Going ape for eco-friendly service

When was the last time you were asked what you were doing about the Orang-utans?

Customer_Service_1_SmallThat moment may come sooner than you think.

Regardless of what products and services they offer, companies are increasingly put under the spotlight to see what they’re doing to the planet – including how their business affects endangered species.

In the race to do the right thing, those brands that make a sincere attempt to improve their environmental impact are winning the customer service battle.

Their efforts make their label appear virtuous and not driven by the profit motive at the expense of everything else.

There are lots of great customer service vacancies on s1jobs and take up the offer of a job from any one of them and you can fully expect to find the company’s response to environmental queries makes up part of your training.

The coolest companies are giving themselves a head start – retailer Iceland becoming the first supermarket in the world to announce it will remove plastic packaging from all its own label products.

The company, which has more than 900 stores, will phase out plastic over the next five years.

This is responsible retailing, but now everything from the cars we drive to the energy that comes into our homes gets the same level of scrutiny.

So, if you want to work in customer service, you need to be ready to face questions from customers about your company’s green credentials.

Let’s face it, there’s no point selling goods or providing a service, however great, if at the same time the processes involve choking the oceans, polluting rivers or using up the earth’s resources faster than they can be replenished.

And if you feel customers are not going to start pushing back hard about these issues, think again. Just look at how little fuss there’s been about the 5p charge for carrier bags. Customers are paying without a whimper, glad something’s being done to soothe their concerns about waste.

Now its internet retailers having to answer for their over-use of giant cardboard boxes to deliver something as titchy as a battery.

Meanwhile farmers and gardeners are bracing themselves for a ban on glyphosate-based weed killers. So far there’s been a stay of execution, but many predict its days are numbered. When it finally goes they will want to know about the safety of your company’s goods.

Customers are no longer willing to stay silent over their concerns for the planet – and it’s you they will turn to for answers.

So save the planet and save your company with an eco-warrior role in Customer Service. For all the latest vacancies visit s1jobs.