BBB cites 6 in Chattanooga area for high standards

photo Eric Anderson with Window World shines up one of the display windows in this file photo.

TORCH AWARD WINNERS

Chattanooga Bakery Inc.McKamey Animal CenterReliable Heating and Air Conditioning Co. Inc.SkyRidge Medical CenterStein Construction Co.Window World Inc.

Window World co-owner Eric Anderson says the home improvement industry has some negative history tied to it.

"We have to try extra hard to prove it's not all negative," said Anderson, whose Chattanooga business was one of six winners Friday of the Better Business Bureau's Torch Awards for marketplace ethics.

Anderson's wife and business co-owner, Kim, said they try to keep customers coming back to their replacement window and door company.

"We see them at the gas station and grocery store and so we want to be able to hold our heads up," she said at the 100th annual meeting of the BBB that serves Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia.

She said the Torch Award is an outside affirmation of how they are running the company they've operated since 2001.

The business, which employs five people and has about 15 subcontractors, has seen sales rise 20 percent this year so far compared to 2011, they said.

"Even when things go wrong, we try to hold to the principle of knowing that we've done everything we can do ... and look them in the eye and say we've done what we've said we're going to do," Kim Anderson said.

Tennessee Deputy Gov. Claude Ramsey told the group of about 600 that while the marketplace has changed over the last century, the need for ethical behavior is more important than ever.

Ramsey said he recently received a phone call with someone telling him that the roof on his home needed repairs.

He said the caller told him he was in Ramsey's neighborhood the day before and noticed it.

"I said 'Sir, I'm going to pass along your number to someone in Nashville because either you or some of your employees are not ethical. I have a brand-new roof,"' Ramsey said.

The deputy governor said he then told the caller who he is.

"He said 'I'm sorry. We must be mistaken,'" Ramsey said.

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.

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