When Todd Hopkins founded Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Systems® in 1992, he laid out core values for the brand that reflected his own strong beliefs. Hopkins and his company have maintained a strong commitment to those values over the last 27 years.
“I was determined to build a company that would deliver total customer satisfaction while also adhering to high ethical standards,” Hopkins says. “I created our core values and built the business on those principles, and we continue to live and work by them every day.”
Core values represent an organization’s fundamental beliefs and dictate how members of the group should behave. Core values also help determine whether an organization is fulfilling its goals. Although companies occasionally will update their mission statements as their industries and the world change, core values should stand the test of time.
Office Pride’s core values are:
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- Honor God
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- Always do what is right
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- Increase brand value
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- Demonstrate honesty, integrity and a hard work ethic
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- Total customer satisfaction
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- Go the extra mile
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- Persevere with a servant’s attitude
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- Accountability to commitments
“How we do business is just as important to us as the excellent service we provide to our customers,” Hopkins says.
Franchisees Embrace the Values
From the beginning, Hopkins knew that to build a franchise system of which he would be proud, he had to attract franchisees who shared his commitment to the core values. For that reason, the brand’s core values have always been front-and-center in franchise development materials, and the company recently changed its tagline to “Our Values Make Us Different®.”
Franchisees frequently cite Office Pride’s commitment to its core values as being one of the primary factors that led them to choose the franchise system.
Ashley Winkle, a multi-unit owner with her husband, Steve, said the couple decided to invest in Office Pride because their personal beliefs aligned so closely with the brand’s core values. “Steve and I know who we are and what we believe. We wanted whatever business we opened to reflect those strong beliefs and values. When we found Office Pride, it surprised us how closely the organization’s core beliefs lined up with our own and made us want to dig deeper with the company. Three years later, I can honestly say Office Pride truly represents each of the values listed, and we are proud to be franchisees.”
Karie Truitt of Office Pride of Rapid City-Rapid Valley in South Dakota said the franchise’s devotion to and sincerity about its core beliefs sold her and her husband, Andre, on the brand. “Anybody can say things like, ‘We value honesty’ and ‘We value integrity.’ But when we talked to the people at Office Pride, we could tell they really did share our core beliefs and values,” Truitt says. “That ‘Honor God’ was the No. 1 core value was so important to us.”
She says their respect for the brand has only grown the longer they have been with the company. “We have seen, time and again, the leadership demonstrate that they are committed to supporting the franchisees and that they will step up and do whatever is needed to honor those core values,” Truitt says.
Values-Infused Customer Service
Chris Middleton, a multi-unit owner with three locations in Indiana and Tennessee, says the core values, especially honesty and integrity, are representative of how the franchise owners deal with their customers. “We try to be as open and honest as possible,” he says. “A lot of people try to cover up issues. But we admit our mistakes and fix them instead of making excuses. People appreciate that.”
Middleton says the core values also have attracted a certain type of person to the company, and that has benefited the franchise system as well as the franchisees. “As we come together and get to know each other, we have become a big family,” he adds. “We are always calling each other and asking for one another’s opinions or help in solving problems. When we say we work together, we mean it.”
Hopkins says he could not be more pleased with the way Office Pride has grown. “Success can be measured in many ways,” he says, “but for me, it is important to grow the company the right way, with integrity and with franchisees who are happy and proud of the way they conduct their business.”
Hopkins adds, “Our core values have set a high standard for how we serve customers, who can see and feel the difference, and they appreciate that difference.”
For more information on the Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Services franchise opportunity, please visit officepridefranchise.com, or contact Rich Helm at RichHelm@OfficePride.com.