Jim Stein

During the 1980s, Jim founded and grew the Asian Yellow Pages and the Hispanic Yellow Pages into the largest second language Yellow Page company in the country, with 24 directory titles in three states. In 1986 and 1987 the Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs and the Young Entrepreneurs Organization recognized him as one of the nation’s top 100 young entrepreneurs. He also founded El Mensajero, the top Spanish language weekly newspaper in the United States in 1988 and 1989 as judged by the National Hispanic Publishers Association. In 1990 he founded ValueStar, the first company to rate local service and professional firms on their level of customer satisfaction. In 2001, Jim founded American Ratings Corporation and launched the Diamond Certified program, which certifies local companies that are rated Highest in Quality on an ongoing basis. Through interacting with more than 6,000 local companies and analyzing over 1,000,000 consumer survey responses, Jim has developed easy to understand strategies for consumers to avoid disappointing service and enjoy a consistently positive customer experience. In addition, Jim has created proven techniques to help companies better satisfy customers, reduce customer attrition, increase customer referral rates, and use their top-rated reputation for satisfying customers as the core for growing their reputation.