How many consumers have complained about the roofer you're thinking of hiring or the bank with which you do business?

Soon, the answer will be a click or phone call away.

By Sept. 1, consumers trying to do their homework on local companies and service providers by checking them out with the Better Business Bureau will get more detail about their track record with customers.

For the first time, consumers will be able to learn the number and type of complaints each business has accumulated and how each complaint was handled. It's information the BBB always has collected but hadn't shared publicly.

All bureaus nationwide are required to make complaint data available by Sept. 30 after a vote last spring in which two-thirds of bureaus agreed to make it a mandatory standard for all.

The BBB of Western Washington, Oregon and Alaska had been reluctant to embrace this new, more open approach. But national BBB leaders hail it as a step forward for consumers and a way to maintain the agency's standing with them.

Robert Andrew, president and CEO of the local BBB, voted for the change after some earlier misgivings.

"My concern was if we're going to do it, let's do it right," he said.

Some early experiments by other bureaus to offer complaint data seemed to leave consumers "scratching their heads" and businesses feeling burned, Andrew said. But the process has been refined, he said, and now feels fair and helpful.

The BBB network aims to be a neutral third party in the marketplace, emphasizing ethical business practices, self-regulation and consumer education. Its core consumer service is collecting reliability reports on businesses, service providers and charities.

Consumers researching a company in the Northwest now see a message simply describing the company's record as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

For businesses that have received complaints, the report notes that and indicates whether the complaints have been resolved. Companies with an unsatisfactory record may have a notation that it is "due to failure to respond to a complaint."

When the new reporting standard is unveiled, local consumers will get additional detail similar to this:

"The bureau processed a total of three complaints in the last 36 months. Of the total complaints closed in 36 months, one was closed in the last year. These complaints concerned: two on product quality, one on customer service. They were closed as: two assumed resolved, one no response."

BBB information is free and is reported on members and nonmember businesses and charities. Consumers will be able to get the information online (www.thebbb.org) or by phone: 206-431-2222.

"It's factual information we feel people should have ... a quick, easy way for them to do their homework before they choose a company," local BBB spokeswoman Erin May said.

Experimenting with more

This may be just the beginning of changes that will make BBB information more useful to consumers.

A few bureaus around the country are experimenting with new approaches. In Los Angeles, consumers can read the actual consumer complaints about each company (with personal information removed), and that bureau is using a system that rates businesses on a graded scale.

The Boston bureau presents its complaint data in an industry context. For example, a consumer checking out a car dealer also sees how that dealer's complaint record stacks up against other local dealers.

For now, Western Washington consumers won't have access to that kind of context, although they could pull individual reports on similar businesses and cobble together their own.

These experiments "are likely the wave of the future for us," said Ron Berry, senior vice president with the Council of Better Business Bureaus in Arlington, Va.

Raw data vs. context

Just taking this first step was difficult enough.

"There's been a debate in the system about whether people are better served by us evaluating that data ... or whether they should just be given the raw numbers," Berry said.

Some bureaus say it's their job to interpret those numbers to avoid confusing consumers.

Berry remembers consumers asking for the numbers when he worked the phones at the Dallas bureau, and he would always provide them. But some people drew the wrong conclusions.

If he said a business had 50 complaints and 30 were unresolved, some consumers would ask, "So that's good, right?" Or if he mentioned that a company had a single complaint three years ago, some consumers would overreact and refuse to do business there.

Another concern is helping consumers take into account that a high-volume business naturally will have more complaints than one that does less business.

The reports will include a statement asking readers to take that into account in considering complaint data, "and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm's responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints."

Berry believes the BBB needs to move in this direction to remain relevant.

"It's definitely time," Berry said. "It's the sort of thing we ourselves want as consumers." Bureau staff members sometimes pull files of businesses they are interested in themselves, he said.

Consumers want more

By the time the nationwide network of bureaus voted on the issue in April, 49 out of 117 bureaus had decided on their own to make complaint data available. The Western Washington bureau was not one of them.

Some BBB critics say bureaus like the one serving the Northwest have been too slow and cautious in adopting more consumer-friendly practices.

Meanwhile, other companies have started filling the void, offering new tools that put more information than ever into the hands of consumers.

That includes magazines like Puget Sound Consumers' Checkbook, which conducts consumer surveys and independent analyses of local service providers, and Angie's List, a new Web-based resource in which members pay a monthly fee for access to customer comments and ratings of local businesses.

The BBB here has some 12,200 business members and gets more than 6,500 requests for information every day. It is considered one of the most prosperous bureaus in the nation.

Yet despite a tech- and consumer-savvy population, the local bureau has not been a pioneer in putting more information in their hands.

Andrew said he had wanted to give people more information but felt the reporting systems that had been available were not sophisticated enough. In talking with colleagues from other bureaus, Andrew said he became more comfortable with the idea.

Few businesses have complained in regions that have this system, Berry said.

The local BBB doesn't anticipate much negative reaction, although not all businesses are going to like what they see.

"Our most complained-about industry is cellphones," May said. "I can imagine we will hear about that as people start comparing [cellphone companies] head-to-head."

Jolayne Houtz: jhoutz@seattletimes.com; 206-464-3122.