The features and benefits of your services may be enough to attract some customers, but that transactional approach isn’t the path to ongoing success. Your company’s core values are your superpower for building customer loyalty.

Your core values represent what your company stands for and believes in. They are unique to you and set the bar for how everyone on your team should approach their work and behave toward others. In addition to setting you apart from your competition, your core values help to engage customers emotionally with your business.

Upholding Your Core Values

Your core values should be reflected in actions and attitudes, not just in your mission and vision statements. Otherwise, they’re just lip service.

• Remind your employees about your core values by posting them on your office walls and revisiting them during meetings.
• Explain that each person contributes to sustaining those values in the work they do and their interactions with customers, vendors, and coworkers.

Strengthening Your Core Values

Hiring employees whose personal values match your company’s core values can help fortify them. However, don’t overlook the value of bringing in people with values that complement, but aren’t identical to, the core values of your business. If there are core values you aspire to elevate or add to your list, seek out new hires who can bring what’s missing to your organization.

The Reward

When you demonstrate your core values as you conduct business and live life, customers can see that you walk the walk. They will not only buy from you, they will also buy into you—and that’s a successful formula for a sustainable business.

To dig deeper into the power of core values, we recommend the book Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman.