The Spokane-based Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Washington, North Idaho and Montana says it is one of nine BBB offices, out of a total of 122, testing a new "customer reviews" feature for BBB ratings.

It launched the online feature about a month ago, and local BBB President and CEO Jan Quintrall says the pilot program is going well so far.

"I'm thrilled. It's better than I ever thought it would be," Quintrall says.

About 200 reviews had been posted by about the end of July, with about 75 percent of reviews of BBB-accredited businesses and 25 percent of reviews of nonaccredited businesses being positive, she says, describing that disparity as not surprising.

Users of the bbb.org website can submit a customer review, read customer reviews, or see trends in customer reviews for a particular business by going to the BBB rating page for that business and clicking on one of the links under a new "customers reviews" section there.

"It's been really well received by the businesses, because we're verifying that it is a customer" who posts the review, rather than a disgruntled employee or a competitor seeking just to spew negativity, Quintrall says.

Businesses that are the subjects of the reviews can post responses to customers' posts, good or bad, "so it becomes a conversation," she says. Customer reviews are edited, where necessary, to remove profanity and personal information, she says.

Website users who wish to file a complaint about a business can do that or submit a customer review, but not both, because part of the intent with the new feature is to avoid providing a forum dominated by negativity, she says. The BBB prefers that an unhappy customer submit a complaint with it and seek resolution with the business, rather than griping with no intent to resolve the dispute.

"I hope eventually we take as many customer reviews a year as we do complaints," which is roughly 6,000 to 7,000, Quintrall says. "That would be about 20 a day. At the rate we're going, I think in another six months we'll be there."

Expanding into customer reviews was a big step for the BBB, which prides itself on being a neutral repository and intermediary focused on resolving disputes between businesses and customers, she says. She adds, though, that surveyed users of the heavily visited website—both businesses and consumers—had indicated a desire to see something beyond information posted by the BBB for businesses on which it has file information.

"It took a while to work out how we were going to do this in a way people would expect the BBB to do it, and that means accountability," Quintrall says.

The BBB office here, located at 152 S. Jefferson, employs 23 people. It derives its operating funds largely from the dues paid by accredited businesses. Those dues begin at $475 annually for small companies and range upward based on number of employees and branches. The BBB office here currently includes a little over 3,200 accredited businesses.