Customer Social Responsibility supersedes Corporate Social Responsibility

Just before Christmas Paul Dunn, one of the co-founders of Buy1GIVE1™, was interviewed by Alicia Wong from the Singapore TODAY newspaper after he spoke at the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (AFCSR) in November 2008. Paul Dunn was not only rated one of the best speakers by participants he also introduced a new catch phrase to the world of CSR.

You can see the flurry of blogs entries from Google that sprung up from the one article in TODAY within a few days of posting. If you Google on "Customer Social Responsibility" (add the quotes), you will see over 1200 entries for this new buzzword, many of them relating to the CSR article about Buy1GIVE1.

A new vision for CSR

When you miss our the word 'customer' from CSR and have 'corporate' in its place, somehow that focus does not seem quite right. At the end of the day if your customers do not relate to your companies giving or philanthropy, and they do not feel involved then there is a big piece of the picture missing.

Customers are not silly - they know when businesses are using philanthropy or corporate giving to look good. So in many ways the very term 'Corporate Social Responsibility' is skewed and out of focus from the customers perspective. If as a business we do not really care about what our customers care about, we slide down the scale of credibility rapidly reaching the bottom with a big bump.

One way to change the landscape with customers is to allow them to feel part of the giving and indeed share in the joy of giving. "This involves a change in mind set. Instead of simply telling customers that 10 per cent of an organisation's profits go to charity, the organisation should tell the customer how his or her spending could help someone in need," says Paul Dunn in the article.

When a company does this the customer becomes more intimately involved in the experience of giving and he or she will be encouraged to patronise the business.

In the United Kingdom, for instance, customers now know that when they purchase a pair of school trousers at supermarket chain TESCO, a child in Kenya gets a school uniform. Customers know that THEY have done the giving. When a company does this then people feel involved.

I personally look forward to hearing people say, "Let's go down to McDonalds and feed some kids". When I hear this I will know that we like in a different world - a world where giving is a part of every single transaction - every purchase - every sale.

Many sales promotions state “buy 1 get 1 free”, so why not “buy 1 give 1”? I watch the web every day and receive everything that goes on in the Buy One Give One world. Each day now I receive more and emails of businesses doing "buy 1 give 1" promotions - so things are changing.

Paul Dunn is the grandfather of nine and has a 100-year-old mother who is down with Alzheimer's disease. Paul says, "It is no longer possible for us to communicate head to head, the only way to communicate is heart to heart. In business, so many people are communicating with their staff and customers head to head. We've really got to connect with everyone's hearts. When I show you an iPhone, for example, you'll go 'wow!' in a heartbeat. Wow is from the heart, not the head. People get truly moved only when we connect at that level and we build a real and trusted connection."

At the end of the day a business that holds the heart of its customers gently in the palm of its hand will win the day always. Companies like Ben and Jerry, The Body Shop and TOMS Shoes come from the heart. As a consumer and customer we spot businesses trying to fake it on our radar at 200 miles out. Real businesses that have a heart are a rarity and always do well.