Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/1177412
BUILDING TRUST BEGINS WITH ETHICS PUBLISHER Bob Cox MANAGER OF NICHE PRODUCTS Barb Borden Barb.Borden@freepress.mb.ca EDITOR Jim Timlick jimtimlick@gmail.com WRITERS Jim Bender Wendy King Geoff Kirbyson Todd Lewys Jennifer McFee Diane Poulin Patrick Rediger Jim Timlick PHOTOGRAPHY Darcy Finley DESIGN Jane Chartrand View online at winnipegfreepress.com/ publications * *Trademark of the International Association of Better Business Bureaus used under license L en Andrusiak, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Manitoba and Northwest Ontario, offers insight by answering a few questions about the long-standing North American-wide organization. The BBB is operated and funded by community businesses that commit to its Code of Business Practices. What is the main purpose of the Better Business Bureau of Manitoba and Northwest Ontario? The BBB is a non-profit with feet on the ground in the community. Since the beginning of the organization, our focus has been helping and educating businesses and consumers through our services. Our objective is to build trust in the community. We are the longest-serving BBB in Canada, taking us into our 100th anniversary. We have between 35,000 and 42,000 consumers every month that research businesses at the BBB Manitoba Northwest Ontario website. The objective of the website is to provide transparent information about what is actually taking place in relationships with businesses and consumers. What are some of the services that the BBB offers? One of the primary reasons the BBB became established was to do advertising reviews. Back when it started, the industry felt that the public was being misled. Advertising should be designed specifically to help educate consumers on products and services that they can buy. So we undertook doing advertising reviews and we still do them today. We also do dispute resolution as a third-party conciliation organization. We help businesses and consumers try and resolve their issues before they go to litigation. What is Scam Tracker? We run an interactive online scam tracking tool called Scam Tracker (www.bbb.org/ scamtracker). It is a live interactive map of North America in which consumers can drill down right into their own community and find out what types of scams are taking place in their neighbourhood. We give them the ability to identify if they've been the target of a scam so that they can provide detailed information to other consumers about frauds that are taking place. Every year, we also put out a brochure about the top 10 scams. It's put out right across North America, and we have a piece that talks specifically about Canada. Almost $3 billion was associated with scams in 2018. How does the BBB accreditation process work? As a non-profit organization in the community, our primary revenue model is BBB accreditation. Businesses that believe in our mission and vision can apply for BBB accreditation. BBB runs an investigation on those businesses using the Code of Business Practices that we follow. We ensure that companies that apply for accreditation have met those codes and are eligible to become accredited. Businesses must have a minimum track record of six months in business and minimum B rating to be invited to apply for accreditation. Once that investigation is processed, we then take the information and submit it to a committee of the board of directors, which votes to accept the business into the organization. Right now, we have about 1,200 accredited businesses in our jurisdiction of Manitoba and Northwest Ontario. If businesses that are accredited don't adhere to the Code of Business Practices, then their accreditation with the organization could be revoked. -Jennifer McFee A relationship built on TRUST BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Roger Miranda, Evident IT - Chair Cory Huclack, Huclack Enterprises - Vice Chair Peter Manastyrsky, A Step Beyond - Treasurer Len Andrusiak, Better Business Bureau - Secretary Tom Russell, Four Points Financial - Past Chair Ron Anderson, Best Windows and Doors Tony LeBlanc, Winnipeg Free Press Dan Precourt, Colour Scheme Professionals Danielle Tkachyk, PMC Desaulniers Insurance Brokers