Leo Martin: Lessons from eight years of GoodCorporation

Date: 28 Feb 2009
Author: Mallen Baker

2. It begins with the customer

Video: Leo Martin discusses how social responsibility needs to be seen by your customers

Leo says that GoodCorporation has learned a lot of lessons about what actually goes wrong within companies – and when he does an audit he always starts with the part that is directly facing the customer.

On a note of optimism, he says "In terms of responsible behaviour, companies get this stuff right a lot more than they get it wrong. Which may sound a bit contradictory, but I don't think it is. It's not surprising that most organisations survive and grow on the basis of keeping customers happy. And so what we look at when we're looking at all aspects of responsible behaviour, whether it's clarity about what you're selling, being honest about that, clarity about advertising and promotion, or using customer feedback to improve products and services, protecting public health – a lot of companies get those things really right.

"But the bit that we see that often fails, particularly that large companies struggle with, is the problem of not being able to personalise responses to customers."

Leo recounts an experience of his own, where he received an energy bill demand suddenly massively more than standard, clearly a mistake, and the weary path he had to tread of dealing with customer representatives before getting the company to acknowledge what was obvious to anyone – that it was a mistake.

GoodCorporation speaks to customers of companies for whom it carries out audits, seeking to flush out its equivalent stories. Every one of them is an indication of a process that needs to be improved.

It is the area, he notes, where small companies do best. "We find small companies thrive on getting that bit, not just right, but when you talk to customers and get them raving about the companies ... The small companies we assess often get that brilliantly right."

This is the area that most clearly ties into how you become a successful business. "We're looking at having fair complaints processes, listening to customer feedback, looking after the needs of vulnerable customer groups, all the result of things we're assessing. And we say that all of those things align strongly with profitable business growth as well as being the right thing to do. We don't see any contradiction in that."

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Further reading

GoodCorporation website

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