Why Watermark?
There’s no shortage of management consultancies in the world.
So why work with Watermark?
-
We help you solve tough
business challenges.
What’s keeping you up at night? Browse common business issues
that we’ve helped others overcome.
-
We know how to use loyalty
to lift business results.
Companies with loyal customers and employees outperform others. See the numbers that prove it.
-
What makes us different
makes us better.
From what we believe to how
we deliver, see 7 ways that
Watermark distinguishes itself.
Challenges We Solve
Here are ten common challenges that we help organizations tackle:
We want to improve our customer experience, but we’re not sure where or how to start.
Watermark’s Customer Experience Audit provides a comprehensive, detailed assessment of your current customer experience and recommendations on how to improve it. The Audit can be customized to meet your needs, but typically includes customer interviews, mystery shopping/servicing, employee shadowing and communication reviews.
It’s just plain hard for customers to do business with us.
The tougher it is for a customer to purchase, use and service your product – the less likely you are to earn their business, let alone their loyalty. Watermark will help you shape a customer experience that’s not just easy, but effortless. And customers will love you for it.
We’re having trouble attracting great talent.
Job candidates are like customers – you’ve got to pique their interest with a compelling employer brand, and then cement your appeal with a great recruiting experience. Watermark can assist you on both fronts, helping you shape recruiting interactions that make the best people want to work for you.
Our business is turning into a commodity. How do we differentiate ourselves?
Product and price differentiation are fleeting – but a truly distinctive end-to-end customer experience can be difficult for others to copy. Watermark will position your brand in a way that highlights your company’s strengths, and then we’ll help you fulfill that brand promise with a carefully engineered customer experience.
We have an employee morale and/or turnover problem.
Watermark will help you pinpoint and address workplace dynamics that may be undermining your employees’ loyalty. Our Employee Experience Audit gives you an unbiased, objective look at your workplace environment – from how you onboard new staff, to how you measure and reward their performance, to the tools you give them do their jobs.
Our communications are poor. They generate more questions than they answer.
From sales material to service correspondence, people appreciate clear and simple communications. It makes them more likely to buy and less likely to complain. Watermark understands the power of the written word, and we’ll turn your communications into a true brand enhancer.
We don’t know what our customers think of us or how to best serve them.
From comprehensive “voice of the customer” programs to targeted survey design, Watermark will help you open the customer feedback spigot and gain a better understanding of what’s on your customers’ minds and how you can better satisfy them.
We’re losing customers to the competition, but we’re not sure why.
Whenever a business loses a customer, it’s a learning opportunity. The problem is, customers rarely volunteer their reason for departing. Our “CSI: Watermark” service will help you figure out why your customers are leaving, or considering doing so.
We’ve got to control our expenses, but we don’t want our service to suffer.
It’s counterintuitive, but a better customer experience can actually reduce your expenses. That’s because when customers are happy, when they’re not confused – they contact you less. That saves you time and money. A better experience at a lower cost – that’s what Watermark will help you deliver.
I need someone to energize our team and get them thinking in new, customer-centric ways.
Watermark’s keynote speeches and educational workshops will deliver that “Aha! moment” to your organization, inspiring your staff to go the extra mile for their customers and showing them exactly how to do it.
The Loyalty Lift
What’s the business value of cultivating loyalty among your customers and employees? More than you might think.
When you impress customers with your products, services and overall experience – they don’t just become satisfied, they become loyal. With that loyalty comes many financial benefits, in the form of increased revenue and reduced expenses.
Just how powerful is the customer loyalty lift? Take a look at the 6-year stock performance of companies with the highest and lowest customer experience (CxP) ratings:
Customer Experience Leaders Outperform the Market
6-Year Stock Performance of Customer Experience Leaders vs. Laggards vs. S&P 500 (2007-2012)
From 2007-12, through the best and worst of times, Customer Experience Leaders outperformed the broader stock market, generating a total return that was three times higher on average than the S&P 500 Index.
And the Customer Experience Laggards? They lost a third of their value, far trailing the market index.
Watermark defines Customer Experience Leaders and Laggards as the top and bottom ten rated public companies in Forrester Research’s 2007-2013 Customer Experience Index studies. Comparison is based on performance of equally-weighted, annually readjusted stock portfolios of Leaders and Laggards relative to the S&P 500 Index.
And when you impress employees with an engaging, supportive work environment – you earn their loyalty, too. That translates into lower turnover, higher productivity and greater efficiency.
The employee loyalty lift is equally as powerful. Look at the 15-year stock performance of the best companies to work for:
Employee Experience Leaders Outperform the Market
15-Year Stock Performance of Employee Experience Leaders vs. S&P 500 (1997-2011)
From 1997-2011, employee experience leaders outperformed the broader stock market, generating an annualized return that was three times greater than the S&P 500 Index.
As these graphs illustrate, the benefits of loyalty aren’t soft and ill-defined – they are very real and tangible.
Let us help you unleash the power of loyalty in your business.
Watermark’s 7 Points of Differentiation
We practice what we preach.
We deliver a great experience for our clients, bringing a refreshing, high-touch and thoughtful approach to all of our engagements.
We’re doers, not researchers.
Yes, research is an important part of our services. But our passion doesn’t lie in polls, statistics and theory. We like to roll up our sleeves and help you turn insight into action.
We’re pragmatic.
Some of the most significant leaps in customer experience come not from multi-million dollar CRM systems, but rather, low-cost, straightforward improvements. We believe in the value of simple, practical advances that provide a quick return on investment.
We know employees are customers, too.
Happy, satisfied, loyal employees help create happy, satisfied, loyal customers. That’s why half of Watermark’s practice centers around the “employee experience” – inspiring people to delight their customers, and giving them the tools to make it happen.
We’ve walked in your shoes.
Watermark was founded not by a career consultant, but by a corporate executive who has personally led Fortune 100 sales, marketing, service and technology divisions. You won’t find a better combination of expertise for defining, articulating and fulfilling your brand.
We’re independent.
There are no hidden agendas with Watermark. Our clients are businesses, not vendors. When we give you advice, it will be objective. We’re not trying to sell you someone else’s products.
We employ fixed-fee pricing.
Most all of our engagements are structured on a fixed project fee basis. Why? Compared to the hourly rates charged by other consultants, it’s simpler and more straightforward. You know exactly what the job will cost and there are no surprises.