Jones Services Core Values

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c67pBGuDEZI

My name is John Moroney. I’m the General Manager of Jones Services. I’m here today to talk about our core values.

Why do we even have core values? It’s an interesting story. Back in 2015, myself and the former owner of Jones, we went to see Tony Robbins at his Business Mastery Seminar. On day four, he introduced us to Tony Hsieh, Founder and CEO of Zappos. And Tony Hsieh told us his story, that he built his company from scratch, and after five years, he sold it for $1.2 billion. 

Yes, we looked at each other and said, “You could live off $1.2 billion.” He credited all of his success to having read the book Good To Great by Jim Collins and following the instructions. We immediately flew back to New York. We read the book, and we started following the instructions.

In this book, Jim Collins did a study and found the truly great companies that were out there all had core values. Not just written on a piece of paper, they had them ingrained in their culture. They were hiring on them. They were training on them. They were promoting on them. And sometimes they had to part ways on them. This is what made them great. We wanted to be great. This is why we have core values.

What are our core values? One, our first core value is to deliver a wow customer service experience. We don’t necessarily want to be the biggest. We don’t want to be the technically most advanced. What we want to do is provide a service so that you’re so happy with the men and women that we’ve sent into your home that you will want to use us over and over again. We get excited by providing our customers with the very best service.

Our second core value is to speak with honesty and act with integrity. Many of the companies that were studied in the book Good to Great did not have honesty or integrity as core values. But when asked by Jim Collins why, the owners or the founders always said, “Because we assumed that was understood.” Well, we’re a contractor, and we are in an industry where it seems to be not understood, that there are many contractors out there that are not necessarily doing the right thing, and that’s not us. So we let all employees know from the interview that if we make a mistake, we’re honest, and we don’t cover it up, that we act with integrity. What we’re delivering to the customer has to be in their best interest.

Our third core value, and this one’s a little strange, it’s to be empathetic and caring. There is a national shortage of experienced tradespeople. We’re fortunate enough to have one come into Jones Services for an interview, no matter how good of a tradesperson they are, we’re not hiring them if they’re not empathetic and caring. There are so many other companies that they would be a better fit for. We’re a residential service company. Our customers are homeowners in Orange County and the surrounding counties, and we need employees here that genuinely care about our customers.

Our fourth core value is to do more with less. We could have done more with less when we wrote this core value. We could have changed it with one word. That word would be resourceful. We’re looking for men and women that could think on their feet, get that system up and running. We provide better training than any other company out there that I’m aware of. We have our own Jones Services University. We send people away for training. Train, train, train. But when they go into your home, something’s always different from the training class. The way it fits in your home, the equipment that it’s integrating with, things are different. We need men and women who can think on their feet and get your heating system, your air conditioning system, your plumbing system, your generator, your electrical system up and running.

Our fifth core value is attention to detail. The little things matter, how we park the truck, wearing our shoe covers, putting down the drop clots. All these things provide for a wow customer service experience. Just fixing it is not good enough. The experience is what counts along, of course, with getting your system up and running. The attention to details is so important.

Our sixth core value is to build a happy team with a family spirit. We cannot hire people and expect that they’re going to live up to those first five core values, that they’re going to be able to go into our customer’s house, provide this wow customer service experience, to speak with you with honesty, to do the work that is ethical and in your best interest, to be empathetic, to be caring, to build outstanding relations that you’ll want to use us over and over again, and we want to go back to your house and serve you over and over again, that they’re going to be resourceful and able to think on their feet and get that system up and running while they’re paying attention to all the little details that matter.

How can we expect them to do that if they’re working with colleagues that are sucking the energy out of them? Have you ever worked with a negative person? It’s best described as draining, and we don’t want it. So we will pass on quality, experienced people if they’re not going to contribute to our six core value, which is to build a happy team and a family spirit here at Jones Services.

Our seventh core value is the pursuit of growth and learning. We want to hire women and men and train them and provide them a career path, assign them a mentor, promote them to their dream positions, what it is that they want. This goes into monthly and quarterly planning your career path with you participating in it. But sometimes your ultimate goal is going to take you outside of Jones, and that’s a bittersweet day for us. We’re losing a great member of our team, but we realize that they’re going on to pursue what it is that they want, and now that provides an opening and opportunity for someone else. These are our seven core values.

How do we live our core values? Well, it all starts right up front during the interviewing process. We talk through these core values with each candidate to make sure that not only are you a good fit for us, but we are a good fit for you. When you come onboard, there’s training on the onboarding, training about our core values, and then there’s continuous training. Our core values touch on everything that we do. We regularly promote on them. We recognize them. We praise on them. And sometimes we have to have uncomfortable conversations if we’re not following them. If we find that someone is just not wanting to follow the core values, well, then we’ll even help you. We’ll make phone calls, we’ll do research, we’ll help you find a company that’s better suited for you, because we are all in these core values and our employees love them. If you’d like to learn more about our core values, look us up on the internet or give us a call.