WaterRemarks -- September 2021
News and views from customer experience advisory firm Watermark Consulting
Best Buy CEO endorsement quote
Advance Praise For Jon Picoult's New Book
Through a shrewd strategy grounded in customer experience innovation, Hubert Joly (Best Buy's CEO from 2012-2019) showed the world that brick-and-mortar retailers can compete with Amazon -- all of which makes Joly's endorsement of Watermark founder Jon Picoult's new book especially notable. See what he and other business luminaries are raving about: Preorder your copy today to receive immediate access to bonus materials that'll help you start turning more of your customers into lifelong fans.
Spirit Airlines
The Haunting of Spirit Airlines
Customer experience failures can leave deep cognitive scars on customers if not handled properly -- creating brand impressions that haunt a company for years to come. It's something Spirit Airlines is learning the hard way, after they canceled thousands of flights in August, inconveniencing hoards of summer vacationers.

[4 minute read]
Modern Customer Podcast
"The Modern Customer" Podcast Interview
Watermark founder Jon Picoult was interviewed recently on "The Modern Customer" podcast. He and host Blake Morgan covered a lot of ground, from how to engage customers during difficult times, to the one food Jon would take with him on a deserted island. Yup, it's all in this episode -- take a listen!

[30 minute audio recording]
Case Study
A Future-State Customer Experience Blueprint
When a leading provider of travel and automobile repair services struggled to compete in a highly commoditized market, they came to Watermark for help. The end result? A better and more differentiated customer experience that helped increase same-store sales by 10% and company profits by 150%.

[2 minute read]
Calendar flipping
ICYMI: Last Month's Edition Of WaterRemarks
Did you miss out on last month's edition of WaterRemarks? No worries, here's a link to access the newsletter, along with its top story -- "Ally Bank's Master Class In Customer Advocacy."

THE LAST WORD
“There is a growing gap between what the technology can do and our ability to understand it. And that can be overwhelming.”

-- Former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly, explaining the critical realization that helped inform his highly successful customer experience transformation at the retailer. Joly's story is among those featured in Jon Picoult's new book, "FROM IMPRESSED TO OBSESSED: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans."

Source: From Impressed To Obsessed (McGraw-Hill, October 2021)
Watermark helps companies impress customers, inspire employees and improve brand loyalty. Contact us to learn more.