agreement for how to solve a problem. This means fairly apportioning costs for unexpected overruns, and taking responsibility for delays.

This does NOT mean giving a customer your labor or products for free, or meeting all of their demands no matter how unreasonable.

Use your local BBB as a mediator

Many local BBBs over mediation in the case that you can’t reach a good settlement. This can be especially helpful for your BBB rating because it demonstrates your willingness to reach a fair resolution.

This step is especially helpful when your unhappy client is making unreasonable demands. The BBB will take your professionalism and effort into consideration. This means that the BBB, and not the client, gets the final word in your rating.