Occasionally I hear or read negative comments about the Better Business Bureau (BBB) in a particular part of the country. Those are discouraging to me, because here in the St. Louis area, we have one of the strongest and most active BBB’s in the country. They are no longer a “complaint bureau.” Not only do they encourage positive and negative reviews on companies, but they regularly publish materials to assist companies in being more reactive to consumers in their area.
BBB’s latest publication is a follow-up to studies previously published in 2004 and 2016. The studies commissioned by St. Louis BBB were conducted by Dr. James E. Fisher, a marketing professor at Saint Louis University’s Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business. The name of the studies is “Factors Influencing Consumer Buying Decisions.” While the study is not specific to the HVAC industry, I believe the results give us some important insight into why a consumer chooses a particular product or contractor.