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Thousands of people have provided feedback on mobile phone company O2’s
latest corporate responsibility report after it offered to donate £10
($17.68) to charity for each response it got.
O2 says around 4000 people logged into the feedback area of its report over the two-week offer period, although not all may have completed the form correctly.
Charlotte Wolff, O2’s corporate social responsibility manager, said the idea had not only generated many responses but had provided comment directly from customers, who are difficult to entice into reading CSR reports.
‘It’s been good because rather than CSR experts we got people from all walks of life who had taken the time to browse through the report,’ she said. ‘We particularly got a lot of customers rather than other stakeholder groups, which was good because we are trying to reach them more.’
Wolff said the offer had also increased traffic to the online report. ‘We had so many hits it was unbelievable,’ she said. ‘We were helped by some coverage of the offer in a report in The Times newspaper, but we made a similar offer last year and it worked then too.’
Companies have long struggled to generate significant levels of feedback from stakeholders on their non-financial reports, despite using devices such as freepost reply cards, prize draws and simple online forms. Many also hire consultants to canvass the views of small groups of stakeholders and opinion formers.
Wolff said O2’s offer, so long as it runs for a limited period only, could be a cheaper and more satisfactory way of getting stakeholders to respond. ‘Of course it costs money at £10 a time, but if you were to employ a research organization to get the same kind of feedback you would definitely end up paying out more,’ she said.
O2, which has 24 million customers worldwide, also published an online ‘one minute summary’ of its latest corporate responsibility report.
The super-brief account, designed to complement the full document, distills key information into nine paragraphs. ‘Not everyone wants to read the chairman’s statement and everything in the report, so we felt a one-minute report would be a bit more engaging,’ said Wolff.
O2 says around 4000 people logged into the feedback area of its report over the two-week offer period, although not all may have completed the form correctly.
Charlotte Wolff, O2’s corporate social responsibility manager, said the idea had not only generated many responses but had provided comment directly from customers, who are difficult to entice into reading CSR reports.
‘It’s been good because rather than CSR experts we got people from all walks of life who had taken the time to browse through the report,’ she said. ‘We particularly got a lot of customers rather than other stakeholder groups, which was good because we are trying to reach them more.’
Wolff said the offer had also increased traffic to the online report. ‘We had so many hits it was unbelievable,’ she said. ‘We were helped by some coverage of the offer in a report in The Times newspaper, but we made a similar offer last year and it worked then too.’
Companies have long struggled to generate significant levels of feedback from stakeholders on their non-financial reports, despite using devices such as freepost reply cards, prize draws and simple online forms. Many also hire consultants to canvass the views of small groups of stakeholders and opinion formers.
Wolff said O2’s offer, so long as it runs for a limited period only, could be a cheaper and more satisfactory way of getting stakeholders to respond. ‘Of course it costs money at £10 a time, but if you were to employ a research organization to get the same kind of feedback you would definitely end up paying out more,’ she said.
O2, which has 24 million customers worldwide, also published an online ‘one minute summary’ of its latest corporate responsibility report.
The super-brief account, designed to complement the full document, distills key information into nine paragraphs. ‘Not everyone wants to read the chairman’s statement and everything in the report, so we felt a one-minute report would be a bit more engaging,’ said Wolff.
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