Start With Trust - Better Business Bureau® of SA Annual Re… · Lynn Corbeil, Director of...

2009-

2010

StartWith

Trust

BBB Serving Southern Alberta and East Kootenays

AnnualReport

Annual Report 2009-2010

Top Ten Inquiries by Type of Business

1. Roofers2. Home Builders3. Plumbers4. Moving and Storage Companies5. General Contractors6. Car Dealerships7. Home Renovations8. Movers9. Landscapers10. Heating/Air Conditioning Suppliers

Top Ten Complaints by Type of Business

1. Car Dealerships2. Health Clubs3. Furniture Retailers4. Airlines5. Television-Cable, CATV & Satellite6. Home Builders7. Satellite Equipment Suppliers8. Furniture Designers9. Moving and Storage Companies10. Plumbers

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Principles for TrustStart With TrustEstablish and maintain a positive track record in the marketplace.

Advertise HonestlyAdhere to established standards of advertising and selling.

Tell the TruthReveal all related conditions or exceptions regarding products or services offered.

Be TransparentOpenly identify the nature, location, and ownership of the business, and clearly disclose all policies, guarantees and procedures that bear on a customer’s decision to buy.

Honour PromisesAbide by all written and verbal agreements.

Be ResponsiveAddress marketplace disputes quickly, respectfully, and reasonably.

Embody IntegrityApproach all business dealings, marketplace transactions and commitments with integrity.

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2009-2010 Board of Directors

Lawrence Bates, Stadium Nissan Inc.

Norbert Brinkhaus, Brinkhaus Jewellers

John Davidson, Info Laser

Helena DeVries, Helena DeVries Productions Inc.

Patti Falconer, Falconer Academy of Modelling Ltd.

Jim Gillespie, Calgary Motor Dealers Association

David Hoeght, Renfrew Chrysler Inc.

Dave Johnson, Bert Johnson Enterprises Ltd.

Dal Lewis, Calgary Sun

Sharlene Massie, About Staffing Ltd.

Harper-Lee Overli, City of Calgary

Greg Shannon, Dynamic Circulation Inc. (Miller Thomson)

Gordon Smith, Varsity Community Association

Charron Ungar, Homes by Avi (Canada) Inc.


2009-2010 Executive Committee

David SteeleBennett Jones LLPChairman

Gary CobbCalgary Herald

Keith DavisDavis Communications Group

Tony FisherSML Entertainment

Denise HigginsonRenfrew Insurance Ltd.

Dennis O’NeillKing’s Transfer Van Lines (Calgary)

Al SearleEmeritus

Nick SimsSunik Roofing

Bob LaneEmeritus

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BBB Serving Southern Alberta and East Kootenays is the standard for trust for businesses, consumers, and charities. Trust is our business, integrity is our practice, and ethics is our policy.

BBB also continues to lead the marketplace in promoting trustworthy business practices. BBB is an ardent champion of trust, offering marketplace information, investigations, advertising review, and dispute resolution through our Trade Practices department.

The ongoing success of the BBB is the result of its hard-working and dedicated management team and staff led by Ellen Wright, President and CEO through the end of 2009, and Barry Baim, current President and CEO. In addition to our presidents, our Director of Operations, Nancy Brown; Director of Business Relations, Lynn Corbeil; and Manager of Trade Practices, Anne Gannon, are always supported by a diverse Board with a breadth of business experience and a depth of business knowledge. BBB Serving Southern Alberta and East Kootenays has a roster of committed volunteers who give their time generously to assist our BBB Accredited Businesses, other companies, and consumers.

BBB had been also served ably by Ellen Wright as President and CEO for a number years. Ellen Wright left to take an exciting new challenge as the Executive Director of the Calgary Police Commission. We are excited over the past few months to have Barry Baim as our new President and CEO, bringing his wealth of experience in management, marketing, and branding to your BBB.

The BBB draws its strength from its BBB Accredited Businesses, a group of businesses meeting standards of conduct, standards of behaviour, and standards of trust. Thank you for continuing to support the ethics, integrity, and honesty in the marketplace extolled by the BBB.

David Steele, Chair


Message from the Chairman

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President’s Message

2009-2010 was a year of change. Although the first part of the fiscal year was a challenge, there was positive change in the dynamics of the marketplace, consumer confidence, business momentum and within the organization of our community’s BBB as the year progressed.

Mindful of this, the performance of your BBB this past fiscal year was overall positive. In terms of growth, we welcomed 493 new businesses into our roster this year, bringing our roster to an impressive 3400 BBB Accredited Businesses.

