How to engage customers with sustainability and why it’s good for business

Environmental sustainability has been a relevant issue for a while now, involving consumers, businesses and governments. According to our net zero research, consumers believe that respect for the environment should be a corporate responsibility and not just an individual one.

Many organisations are creating new products and services that can meet environmentally conscious trends within their markets. This is making ‘green marketing’ especially competitive, as there’s an increasing rush from brands to meet the needs and wants of customers in a sustainable way.

When it comes to energy efficiency, many customers still aren’t aware of all their options, so providing great advice can be the difference between winning and losing business.

When it comes to sustainability, you should look within your organisation before going out to customers – this way you’ll have genuine sustainability credentials to share. If your team is back in the office this summer, there are a few things you can do to ensure a sustainable return; otherwise, you can start planting the seeds of sustainable behaviour change sooner rather than later.

To get started, you could consider bringing in experts to lead on sustainability workshops or create tailored training materials. Start with a presentation that provides insight into the benefits of saving energy for your employees and customers. You’ll want to include:

• A brief introduction to net zero.
• Your company’s sustainability targets.
• Simple, sustainable working practices.
• Tips to reduce personal carbon footprints.
• Your brand perception among consumers.

You should also make sure you include a quiz or test to ensure the knowledge is retained and consider running a refresher session on an annual basis.

To drive home engagement, you can also use a variety of energy saving resources and materials that include easily digestible information. Posters, FAQs, leaflets, emails and blogs can all help with this.

One of the six core trends on social media relates to sustainability and climate impact, which energy saving is all about. So, once your business has a sustainability roadmap and your employees are on board, you’ll need to understand what customers are thinking, as you’ll be targeting your products and services towards them.

Engaging with customers on sustainability should be done sooner rather than later, as the climate emergency continues to intensify, with climate hazards and extreme weather cycles.

Not everyone who needs energy advice goes out to find it, so you should be proactive in giving customers energy efficiency advice as an extended service to lower their energy bills and carbon footprint.

A quick search online reveals a range of tips and tricks that could ‘save energy’, but a lot of this is based on assumptions with no verification and isn’t tailored to specific customer needs. Good energy advice goes beyond a few references to turning off lights when you leave a room. It needs to take into account the energy characteristics of the household, energy supplier, efficiency of products and consumption of energy.

You can make a start by training your team to provide advice or by offering customers energy advice online. If you want to really add value to your services, consider including energy saving tips, facts and information in your digital communications, such as:

• E-shots: Adding an energy saving section to your newsletter can be quickly implemented and offer immediate engagement.
• Blog posts: Our own blog has weekly advice, but you’ll notice many brands offer a plethora of advice to customers.
• Website features: Our Home Energy Efficiency Tool, which can calculate energy costs and saving measures for any home in Great Britain, can be integrated into your website.
• Social media: There are many social media influencers who show off their sustainability, homes and get involved with fighting the climate emergency.
• Mobile apps: Our Energy Efficiency Advice app can provide useful and accurate energy and carbon savings advice on a room-by-room basis.
• Chatbots: You could also implement energy saving tips into your online chatbot.

We’ve tailored online tools for Halifax to provide their customers with sustainable energy advice and home improvement action plans, and Countrywide to provide fully tailored energy saving guidance to householders and comprehensive home energy data for their surveyors.