As sustainability becomes an increasingly pressing concern for consumers, the pressure is on brands to introduce sustainability efforts to match this demand. The Global State of CX 2021 report found that 80 percent of the 280 CX practitioners surveyed agree that customers are becoming more conscious of sustainability
What is sustainability?
Sustainability can be broadly defined as the ability of something to maintain itself over a period of time. In this case, sustainability refers to doing business without creating any adverse effects on the community, environment or society as a whole.
Research by IBM revealed that 57 percent of consumers are willing to change their purchasing habits to help reduce negative environmental impact, meaning that sustainability concerns should be a genuine priority for businesses and their customer engagement practices.
Joshua Tye, customer experience leader at Wellstar Health System, believes that it is the responsibility of companies as service-oriented leaders to use their privilege to make a commitment to social responsibility to the communities they serve.
“In its highest form, loyalty is built by consistent delivery on a brand promise, this begins with the organization’s leaders casting a compelling and explicit vision that “arrests” the attention of its consumer and then aligning its operating model with the vision. A socially responsible organization empathetically evaluates customer’s decisions. They also evaluate decision impact and how it could potentially flow onto other customers’ journey,” he explained.
Be authentic or risk affecting customer trust
In a recent webinar hosted by Deliveroo entitled More Than Meats The Eye, Elena Devis, vegan category lead at Deliveroo said the biggest threat to brands attempting to enter a vegan/plant-based space is not getting the marketing right for new brands or products.
Devis explained: “Customers can think you are opportunistic if you do not understand your audience, and their wants and needs. This lack of understanding can risk your brand’s reputation.”
The same can be said for brands wanting to enter the sustainability market. Simply wanting to make your brand more sustainable to capitalize on the market is not enough for the average consumer. ‘Greenwashing’ or the ‘green sheen’ is a name given to PR and marketing that deceptively tries to convince customers that their products are more sustainable or environmentally friendly than they actually are.
Devis shared how damaging this can be for brands: “Inauthenticity is a really dangerous space to be in. In my experience of working with many brands, you need to think long-term. If you go for the quick win, you forget about the commercial and the long-term connection you should be building with your customers. You need to take the time to make decisions and think long-term.” Customer trust in a brand can take a significant time to build. Green sheen sustainability efforts can actively harm customer relationships and trust levels with your brand.
CX Network’s July Advisory Board discussion explored the importance of reliability and authenticity in customer engagement touch points. One member explained that while the immediate thought when discussing customer trust and safety may be to think of cyber security, data protection and fraud protection, research has shown has shown that from a customer’s prospective being trustworthy is about the reliability of a company’s performance. Customer safety is important, but for customers to be able to trust brands they need to trust in a brand’s ability to deliver what they promise. If a customer is spending money with a company, the company must deliver the right expected results.
How your brand can meet customer’s sustainability expectations
While introducing sustainability may seem like a daunting task, there are many ways in which companies can become more sustainable. Corporate sustainability efforts fall into three categories:
- Social sustainability. Social sustainability is concerned with the ethics of a company and how it contributes to its community or societal issues in general. A socially sustainable company is one that empowers its employees rather than exploits them, and ensures that they have fair working conditions.
- Eco-friendly sustainability. To be sustainable in an eco-friendly way, companies must assess what their products are made of, and how they are made, for example whether they are produced using harmful chemicals, and if they can be recycled. It also considers whether they are distributed in a sustainable way, such as if the products are produced in the country they will be distributed to.
- Economic sustainability. Economic sustainability is when a company invests its profit in the development of the business to ensure continuous growth, both in terms of profit and sustainability.
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Michael Stausholm, founder of Sprout World, the eco-company behind the world’s first plantable pencil, shares considerations for companies looking to become more sustainable.
Here are some ways in which companies can become more sustainable:
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Companies must practice transparency:
Being a consumer and trying to do the right thing can be difficult due to the total lack of transparency exhibited by various industries, brands and products. Companies need to have substance behind claims, not buzzwords. By being transparent about raising the standards at every level of their supply chains, companies make it easier for consumers to buy more consciously. -
Walk the sustainability talk:
As a company, you only get so far with sustainability messages. You need to walk the talk. This means one-liner claims such as “Our packaging is CO2 neutral” are not good enough. For example, if you sell in Europe, you must be able to document that the material is sourced and produced locally in Europe. -
Make sustainable products more affordable:
Affordability plays a crucial role in what people consume. As long as it is cheaper to always buy low quality food, clothes and toys, there will always be products made of cheap plastic at staggeringly low prices, and as a result, produced under terrible work conditions in order to meet those prices. -
Make convenience a priority:
This sets higher demands for the product development departments in today’s companies but it is ultimately necessary to make it easy for customers to be eco-friendly.As sustainability becomes more of a concern more customers, companies must meet this demand in an authentic, transparent way, or they risk being left behind as sustainability is becoming a crucial influencer in customer buying decisions.