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Customer Health, Safety & Wellness

Overview

Media focus on the health and safety of products and services has grown. While these consumer concerns about health and safety may not have changed much over the years, their ability to reward and penalize businesses for performance in this area of social responsibility has come of age.

Advanced and accessible means of public communications and discourse are the catalyst of a larger shift in customer and consumers expectations that businesses will stand behind products and services, and work to create positive environmental and social impacts.

Business risks

Disregard for the safety, health, and wellbeing of customers can impact your organization in many ways. It can affect access to capital from investors who screen out products or services viewed as having negative environmental or social impacts.

In this age of rapid communication and crowdsourcing of product and services reviews, the concept of buyer beware provides little meaningful protection for a company whose reputation or share price can be crippled via social media and the internet. And problems with one item can deplete trust in all the company’s products and services.

When negative impacts result in litigation, company value is even further and more directly effected. Product liability litigation – from the McDonald’s hot coffee case to GM’s faulty ignition switches – has given companies good cause to hyper-focus on their products and services from a customer protection viewpoint.

In addition, health concerns have also expanded from immediate to long-term effects. Giving voice to questions about long-term effects can be the beginnings of larger-scale industry shifts. The growth in the market for organic and natural products and the societal pressure around reducing sugary drinks to combat diabetes are evidence of this.

What can businesses do?

To meet these concerns, companies are thinking more about how people use and benefit from products and services. Many companies are taking steps to establish and then go beyond safety and health impact matters. Ensuring that products and services don’t cause harm is the baseline from which these companies work to create products and deliver services that enhance the general wellbeing of their customers.

Here are some questions to consider:

  • Even if there are no applicable regulations, how could the product or service better meet consumer needs and support wellbeing?
  • Even if a component of the product or service is not regulated, are there any risks to which you should apply the precautionary principle?

From a sustainability perspective, asking questions like these can avoid risks and promote innovation. Designing products and services by looking at the user experience is a common practice. Doing this from the vantage point of consumer safety, health, and wellness improves quality, boosts competitiveness, and enhances the provider’s reputation.

This approach is not altogether new. For example, institutions of higher education have always regarded students as their customers. And the safety, health, and wellness of students have long been central concerns for colleges and universities. This is true for both the environment in which the institution delivers educational services and the services themselves. Many have gone beyond safety and health to develop programs that enhance the physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing of their students. They understand the connection between satisfied, healthy students and better academic and institutional performance.

A focus on consumer safety, health, and wellness promotes trust and customer loyalty, both of which are key to customer retention, market growth, and brand value.

Warnings & instructions

When the use of a product or service can have adverse human impacts, it is an imperative to give customers all the information necessary to prevent or minimize the risk of harm. While some disclosures on adverse impacts and effects are legally required, all are important. Companies work to ensure that information is provided in simple, clear, and unambiguous language. The content must be relevant and actionable by customers. The method and outlet for these disclosures must be carefully chosen for visibility and accessibility. A well-executed program for creating and implementing warnings and instructions for the safest use of products and services will help a company avoid liability and build public trust.

Resources

Product & services impacts

Managing risks of a product or service causing harm to the environment or the people who use or consume it is a critical activity for all businesses. Developing a robust process for broadly assessing impacts across the triple bottom line is itself a valuable asset. Beyond preventing harm, a well-developed capacity to assess impacts feeds innovation, leading to insights for products and services that have no negative impacts or enhance environmental conditions or human well-being. When negative impacts cannot be eliminated, the process supports a more responsible program for mitigation, warnings, and safety instructions. All of these outcomes build trust, brand loyalty, and access to capital.

Product & service disclosures

Government regulations require companies to disclose certain information regarding their products. Different products may be subject to multiple disclosure and labeling requirements and prohibitions.

Some common examples include:

  • Federal Drug Administration (FDA): requires disclosure and labeling of drug products and food nutrition information
  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): requires disclosure of all inert ingredients in pesticides
  • Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): requires use of Material Safety Data Sheets where employees handle certain listed products
  • Federal Trade Commission (FTC): regulates advertisement of products and requires that:
    • Product claims are truthful and not misleading
    • Product claims have evidence to back up their claims
    • Advertisements are not unfair

Voluntary Sustainability Product Claims and Disclosures

Many companies go beyond mandatory disclosure. Customers and end users are demanding information about the sustainability aspects of products and services so that they can make more informed purchasing choices. In response, voluntary disclosure of information about the environmental and social impacts of products and services is becoming more common in the business community.

Many reporting frameworks also require these types of voluntary disclosures. The GRI Reporting Guidelines require companies to report whether and how they provide “accessible and adequate information on the sustainability impacts of products and services.” The required information includes:

  • The sourcing of components of the product or service
  • Content, particularly with regard to substances that might produce an environmental or social impact
  • Safe use of the product or service
  • Disposal of the product and environmental/social impacts

Important Product Disclosure Programs:

Consumer safety

Consumer safety has long been a focus in the United States. And health is often part of the safety equation. In fact, many products and services are subject to labeling and disclosure regulations for the benefit of the consumer. This is particularly true where use of a product or service:

  • poses or might pose a threat to human health if used improperly;
  • would be dangerous for individuals under or over a particular age; or
  • is not suitable for consumers with specific conditions, such as pregnancy or hypertension.

Detailed instructions on the proper use of products and services, and warnings about dangers that might arise from improper use, have become the norm.