“On A Mission” showcases leaders who are going the extra mile each and every day. Each of the people we interview is on a mission to serve, inspire and educate. Our hosts highlight their impact and explore what motivates, engages and fulfills individuals and teams to be more productive, more effective, better at what they do, and happier to do it. Today our host, Morgan Allen, spoke with Robyn Householder.
Robyn Householder
CEO of the Better Business Bureau
Website Address: www.bbb.org
Short company description:
BBB is an association of Accredited Businesses committed to ethical business practices and works to deliver BBB’s mission of advancing trust in the marketplace. Through information, education, and scam prevention, we connect buyers and sellers, ensuring positive outcomes.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned over your career?
Servant leadership – serving others, be it your team, customers, or the community, should be top of mind in all you do. Be available, be present, and be grateful for the many opportunities your career has provided.
What nonprofit do you have a heart for and how do you support it?
Samaritans Feet. Volunteering at annual events to provide children with a new pair of shoes and socks, while washing their feet, talking about their dreams and sharing Christ’s love is an incredible joy and honor.
What’s your favorite way to get involved in the community?
Mentoring and assisting others in making trusted and productive connections that drive positive outcomes.
If you could be remembered for one thing, what would it be?
I hope I am remembered for is the people and organizations that are stronger because I had the opportunity to serve them. I want to be remembered as someone who prioritized integrity, listened first, and created space for others to grow and succeed.
Transcript:
Morgan:
Welcome back to another episode of On A Mission, where we highlight those who are on a mission to make an impact. I’m Morgan Allen, joined today by Robyn Householder with the Better Business Bureau. Robyn, thank you so much for joining.
Robyn:
Absolutely pleased to be here. Thank you.
Morgan:
Yes. So tell me about your mission with the Better Business Bureau centrally in the Tennessee Kentucky area, is that correct?
Robyn:
Right. So we are middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. So we serve 45 counties. I’ve got neighbors in Chattanooga, Knoxville and Memphis. And the core reason exists, and we’ve been around for over 110 years, is to help advance trust in the marketplace. We do that through education. We do that through information. We do that through scam prevention and of course, dispute resolution.
Morgan:
Wonderful. So you guys have an event coming up and I’d love to highlight this. This is something you do every year. So tell us about the Big Blue Bash.
Robyn:
Yes. So the Big Blue Bash is our celebration of what we like to refer to as brilliance in business. And it’s where we recognize our Torch Award for Marketplace Trust winners, as well as our Spark Award winners, which is the Young Entrepreneurial Awards. The focus of these awards is companies being recognized for strong communications, strong culture, strong character, and strong service to the community that they live in.
And so it’s not about making the most money or growing the fastest, but it really speaks to the core organization and what is important to them and how they present themselves to the marketplace. So we’ll be recognizing 17 companies at the Big Blue Bash course. There’s some networking, but we’re also celebrating our 65th anniversary, where we will be recognizing our founding members from 1961.
And we’re very proud to say we started with only 21. We still have 18 of those 21. But of course, that’s a small percentage of the more than 4000 members that we have now.
Morgan:
Wow, that is fantastic. Very exciting. I love that. So who do you help? How do you find the people or do they find you when they come to the Better Business Bureau?
Robyn:
Sure. So most of the consumer activity happens on our website, which is BBB.org, and similar to any other website, it will identify where you’re physically located so that it directs you to our information. Consumers can look up companies, they can file complaints. They can enter customer reviews on a positive or negative experience they’ve had with the company. And really what it’s about is making sure that they do a little bit of homework on the front end so that they’re doing business with someone that’s reputable, as opposed to having to come to us afterwards because they’ve been taken advantage of.
And that happens about 3 million times a year just in my market now, for our member companies, it is an application process because we want to make sure that anyone that is on our roster really does embody integrity. So when a company applies, we look at everything from how long we verify, how long they’ve been in business, if they have appropriate licensing, are they appropriately insured for the industry they’re in?
We make sure that there’s no criminal activity or anything like that, so that in essence, we like to say we’ve checked the company out so you don’t have to.
Morgan:
Fantastic. Now what kind of standards do you guys live by for the people who are in your database.
Robyn:
Sure. So we have eight standards of what we call trust. The first one is honor promises, so that as an organization, if you make a commitment to your consumer, we need to know that you’re going to live by that standard. The other is to safeguard privacy. So if you’re doing business online, we want to make sure that you have all the appropriate protocols to ensure that that consumers or customers information is not compromised.
We want to make sure that you’re operating through building trust, meaning that you’re not only well established, you’re not a fly by night, you’re not a storm chaser, that you’ve been in a market serving the community for a pretty extended period of time, that we can show a proven track record, that you’re transparent. So when you enter into a relationship with your customer, you’re going to be very honest about your return policies or your needed deposits for the work you’re being done or the timelines.
Again, be transparent with that consumer so that you are setting the standard of what their expectation can be. And then above all, we call it embody integrity. And that is that you’re not affiliated or involved in anything that sheds negatively on the positive relationship and the positive reputation of Better Business Bureau.
Morgan:
That is fantastic and so, so important in this day and age. Robyn, thank you so much for what you’re doing and for coming on the show today.
Robyn:
Happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Morgan:
Absolutely. And viewers, thank you for tuning in to another episode. If you want more information, you can head on over to Daily News Network. And we have it all right there. We’ll see you in the next episode of On A Mission.
The Daily News Network, Buzz Tv News, and DAILYBIZBRIEF highlight business professionals, nonprofits, veterans and community leaders on over 40 TV Segments including The Horse’s Mouth, Legacy of Leaders TV, Veterans Buzz TV, Finding Your Frequency, and Buzzworthy Businesses.
Teal, The Agency, powered by Client Focused Media, offers marketing agencies a full-service white-label solution to scale their services without the cost or complexity of building large in-house teams. Tailored for small and medium-sized agencies, Teal specializes in relationship-driven lead generation, advanced CRM workflows for personalized client engagement, and end-to-end project fulfillment. With powerful integrations like HighLevel, Stripe, and Zapier, Teal simplifies your operations while optimizing efficiency—saving you valuable time and resources. While other tools on the market like Vendasta, RocketDriver, and DashClicks, may require contracts, Teal provides flexible, no-contract pricing, giving you the freedom to grow on your terms. Ready to elevate your agency’s impact and efficiency? Explore how Teal can help you deliver exceptional results and better serve your clients. Apply on BeTeal.com today to start your journey toward becoming a marketing powerhouse by understanding digital marketing strategies for agencies, SEO best practices for marketing agencies and scaling a marketing agency.
