As we all know, last year Wells Fargo committed one of the greatest investment firm scandals since the 2008 housing bubble. In the wake of the fake account scandal, at least 2 million fake accounts were created, ultimately costing 5,300 employees lost their jobs. Undeniably, to this day, individuals are questioning the trust, loyalty, and transparency of Well Fargo.
At the end of this summer, new Wells Fargo management uncovered another 1.4 million more fake accounts after digging deeper into the bank’s sales records. In a CNN Money interview on August 31st, 2017, CEO Tim Sloan admits that Americans have the right to question Wells Fargo after the scandal. However, that is why they are currently very focused on rebuilding trust with their customers, potential customers, stakeholders, and the overall trust of their image. Naturally, it will take time to win over people’s trust but how can that be affected by their online and offline reputation?
After the scandal, while working vigorously with public relations firms and reputation management agencies, Well Fargo quickly admitted to their actions, faults, and scandal. They took extreme measures to redeem themselves by firing 5,300 employees and making multiple appeals to the public. Slowly but surely, their name began to clear in search engine searches, or at least become less negative than it was at the beginning of last year. An unusual turn of events happened when the media began reporting about Wells Fargo again at the end of the summer. Americans must have been thinking: “What this time? Not again!”
Wells Fargo published new findings that show that the company’s problems are worse than the bank originally admitted to the public and the media when the scandal began almost a year ago. WFC now says that it has found nearly 3.5 million fake accounts as opposed to the 2 million it originally admitted to. What does this say about the company?
Although this information only worsens the gravity of their scandal, it proves that the company is still looking to understand what happened. Wells Fargo is trying to redeem themselves by not only being honest with the public but by working closely with reputation management agencies.
Corporately responsible reputation management companies will not only act as consultants for companies but they will also encourage them to do what it ethically and morally correct. In their past, Wells Fargo management has poorly managed those goals and ethics. Moving forward, WFC is going to work closely with their employees and with ORM agencies to act in their client’s best interest and their corporate responsibilities into their own hands.
For more information about online reputation management, contact InternetReputation.Services.