B Corporations are for-profit corporations that have been certified by B Lab, another non-
profit company that measures a company’s social and environmental performance against the
standards in the B Impact Assessment (Shin, 2021). Being a B Corporation shows a strong
responsibility to society and the environment. It also helps attract and retain talent.
Research shows that millennials, representing roughly about 50% of the global workforce, seek
work that connects them to a larger purpose (Shin, 2021). As an operations employee for
NationaliTeas I’ve been asked to come up with initiatives to help increase value to customers.
The two initiatives I’ve chosen are product quality certifications and costumer satisfaction.
The value product quality certification offers costumers is transparency and trust.
Certifications shows that a product has gone through vigorous testing to meet safety standards
and that a company cares for their consumers. In this case, a NationaliTeas certification would
show the consumer that the company is invested in their health and in providing a top-quality
product. As a follow up to achieving a certification, NationaliTeas would then focus on costumer
satisfaction. This will help reinforce the trust between costumer and loyalty. The costumer will
feel heard and the this will allow the company to continue to innovate and provide the best
possible service, which in this case is teas.
Transparency is one of the foundational elements for building customer loyalty, and it
feeds into a company’s overall reputation (Soomo Learning, 2020). With loyalty comes many
benefits. Increased profit is one of them. Once a business has proven themselves, showed the
value in their product, price isn’t really a factor to loyal consumers. Consumers will pay just
about anything for a good quality product. NationaliTeas would be able to raise their price to
maximize profit, offer monthly subscriptions or special prices to loyal consumers. Reputation is
crucial to the success of a business. The best form of referral is word of mouth.
The resources that would likely be needed to launch both initiatives are dedicated teams
for each initiative and extra funding to help cover the costs. Additional costs would cover hiring
of the new teams, extra time to cover pay of current employees and any additional training
they’d need, new packaging materials once the certifications are done and new software for the
customer satisfaction surveys. The dedicated teams will oversee both projects which will allow
for a smooth process, all stakeholders will be on the same page, and it’ll also help reduce risks
throughout the process. Existing employees would require new training under the B Corp
Certification. NationaliTeas would also need to purchase new packaging to reflect the new
guidelines given by the B Corp Certification. A new software should be implemented for the
costumer satisfaction surveys. This software will NationaliTeas to collect and store data to help
track and manage customer satisfaction.
The implementation of a new software will allow the team to monitor and track costumer
engagement, customer feedback, productivity, and profit. It’s crucial to monitor the initiatives to
determine effectiveness and make changes throughout the process as needed. A way to measure
that both initiatives are on course is by tracking that the goals set by the operations team and all
stakeholders are aligning. The team will rely heavily on the data in the new system to track the
progress. It’s also important to obtain feedback from the internal employees not just the
consumers. After all consumers trust and are loyal to companies who are transparent, connect
with society, are invested in sustainability, and provide a good and safe work environment for
their employees.
References
Davis, C. (2019, August 14). Why Product Certification Matters. Retrieved from ViewSonic
Library website: https://www.viewsonic.com/library/education/product-certification-
matters/
Hsieh, T. (2020). Why I sold Zappos. In People, planet, and profit. Soomo Learning.
https://www.webtexts.com (Reprinted from “Why I sold Zappos,” 2010, Inc.)
Implementing a new initiative | Resource Details | National Collaborating Centre for Methods
and Tools. (2013). Retrieved from Nccmt.ca website: https://www.nccmt.ca/knowledge-
repositories/search/60
Shin, J. (2021, June 9). What are B Corporations? Retrieved August 12, 2024, from Earth.org
website: https://earth.org/what-are-b-
corporations/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5ea1BhC6ARIsAEOG5pzWjP41993PLI
2z1YHP5dzfhQbxshah0YGrCL6pnaR4IDKWXIpwkNgaAmckEALw_wcB
