Who uses Better Business Bureau
Businesses that want a BBB Business Profile where customers can read reviews and complaints. BBB describes claiming a profile as free. BBB also says responsiveness to complaints is a core part of its accreditation and reporting standards.
Claim your profile
- Open Get Your Business Listed (bbb.org/get-listed). Under "Submit a business to our directory", enter the business name and the city, state or ZIP and choose Search.
- If the business already has a profile, choose Select next to it to claim it (BBB describes claiming as free). If it is not listed, choose Add It Now to request a new Business Profile.
- On "Request access to a business", confirm the business details and enter the primary contact. Once the local BBB reviews the request, you manage the profile and reviews from your BBB business account.
Step 1Search for the business first. Captured October 28, 2026 
Step 2Select your listing, or Add It Now when it is not there. Captured October 28, 2026 
Step 3Request access; the local BBB reviews it. Captured October 28, 2026
Captured on October 28, 2026; the site's screens may have changed since. Names of other people and businesses are blurred.
Replying to reviews
Log in to the BBB business account to respond to reviews and complaints. BBB sends each review to the business before it is published, and shares the reviewer's name so the business can confirm the interaction and respond. A business that disagrees with a review should give BBB a response explaining its position.
- BBB advises acknowledging the customer's concern, explaining the business's position or the corrective steps, and apologizing where appropriate.
- BBB advises replying to positive reviews as well as negative ones.
- BBB advises against quoting policy and against generic copy-and-paste replies. If an exchange becomes heated, move it offline and give direct contact details.
- Complaints are handled separately: BBB forwards a complaint to the business within two business days and asks for a reply within 10 to 15 calendar days, sending a follow-up if there is none.
Review rules
In our own words. The official page is the rule that applies.
- Only the person who directly dealt with the business can file a review. Payment is not required.
- BBB confirms a marketplace interaction took place and validates the reviewer's email address or phone number.
- Anonymous reviews are not accepted.
- Incentivized reviews, such as those tied to discounts, gifts or paid mystery shopping, are not accepted, and neither are reviews where the reviewer was compensated directly or indirectly.
- BBB removes inappropriate language and personal information before publishing. Third-party comments on reviews are not allowed.
- A person can file a review or a complaint about the same experience, not both.
- Reviews do not count toward the BBB letter grade. Complaints do, and they appear on the profile for three years from filing.
- BBB says it cannot guarantee the accuracy or truthfulness of any single review.
- BBB discourages non-disparagement or confidentiality clauses that penalize customers for filing complaints or reviews.
Reporting a review
Better Business Bureau's own process, step by step.
- BBB does not describe a general flag-and-remove process for reviews on the pages reached.
- A business that believes it never interacted with the reviewer can challenge the review. BBB then contacts the reviewer and asks them to substantiate the interaction.
- If a customer files a complaint about the same issue with the same email, BBB suspends the review, since a customer cannot submit both a complaint and a negative review.
- For a review the business disagrees with, BBB asks it to provide a response explaining its position.
- The pages reached did not give a step-by-step form or a timeline for challenging a review.
BBB Reviews Widget
Show your BBB reviews on your own website, updated by themselves. Connect BBB in Grades.com, then copy a widget from Review Marketing in your dashboard with BBB as the only site (sites="bbb"). On WordPress, use [grades_widget preset="carousel" theme="light" accent="#6b42fe" sites="bbb"].
Script tag: a BBB carousel
<script src="https://app.grades.com/embed/widget.js" data-widget="carousel" data-key="gk_pub_YOUR_KEY" data-theme="light" data-accent="#6b42fe" data-sites="bbb" async></script>
4.9128 reviews
BBBReviews on grades.com
BBBReviews on grades.comDana K.BBB
BBBQuick to answer and easy to work with. They did exactly what they promised, on time.
Luis M.BBB
BBBFriendly people and a fair price. I would happily go back and recommend them.
Priya S.BBB
BBBThey explained every step and followed up afterwards. A great experience.
Tips
- Respond promptly and respectfully to reviews and complaints.
- Assign one staff member to monitor reviews so replies are timely and consistent.
- Keep replies short, factual and specific to the customer's issue.
- Do not offer incentives for reviews, and do not use contract clauses that stop customers from posting reviews or complaints.
- Respond to every complaint BBB forwards. BBB says not responding can hurt a business's BBB rating.
Sources
Last checked October 22, 2026. Site rules change; the official pages are the final word.
- https://www.bbb.org/get-listed
- https://www.bbb.org/business/resources
- https://www.bbb.org/all/customer-reviews/reviews
- https://www.bbb.org/consumer/customer-reviews/faq
- https://www.bbb.org/consumer/customer-reviews/process
- https://www.bbb.org/process-of-complaints-and-reviews/complaints
- https://www.bbb.org/all/customer-reviews/encourage-reviews
- https://www.bbb.org/article/business/27841-bbb-business-tip-why-responding-to-your-customer-reviews-matters
About the numbers
- AI citations: the share of answers from AI assistants that cite a page on bbb.org, out of 23,227 answers in the last 90 days, to questions about the businesses in our directory ("what do customers say about ...") and to category questions ("best dentist in ..."). Search-result and help pages on a review site are not counted. As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- Cited by AI, by industry: for each industry (a directory category, or the national brands filed under an industry such as e-commerce), the share of AI answers about businesses in that industry that cite a page on bbb.org; n is the number of answers in that industry (last 90 days; only industries with at least 20 answers). As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- Has a profile, by industry: the share of the businesses we checked in each industry that have a Better Business Bureau profile; n is the number of businesses checked in that industry. As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- States: the share of the businesses we checked in each state that have a Better Business Bureau profile. States with too few businesses for a stable number are marked "small sample" and are not ranked; when every state is a small sample, none is shown. As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- Typical rating: the mean star rating of the Better Business Bureau reviews we collected for the businesses we checked (702 reviews). As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- Reply rate: the share of the Better Business Bureau reviews we collected that show a public reply from the business, and the median time between the review and the reply (13,867 reviews). As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- Site reach: the estimated monthly organic search visits to bbb.org (DataForSEO Labs) and its Domain Rating (Ahrefs, 0 to 100). These are third-party estimates for the whole domain, not figures from Better Business Bureau. As of October 2026. ↩
How these numbers are collected: how we measure.