Trust Guard vs The Better Business Bureau (BBB)

Both Trust Guard and The Better Business Bureau seek to serve the public by advocating better business practices so that consumers, their information and their purchases are safe. It is the purpose of both organizations to help consumers feel more confident about their purchases and to educate and empower them with the information they need to make informed decisions about who they conduct business with.

While it is true that both Trust Guard and The BBB are striving toward the buying public being more aware of businesses that are trustworthy and legitimate, they go about it in different ways and with different focus.

The Better Business Bureau is a non-profit organization whose members are businesses that pay annual dues. Member companies and organizations must meet and maintain the standards of membership as outlined by the BBB. They work with the FTC to expose fraudulent businesses and scams that may be committed against and by businesses toward the public.

During the past 80+ years the BBB has committed itself to providing dispute resolution, business reliability reports and a general awareness of legitimate and illegitimate business for the buying public. Their goal is to help customers build trust in business, while helping businesses to grow and continue relationships with their patrons.

Trust Guard is a third party verification company whose primary objective is to benefit online merchants and customers the world over by identifying safe and legitimate websites to conduct business with. Trust Guard commits itself to providing online consumers with the information they need to make informed decisions by verifying websites' authenticity and making sure that they are honestly portraying themselves to their visitors.

Although it can be used in conjunction with the BBB, Trust Guard's Business Seal is specifically catered to small and medium sized online businesses who want to increase consumer trust in their business and their bottom line in the process. As an alternative to the Better Business Bureau seal, Internet merchants can save more than $6,000 a year when they opt for Trust Guard's Business Seal.

In order to qualify for the Trust Guard Business Seal, an organization must assure that their privacy policies are up standards provided by Trust Guard, both their business and a managing member's address must be verified, as well as their customer service phone number and support e-mail address.

Many online customers are still wary about the online transaction process, and they are especially concerned with whether or not a particular site can be trusted with their sensitive information. First and foremost, consumers want to know that a company is who they say they are. Both Trust Guard and the Better Business Bureau verify business identity. Their goal is to ensure that businesses are correctly and honestly portraying themselves to the public. Although they both strive toward the ultimate goal of business verification, the BBB generally focuses more on conflict resolution while Trust Guard's concentration gravitates more toward customer protection.

A Trust Guard seal gives customers a visual affirmation that business transactions will be private, safe and protected. Increasing customer trust in your website will result in better site conversion rates and higher sales. Hand in hand, Trust Guard and the Better Business Bureau can help to provide your customers with the information they need to feel confident about dealing with your business and website.