Hey Y'all!
I am currently planning a CBSM project that is aimed at getting businesses to ask their customers if they want utensils with their to-go meals rather than automatically including them. My question is this: What is the best way to approach a business? Which should be my selling point? I have four current options.
1) You can save money - I have info on how much money they can save, approximately $700 annually.
2) Better customer service - We did a survey and found that 60% of customers rarely use to-go utensils and 90% of them prefer to be asked, so asking is better customer service.
3)Environmental consequences - I could show them pictures of debris in the ocean and animals being affected by it, we all know the scary side of waste
4) Become a Greener Business - Try to sell the point, backed up by statistics, that green businesses are the new trend and if they don't begin to adopt better habits then they will begin to lose customers
Thanks for your thoughts! Please feel free to contact me anyway :)
Alex Montes
Zero Waste Outreach
[email protected]
415.485.3174
Approaching Businesses to Reduce Waste
Sign in or Sign up to comment
Testing to see if these comments work.
Alex Montes
Zero Waste Outreach Associate
City of San Rafael
United States
Based on CBSM principles, 1) might work but emphasizing money currently lost is more effective generally than emphasizing potential savings.
3) Is demonstrating the behaviour we DON'T want to see and normalizing it - and so counter productive.
4) is probably helpful backup information
but I'd go with 2) because it demonstrates that doing this behaviour is something already wanted, and it also demonstrates how the targeted behaviour (less use of disposable utensils) is actually the majority view!
Have you focus group or pilot tested these approaches with a few business owners to see what they find most convincing? It would be really interesting to see what works!
Teresa Looy
Compost Program Co-ordinator
Green Action Centre
Canada
Hey Alex
Your question reminds me of some research (albeit with households), which tried to engage them in energy saving measures because it would either save money, help the environment, benefit society, or it was what everyone else was doing (the social norm option). The one which had the biggest impact on energy conservation was the last one - people were more motivated to keep up woth their neighbours than anything else. Might be worth embedding this into your messaging somehow. Here is the link
http://psp.sagepub.com/content/34/7/913.abstract
Cheers
Tim
Tim Cotter
Awake
Australia
www.awake.com.au
Hi Alex,
You mentioned doing a survey of customers-- great work! Have you also conducted barriers and benefits research for the businesses you are targeting?
I think doing a survey, focus groups, and/or interviews of that audience would help to answer your question-- whether they're most motivated by saving money, happier customers, the environment, becoming a green business, or something else. It would also tell you some reasons why they may not be interested, and you can then develop your pilot program to help them overcome those barriers.
Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions!
Meghan Kelly
Green Motivate
[email protected]
415-766-7146