Committing To Core Principles
Customers care more about “why” you seek their business than “what” you do. They want to buy the “why”- the commitment, the unique promise you offer – rather than your product or service. Since customers care only about the strategic value you produce for their business, describing why working with you generates a quantifiable, distinctive advantage for them creates a more compelling, emotional connection.
The “why” you do business in a specific way is most often described in a company’s Core Principles, specific values or behaviors that are essential to the organization’s success and sustainability. These principles often include competencies like commitment to customer satisfaction, initiative, teamwork, reliability or financial strength. They form “the essence of the company’s culture” and an “expression of its personality.”
Core Principles are all-important and universal. They cannot be compromised, and typically, they do not change. They sustain the direction of the organization, and the decision-making within it, during good times and bad. The consistency with which Core Principles are demonstrated by all of the company’s personnel influences how your customers, employees and stakeholders come to perceive your business. When Core Principles are understood and consistently employed, they ignite passion and encourage commitment; your personnel strive to exceed expectations and build enduring customer relationships.
Principles build culture, and culture helps align your organization to produce the strategic value demanded by your customers. Principles enable the development of your company’s reputation as trusted advisor rather than as vendor. Core Principles that focus on adding value for your customers also increase the value of your business. They foster a powerful customer-focused, employee-oriented culture in which all personnel feel connected, engaged, passionate and interested in delivering your unique promise to your customers, elevating your company’s performance.
How do you monitor and evaluate each employee’s adherence to your Core Principles?
Do you describe specific actions that define expected behaviors for each Principle?
(Example: Maximum inquiry response times for “Customer Satisfaction”)