As part of what turned out to be our busiest year yet, in 2009-2010, your BBB also received an almost 50 per cent increase in the number of inquiries and complaints. Also, with the introduction of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), our website saw more than 1.5 million hits this year, that’s 87 per cent more website traffic than last year. It’s clear that consumers are hearing our message: Start With Trust. More and more consumers are using BBB services to inquire about companies before engaging their services.

I extend my sincere thanks to our dedicated staff, volunteers and board members. It is because of you that we have been able to achieve growth this year, despite a turbulent economy. I look forward to significant growth in the coming years, as we continue to search for better ways to promote trust in the marketplace and to serve our BBB Accredited Businesses.

Barry Baim, President and CEO


Auditors’ Report

5


Statement of financial position

6


Statement of revenues and expenditures

Statement of changes in net assets

7


Statement of cash flow

8


Notes to the financial statements

9


Notes to the financial statements (continued)

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Revenues vs Expenses

0 500000 1000000 1500000 2000000

Expenses

Revenues

2009-2010

2008-2009

2007-2008

1,720,089

1,671,796

1,834,041

1,881,016

1,694,231

1,743,188

1100 of our BBB Accredited Businesses havebeen accredited for more than 10 years.


In 2009-2010 your BBB continued to seek out only those that meet our high Standards for Trust, prove industry licensing and enjoy solid marketplace histories to join our growing roster of trustworthy BBB Accredited Businesses.

Your BBB welcomed 493 new BBB Accredited Businesses, even through the turbulent economy. In fact, our Medicine Hat and area new BBB Accredited Business roster increased over last year by an impressive 56.7 per cent, while our Lethbridge and area roster saw a notable increase of 52.9 per cent. City of Calgary businesses also realized the value of the public recognition that BBB accreditation brings, and this year 5 per cent more businesses became accredited than last year. Trust transcends every industry and it is no longer just a social issue, it has become an economic one. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our group of first year BBB Accredited Businesses. This year our first year BBB Accredited Businesses ranged from accountants, to window contractors, to almost every allowable industry in between. Interestingly, these newly BBB Accredited Businesses ranged in years in business from 98 years (1912) to 1 year, and our entire roster averages 21 years in business.

Our roster is better able to send a clear statement on their beliefs in trust, ethics and integrity in the marketplace through their BBB accreditation status.

Congratulations to all of our newly BBB Accredited Businesses.

Lynn Corbeil, Director of Business Relations

BBB Accredited Business Development

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This year, our BBB Accredited Businesses became more aware and took further advantage of the benefits of accreditation, both online and off.

Thanks to the introduction of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), our local BBB website saw three times more traffic this year than in the previous fiscal year. As a result, online reliability reports experienced increased traffic and more attention was directed to our BBB Accredited Businesses. Additionally, the BBBOnline Reliability Seal saw a 105 per cent increase in applicants this year, further drawing traffic to online reliability reports.

Offline, this year’s two main events, the ever-popular Stampede Warm-up and the Business Ethics Awards in Calgary, were well attended and well received.

Despite the inconsistent economic climate in 2009-2010, we managed to increase our retention rate slightly over last year from 87 to 88 per cent. Overall this is significant, as those that don’t remain accredited include the 5 to 10 per cent of businesses that must resign accreditation due to sale or closure.

Our BBB Accredited Businesses continued to see the positive results of the letter-grade rating system this year. Almost all BBB Accredited Businesses have an A range rating, with 75 per cent receiving an A+. Compare this to the only 28 per cent of non-BBB Accredited Businesses that received an A rating. It’s a true statement to the high standards our BBB Accredited Businesses are held to.

We’re also proud to report that our BBB Accredited Businesses roster has grown to almost 3400 members, approximately 1100 have been accredited for over 10 years. We’re certain that these numbers will continue to increase as our BBB searches to improve its benefits to BBB Accredited Businesses in the coming years.

Nancy Brown, Director of Operations

BBB Accredited Business Services


2009-2010 2008-2009 2007-2008

Inquiries 363,149 241,274 257,946

Complaints 4,204 5,020 6,708

Mediations/Arbitrations 104 529 472

Other Services 594 - -

Media & PR 143 134 109

Emails & Walk-ins 7,686 7,747 11,835

Total Instances of Service 375,880 254,704 277,07014

Trade Practices

Over the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the Trade Practices department has seen a 50 per cent increase in instances of service, for a total of 375,880. Whereas verbal and written complaints received by your BBB are down about 50 and 6.5 per cent respectively, we received 50 per cent more reliability report inquiries, for a total of 363,149. This increase was largely due to the public accessing reliability reports online and shows that consumers are becoming more aware of our online services. It’s also apparent, based on this impressive increase, that consumers are more and more associating BBB with trust and are researching companies before they engage their services.

