How 360 Blue harnesses the power of strong company values

From the outside, 360 Blue is known for stellar customer service, sleek marketing content, and stunning photography of their luxury vacation rental listings along Florida’s Emerald Coast.

The roots of 360 Blue’s marketing success, however, go much deeper – to its values that build trust with customers and employees.

Since its founding in 2008, the company has grown to more than 650 rental properties and over 100 employees. Along with increasing revenue, the company has redoubled its philanthropic efforts and continuously upgraded its technology stack. It monitors its progress by evaluating data produced by Key Data.

In 2018, after being in business for a decade, leaders of 360 Blue set about defining the company’s core values. Their first step was to seek feedback from their employees.

What made the culture at 360 Blue unique? What was the secret of the fast-growing company’s success?

“Every employee was asked to submit what they believe defines 360 Blue’s values,” said Emily Fieser, director of quality and culture. “Whether these were one-word submissions or paragraphs depicting who and what we are, we knew it was important to establish these values based on feedback from all facets of the organization.”

The process helped the company identify eight core values:

• Lead with distinction
• Do the right thing
• Protect the family (employees)
• Pay it forward (philanthropy)
• Persist with heart
• Honesty every time
• Self-care is not selfish
• Develop up (encourage self-development)

Marketing the truth, property management core values

When marketing properties, 360 Blue operates on the idea that honesty is the best policy. The powerful core value of honesty every time states that “we will always default to transparent and authentic communication.” Why? Because “consistent transparency breeds trust,” the 360 Blue website states.

“Our approach has always been to market the truth,” said Samantha Sapp, chief marketing officer. “When we say in our marketing collateral that we provide the highest standard of care and customer service to our homeowners and guests, it’s because as a company, we’ve built the infrastructure and developed best practices across every department that ensure we’re doing exactly that.

“We hold our guests and homeowners in the highest regard and because of that, have taken the approach of transparency and authenticity over marketing fluff or smoke and mirrors.”

360 Blue’s values also prioritize integrity over self-interest and profit. The company has committed to always “providing the best solution – even if this means forgoing profit.”

That’s not to say 360 Blue doesn’t optimize for profit for their homeowners. To make sure their properties are performing well and simultaneously build trust with their homeowners, they use Key Data to compare their properties’ performance against others in their destinations, unit size range, amenity profiles, and price range. The data also allows the company to focus on silos in their inventory where there are opportunities for improvement.

Taking care of the home team

This trust-building approach extends to the company’s employees and the community at large. The company makes sure that employees have time and resources for self-care and personal development so that each employee can thrive at work.

“When your employees know they are valued, you have their back, you want them to succeed, provide them the autonomy to do their jobs, and care for their health and that of their families, the relationship transcends beyond a transactional relationship to one far more family-like,” Emily said.

As a result, the average length of employee tenure at 360 Blue is nearly three years. The longest-tenured employees have been with the company since its founding in 2008.

Pay it forward

More than one of the company’s core values speak to doing the right thing and giving back to the community.

The company founded and continues to support the Sonder Project, a nonprofit that empowers impoverished communities through sustainable development.

Additionally, 360 Blue holds food drives for local pantries, collects gifts for Toys for Tots, plants trees through Trees on the Coast, and supports local art events like Digital Graffiti, Arts Quest, and the Songwriters Festival. The company also works with Sandcastle Kids, a local nonprofit in South Walton that sends families with children battling cancer on vacation to the Emerald Coast area. The Sonder Project and the other philanthropic initiatives demonstrate the company’s value of pay it forward.

Why volunteering is good for your vacation rental business

Finding a sense of purpose

360 Blue’s number 1 tip for other short-term rental operators who want to deepen their sense of purpose and values: seek feedback from employees.

“Each organization is unique, with their own specific culture,” Emily said. “What might work for 360 Blue might seem odd if applied to another (short-term rental) operator. Trust the process and the people providing responses.”

Establishing core values that define who you are and how you operate sets the expectation for transparency, innovation, and morality in marketing as well.

“Your marketing will be transparent because you’ll only need to market what is true, and it will be innovative because you’ll have a marketing team who is invested in and empowered to do their best work,” Samantha said.

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