Retaining Clients by Appealing to Values

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The business environment has changed significantly over the last few decades. While there is still an appetite for traditional financial success, consumers and companies alike are looking deeper into brand values. Studies have shown that Millennials actively seek companies whose values align with their own, with one report highlighting that 65% of those polled have boycotted brands that took an opposing stance on an issue.

This suggests that customer loyalty can be dependent upon how a business approaches its values. This knowledge has led some industry leaders to make false proclamations about their commitment to sustainability to cash in on what they see as a trend.

This greenwashing is not only ethically dubious but destined to fail — consumers have access to and share evidence of company activities in a way that would have been unimaginable a couple of decades ago. Honesty and integrity are key when it comes to business values and sustainability issues.

But how can you adjust your business practices to place deeper emphasis upon your ethics, and in a way that encourages clients to keep returning? What approaches can result in customer conversion without compromising your principles?

#1. Scrutinize Your Practices

To ensure your values remain robust, you must commit to frequently examining your business practices. Do they actively, rather than passively, encourage improvements in the world around you?

How can we best approach these examinations in a way that allows clients to monitor, understand, and respond to our values?

  • Form a Committee. Build a team that includes members of staff from each department, to discuss how the business is operating in terms of carbon efficiency, energy consumption, ethical practices, material sources, and waste management. Discuss the sustainable practices already being undertaken and whether they’ve been successful. Examine where improvements can be made.

  • Partner with Independent Agencies. Work with external experts in the subjects that affect your values, and gain insights into where you’ve succeeded and failed in each area. Invite guest speakers from these organizations to provide employees with education and literature.
  • Publish Your Findings. Many companies are making their climate goals public to telegraph their position to customers and their industry. Make an annual report accessible on your website and across your social media channels. By publishing how successfully your business practices have reflected your values, you are presenting an honest and open position, and committing to measurable steps for improvement.
  • Invite Customer Feedback. Make your clients part of the dialogue. Give them the tools to let you know how they think you’re doing when it comes to your values — this could be a simple website form or periodic townhall style meetings. By showing them that you value their input, you are helping them feel more deeply connected to the business.
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#2. Show That You Care

Embracing your company’s purpose is not just about helping your business to succeed, it’s about recognizing the human effect of your actions, and taking an empathetic, environmentally conscious approach to your activities.

Therefore, the ability to retain clients by appealing to values shouldn’t revolve around hitting emissions targets and the like, but showing that you genuinely care for the wellbeing of customers, staff, and the planet that supports you.

The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to illustrate this. Businesses that have taken steps to limit physical contact, provide hand-sanitizing stations, and require all visitors to wear masks inside are showing that keeping everybody who interacts with their company safe is a priority.

While the wearing of masks has become a bafflingly partisan issue rather than a healthcare one, a Pew Research Center report shows that about two-thirds of adults have been regularly wearing masks.

This suggests that there is a majority that is taking a serious approach to precautions while out and about. This approach needs to be applied to other values, too. Make staff available not only to sell products but also to provide customers with advice on how these can be used in ways that reduce environmental damage and promote safety.   

This can also extend to your business’ approach to cybersecurity, which is one of the key threats of our digital landscape. By taking additional precautions to protect customers’ data and prevent breaches, you can signal that you understand the dangers they face and that their loyalty to your brand is well-founded. If you offer a mobile app, make certain that your developers have embedded application shielding into the code.

Including multi-factor authentication — which provides the customer with a one-time code to enter in addition to their username and password — is a visible signal to the client that you are treating their online data with care. 

#3. Cultural Commitment

To develop values that can encourage customer loyalty, they need to be more than functional or surface level. Occasionally donating profits, or participating in a short term campaign just isn’t going to cut it. If business leaders are truly committed to a set of values, they must integrate these as an indispensable part of company culture.

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This starts with clarity about your brand’s purpose. State what is important to your company, how this drives your goals, and how you intend to make a positive impact. Then start to apply this purpose to every aspect of the company. This should include:

  • Recruitment. When hiring new employees, design questions, and tasks around the company’s values to assess whether the candidate exemplifies these values. Hiring workers that reflect your goals can also have a virtuous cycle effect, offering innovations that build on these values, and attracts other candidates with similar outlooks.
  • Business Partners. You are responsible for ensuring partners, suppliers, investors, and collaborators also reflect the values of your business. Monitor their activities, have open discussions with them, and examine how these relationships are not only financially healthy but ethically sound.
  • Accountability. Occasionally, your business will make mistakes. While ethical slip-ups in business can detrimentally affect customer loyalty, the wrong reaction to a scandal can exacerbate the situation. Commit to ownership of these mistakes, be clear about how they have occurred, and have a zero-tolerance attitude toward unethical behaviour. Communicate to clients how this event has been contrary to your values, and how you will be using those same values to educate staff, and make improvements.

Conclusion

Customer loyalty is no longer just about providing a quality product or service; clients place a premium on brands that have strong ethical and sustainability values. Business leaders must work to ensure that their practices are frequently examined for robustness, maintain a human-centric approach, and make their mission a deeper part of company culture.

Luke Smith
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