b'customer retention and happiness.Have you tried to book an Airbnb lately? It seems like the Robert Chatwant, chief marketing officer at Atlassian price advertised doubles by the time you get to checkout. This strategy may work for the Airbnb brand culture, but Brand culture is your why, your values, and, ultimately, whatit certainly does not align with Watermarks. We try to keep your company stands for. For the purposes of this analogy,our prices as low as possible for our guests and include taxes brand culture equals your navigational instruments, guid- and fees in the advertised price. What you see is what you ing your decisions. Why does your company do what it does? get, with one caveat. We do add a $2 booking fee to each online ticket, but we are always up front about this. We even For Watermark, our brand culture is centered around pro- encourage walk-up ticket purchases by letting guests know viding a wholesome, enriching, authentic, and personal ex- that they can save this fee at the ticket stand.perience for our employees and our guests. We dont want to feel corporate, cold, and impersonal. A huge part of thisHeres where the human touch comes in. By providing this is letting our brand culture guide when we decide to add ainsight, we build trust through transparency. Then, were human touch in customer service. opening the door for another personal interaction with our team at the ticket stand. Sure, we didnt get the $2 book-Using this as a guide, Watermark has been very careful abouting fee, but who knows where that face-to-face interaction steeringawayfromcreatingtransactionalrelationships.with our ticket agent will lead.Sometimes this means not maximizing every opportunity to upsell. I know that might sound crazy for a for-profitYou might be wondering, why ticket agents versus kiosks? businessbuthearmeout.Hiddenfeesareeverywhere.Well, for the size of our operations, we are able to man-DeJong & Lebet, Inc.ExperienceNaval ArchitectsMarine EngineersWhen YouConsultantsSurveyorsNeed It. 71 Sea Island Explorer140 Odyssey Chicago Riverwww.dejongandlebet.com1734 Emerson Street, Jacksonville, FL 32207(904) 399-3673 info@dejongandlebet.com11 NOVEMBER 2024'