Good Neighbor Podcast: North Shore
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of North Shore
Good Neighbor Podcast: North Shore
EP #62 - Trust Matters: Inside the Better Business Bureau with Paula Fleming
Who holds businesses accountable for their promises? Paula Fleming, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer of the Better Business Bureau, sheds light on the BBB’s role in building trust and transparency in today’s marketplace. Contrary to popular belief, the BBB isn’t a government agency but a nonprofit supported by its accredited members. Fleming outlines the rigorous standards businesses must meet for accreditation—rejecting up to 15% of applicants monthly—and explains how the BBB’s customer review verification process helps distinguish it from other platforms.
Beyond the boardroom, Fleming’s own journey—marked by professional setbacks, weekend swim lessons for kids, and her life as a devoted dog mom—adds a personal touch to her mission. She sees the BBB as a proactive partner, offering free tools like business profiles, scam alerts, and educational resources to help consumers make smarter decisions before problems arise. Visit BBB.org or follow them on social media to gain a trusted ally in navigating the modern marketplace—and protect both your wallet and your peace of mind.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Yvonne Godfrey.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today, I have the distinct pleasure of introducing to our listeners Paula Fleming. She is the Chief Marketing and Sales Officer for the Better Business Bureau. Paula, how are you doing today? I'm doing great, thank you, and yourself, I am fantastic. Thank you for asking. So, paula, can you please tell our listeners what it is that you do as the chief marketing and sales officer for the Better Business Bureau?
Speaker 3:Sure Well, my journey to the B2B role has been driven by my passion for trust and transparency in various sectors. So, specifically, my goal is to educate your listeners, the public, in regards to going to betterbusinessbureaubbborg to educate themselves, whether it be checking out a business, learning about our tips or scams, and and educating making an educated decision on who they want to do business with beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 2:In a nutshell, yes, how did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:uh well, back over 20 years ago, I decided that I wanted to go into the non-profit industry, and people assume Better Business Bureau is a government agency, and in fact we are not. We are a nonprofit organization funded by the members that we serve, and so I felt that nonprofit life would give me a sense of making a difference, and I truly feel that it has. Every day, I'm helping consumers and businesses, and that's where my passion lies.
Speaker 2:And so, based on what you shared, that would be considered a myth or misconception. Absolutely, in fact, it is yes. And are there any other myths or misconception that you can share with us about the Better Business Bureau?
Speaker 3:Sure, well, oftentimes, people assume that if someone pays to join the Better Business Bureau then we automatically approve them, and that is not the case. We are not a pay-to-play. We have nearly 100 businesses a month locally come to us to apply for accreditation and unfortunately, roughly 10 to 15, we cannot accredit because they do not meet our standards. One is, for example, to be in business for six plus months so they have an established uh business. Number two, if one main reason, uh, it would be that they are not properly licensed and or insured in the state um, and if their industry deems necessary. So just because you pay to, you cannot just automatically get the BBB accreditation seal. It is something that is earned.
Speaker 2:Are there any other myths or misconception you can share?
Speaker 3:I think that people don't understand that we are a third party, impartial, that we work with both the businesses and the consumers to come to a agreed upon resolution if they have a complaint. But a lot of people are also unaware we don't that we do handle customer reviews, which are different than complaints, and we do vet those customer reviews, unlike some of the other locations people go to to write customer reviews, and what I mean by that is not anyone can just write a customer review. Sometimes you see reviews that are clearly from a disgruntled employee or a competitor. We in fact make sure that you are a consumer of the business and that this review, whether positive, negative or neutral, is from someone that is a customer.
Speaker 2:Thank you for elaborating Absolutely so, paula. What do you outside of work? What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:I actually teach swim lessons to children ages six months to five years old on the weekends Adorable, yes. And I'm also a dog mom. I have an English bulldog and a Frenchie. And I am a mother to two young adults, one that is attending UMass, Amherst Eisenberg, and the other who's entering into University of Alabama.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome Congratulations. That's excellent, thank you. So, changing gears, can you describe one hardship or one of life's challenge that you rose above and can now say, because of it, you're better and you're stronger? What comes to your mind?
Speaker 3:Well, earlier in my career I faced significant professional setback a project I poured my heart into and it ultimately didn't succeed, which led to self-doubt, questioning my abilities, and it was a tough time. So once you put all this effort into you know a project and it kind of falls flat. It can be you can make anyone question themselves. So really taking that and making turning it around has taught me resilience and the importance of learning from failure and that I need to adapt and pivot when things don't go as planned, because you know there's that saying is like you know, god laughs at our plans. So it's just making sure that I am open-minded and that I really take everything as a learning experience and know that things will work out in the end and it always does.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank God, thank God. So, paula, can you please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about your service at the Better Business Bureau?
Speaker 3:Sure. Well, I hope that your listeners take away this one thing, which is that BBB is a valuable resource for everyone, not just when things go wrong. We're here to help you make informed decisions before you make a purchase, so aligning yourself with trustworthy businesses in your community and learning about potential scams. So visit BBBorg first, not after the fact, when you find yourself, unfortunately, a victim of a scam or unhappy with a product or service provided it's usually easier for people to come after the fact rather than before the fact.
Speaker 3:Right exactly, and we want we want your listeners to think of us as a go-to resource um for marketplace trust beautiful.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So, paula, how can our listeners learn more about the better business bureau?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. I mentioned, but let me say it again, bbborg is a comprehensive resource. It is free, where you can search for accredited businesses. You can check out business profiles on members and non-members. We have hundreds of thousands of businesses in our system. You can file a complaint, report a scam and access a wealth of knowledge, consumer education, business information. So, bbborg, you can also connect with us on social media platforms. We are on YouTube, instagram, tiktok and we offer a lot of great advice and information and warnings through our social media platforms.
Speaker 2:Beautiful, thank you, paula. And warnings through our social media platforms Beautiful, thank you, paula. You're welcome and, paula, we also really appreciate you being on the show with us. It's my pleasure and we wish you and the Better Business Bureau all the very best moving forward. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPNorthshorecom. That's GNPNorthshorecom, or call 857-703-9406.