Wells Fargo - Case Study Sample

Introduction

The case study talking about the communication strategy that could have helped the banking services of Wells Fargo was undertaken by Richard Dukas. It uncovered the communication procedures that led to the crisis alongside the underneath outrage set up by the numerous phoney records (Cullen, 2017). According to Dukas, the firm should not have ignored both the customer and its agents while undertaking its moves. While it was a difficult situation for the organization concerning its reputation, they took the matter lightly; they were not supposed to hesitate to talk up.

During a situation like this, there ought to be a strong association between a customer and the organization's affiliation. Having a robust inward informant program is essential for their representatives to assist any communication issues. Also, Dukas highlights how developing the communication procedures would have been crucial in helping Wells Fargo to uncover the budgetary emergencies. Even though the EVP of corporate communications at Wells Fargo, Oscar Suris, identified that the communication channel used to disagree with the allegations linked with falsified client signatures and unwanted accounts were legitimate, its former employees denied the reports (Cullen, 2017). They connected the firm to unethical business practices, which resulted in the company receiving harsh criticism from journalists and politicians. It led to the resignation of Stumpf, who was the CEO.

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Analysis of the Communication Strategy

The author elaborates why the company's move of using more than 5300 employees and specialists as scapegoats to make its association moves was a terrible idea ("Richard Dukas provides a crisis communications strategy for Wells Fargo," 2018). He identifies the impact of the strategy to have led the company to abuse employees, firing them and failing to recognize their mistake with the strategies of inspirations, culture, policies, consumer authenticity, sales alongside cash division. Also, Dukas identified that their excuse for misusing cash portions and then tricking their clients was a problem. Another problem was that the firm was affected by the 2008 market crisis leading to appalling losses due to decreased sales (Cullen, 2017). The author identifies that the other problem of the company as ill-treating their executives the moment they were considering to settle their issues on time. The implementation of an informant program in their communication strategies could have led to unique and opposite outcomes. Based on the embarrassment of the firm, it was clear that the security of the informants of the firm was poor. The Los Angeles Times consulted some of the company's representatives; they confirmed cheating on making deals that never occurred (Cullen, 2017).

The end goal of the firm should be to enhance its culture, motivation criteria for the informant to uncover defilement and misrepresentation of the communication failure situation. The supervisor ought to suggest the role of the bank in compensating the affected individuals. The bank should be rebuked in any case that it forays back on its employees. The employees were serving the broader objectives of the institution; thus, they should not be rebuffed (Woodward & Shaffakat, 2017). The firm should focus on the client association, to administer care of all correspondences entailing consumer maintenance and loyalty. The policy focuses on keeping the client satisfied together with creating new ventures or products. The policy is also oriented to ensuring the consumer is supplied with their preferences. Evidence obtained by Dukas regarding Wells Fargo proved that the firm suffered a lot from optimistic consequences of fulfilment, self-portrait, and responsibility steadfastness, especially from the consumer side (Woodward & Shaffakat, 2017). Issues dealing with this policy is an aggressive domain, leads a consumer to be defined as authentic. The latter is a requirement; it partakes in protecting the clients, which leads to consumer loyalty. The executive staff of the bank should agree to implement a suitable and robust system to plan for authentic consumers, having a reliable interior informant program. The purpose of the program would be allowing the employees to report any issues they feel is not right.

Integration Techniques

Implementing an interior informant program would have helped us in my previous workplace. I worked as an IT assistant in the computing and informatics department, where communication was not the priority to the firm. A client could send an email requesting to be offered assistance with our upgraded systems. However, no timely responses were made to clients. The same case applied to communications in the workplace. The supervisor could yell at the interns; on some occasions, he used them as scapegoats since he could not admit his mistakes. If the firm had the informant program, it could advance its communication procedure by recollecting its representative and clients' critical requests. The program would allow instant addressing of issues (Woodward & Shaffakat, 2017). It would result in clients having increased interest to be serviced. Furthermore, it could enable workers to feel that organizations need their expertise because it promotes open communication. It would act as a motivating factor for every employee in my previous company.

Conclusion

Scandals, both small and large, require honest and thoughtful communications from the top management; actions must accompany words. A company should focus on building and improving the trust of its representatives and clients. Wells Fargo had to reaffirm its core values and mission by reassigning its CEO, Stumpf. Therefore, communication is a critical aspect of every company.

References

Cullen, J. (2017). A culture beyond repair? The nexus between ethics and sanctions in finance. Just Financial Markets?: Finance in a Just Society, 154.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=iKOPDgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA154&dq=McLannahan,+B.+(2016).+Providing+incentives+for+whistleblowers+will+improve+bank+culture.+Financial+Times&ots=om0m0sPbDc&sig=_Mm7IU4yeGsxtVJIXOtyuZitvks

Woodward, I. C., & Shaffakat, S. (2017). Innovation, leadership, and communication intelligence. In Strategy and Communication for Innovation (pp. 245-264). Springer, Cham.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-49542-2_15

Richard Dukas provides a crisis communications strategy for Wells Fargo. (2018, January 31). Dukas Linden Public Relations (DLPR).
https://www.dlpr.com/blog_posts/richard-dukas-provides-crisis-communications-strategy-wells-fargo/.