I’ve been a Wells Fargo customer for a long time-more out of convenience than loyalty. In fact, I had recently been contemplating a switch. My experience yesterday changed my mind when I discovered the bank’s use of technology to be both more business savvy and environmentally sustainable. Customers can now deposit up to 30 checks and 50 bills without an envelope. And it gets better. Once your checks and cash have been scanned and the amount properly confirmed, you can send your receipt directly to your email inbox. Wells Fargo wins by printing and producing less paper, which also eliminates shipping, storage, stocking and other processes to get envelopes to ATMs. Customers win by having not having to search for envelopes and not having to keep track of those little paper receipts because they go right to where you balance your checkbook anyway-your computer. I love innovation from a longstanding institution and the sustainable, “good business’ leadership that Wells Fargo is demonstrating via their ATM customer brand touchpoint. Extending their brand in this way to a sustainable and business-minded customer like me, they are not just elevating their brand in my eyes, they are creating loyalty with a good customer that was being lured away by a competitor. After this experience, I’m staying on the stagecoach.
Sustainability/Green Marketing
Wells Fargo: Making Sustainable Business Sense (and cents)
Sustainable or Just Good Business?
The question often comes up when planning for sustainability messaging on what qualifies as a sustainable business practice and what is just good business. So when does it make sense to make a sustainable statement about your business, product or operations? If a company moves its manufacturing location or its warehousing location to be closer to the nucleus of the distribution point – that’s good business. You are reducing your costs and streamlining your business operations. It may also be sustainable, but it does not live outside of what any other company would reasonably do to minimize costs and maximize profits. Sustainable efforts are usually classified as those over and above normal business operations. The fact that a company streamlined its operations could be a supporting statement in a company’s overall sustainable effort, but should certainly not be a leading claim.