Advertising reviews challenge companies to substantiate their advertising and this year we increased our efforts in this area. BBB started out in 1912 with ad reviews and we still perform this function in 2010, keeping businesses accountable.

Also on the increase are approvals for the BBBOnline Seal for websites. Since the introduction of the new BBB Accredited Business standards in January 2009, we have pre-approved applicants for this program, as they must comply with BBB advertising standards to qualify. These standards emphasize integrity, truth, honesty, transparency, honouring promises, responsiveness and safeguarding privacy in order to build trust between businesses and their customers.

At the same time, adding ratings to our company reports continues to be well accepted. Naturally, some businesses and consumers have had questions about specific ratings, but the fact that the calculation is based on objective parameters generally addresses any concerns.

Tracking scams and various fraudulent activities have kept us busy and in touch with local and national media. Your BBB is now part of Fraud Prevention Alberta and participated in this year’s Fraud Prevention Week in Calgary and Lethbridge. In addition, we continue to provide consumer education through information on our website, public presentations and media contact on consumer education issues.

With the help of our experienced volunteers, whose commitment we very much appreciate, the Trade Practices department continues to provide professional, quality information and dispute resolution services to Southern Alberta and East Kootenays.

Anne Gannon, Manager of Trade Practices

Consumers accessed over 363,000 reliability reports in 2009-2010.


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Communications and Marketing

The 2009-2010 fiscal year was marked by an unprecedented level of activity within BBB’s Communications and Marketing department, with an increased focus on driving awareness of BBB in the consumer and business arenas.

While scattershot mass-marketing can be a strategy ill-suited to a non-profit entity such as ourselves, targeted efforts proved effective for BBB. Driving the most powerful results was the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) work undertaken early in the year. In March 2010, after a year’s worth of SEO, visitor traffic was up 313 per cent from the previous year. Further, the source of our Web traffic went from 33 per cent being derived from search engines at the beginning of the year to nearly 70 per cent by March 2010.

In the spring, we worked with the Calgary Sun and Calgary Herald to create awareness of BBB on their respective websites through big box ads and a recurring ‘button’ on the Calgary Sun that appears on every page and every story, garnering millions of impressions each month. The initiative was so successful that we chose to continue running the button further into 2010.

During the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in February, we undertook an advertising campaign in the medium of print. BBB ran a series of ten advertisements directed at consumers and businesses in the Calgary Sun’s daily Olympic pullout, a piece both well-read and sometimes treated as a collectable, giving the campaign potentially lasting value.

The most effective means of communicating BBB’s core messages – and reaching consumers and businesses that could benefit from our trusted advice – is through our partners in the media. Media contact was up nearly 10 per cent over the previous year, and the level of contact has nearly doubled since 2005-2006. Television, radio, and newspapers all turned to BBB for advice on topics ranging from hiring renovators, to a pervasive asphalt scam, to explaining the provincial government’s action against an energy company. One unique instance found us detailing a wide-ranging online electronics retail scam – about which our BBB had investigated and alerted the system across North America – to CBS’ The Early Show, a program with nearly three million viewers each day.

Overall, your BBB’s successful year of communications and marketing can be traced back to a long-term goal that BBB will ‘be everywhere’. We want our organization top-of-mind for consumers as they consider a business, or wonder about a marketplace practice and we want businesses to think of us as they look for ways to better differentiate themselves from their competitors. The groundwork has been laid, but a great deal lies ahead of us to make that goal a reality.

Daniel MacDonald, Communications and Marketing Coordinator

0 500000 1000000 1500000 2000000

2009-2010

2008-2009

2007-2008

Website Views

1,512,800

807,435

684,770


Calgary and East Kootenays350, 7330 Fisher Street SECalgary, Alberta T2H 2H8Phone: 403.531.8784Fax: 403.640.2514

Lethbridge104, 444 - 5 Avenue SouthLethbridge, Alberta T1J 0T5Phone: 403.394.0660Fax: 403.394.0669

Medicine HatP.O. Box 302, 97 Carry DriveMedicine Hat, Alberta T1B 3M6Phone: 403.527.6484Fax: 403.526.0344

Thank you to our sponsors:

www.calgary.bbb.org / www.lethbridge.bbb.org / www.medicinehat.bbb.org / www.kootenay.bbb.org

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