From Impressed to Obsessed

If you're aspiring to satisfy your customers, then you’re aspiring to mediocrity.

That's the fascinating premise of From Impressed to Obsessed, a book that will fundamentally change how you think about creating a successful, beloved business.

Acclaimed customer experience expert Jon Picoult explains why building customer loyalty requires leaving indelible positive impressions on everyone you work with—not just shaping their experiences, but also shaping their memories.

Picoult explores the cognitive science behind great customer experiences, pinpointing the breakthrough, psychology-based strategies that both industry leaders (like Apple, Disney, and Southwest Airlines) as well as fast-growing startups (like BILT and Framebridge) use to shape people's perceptions and sculpt unforgettable impressions—thereby turning more sales prospects into customers, and more customers into obsessed brand ambassadors.

Packed with intriguing case studies, engaging stories, and eye-opening research, the book details these proven principles and illustrates how they can be applied to almost any type of business or customer. Examples include cases that show how to:

● Create Peaks & Avoid Valleys—leverage the science of memory to etch positive impressions in people's minds, by creating greater experiential peaks and fewer experiential valleys.

● Give the Perception of Control—the almost magical power of giving customers a sense of agency, via choice and expectation-setting, causing them to feel better about the experience a business is already delivering.

● Make It Effortless—make interactions easy for customers, not just from a physical perspective, but also a cognitive one, to satisfy today's demand for simplicity and convenience.

● Stir Emotion—harness the power of emotion as a memory cue, by infusing customer experiences with emotional resonance, highlighting positive feelings while stemming negative ones.

No matter what kind of constituency you serve—customers or colleagues, individuals or institutions, employees or employment candidates—this book will help you do it with distinction. Picoult's message is particularly relevant for managers, as he shows the parallels between how great companies cultivate engagement with customers, and how great leaders accomplish the same with their workforce.

From Impressed to Obsessed reveals the what, the why, and—most importantly—the how behind great customer experiences. Filled with actionable insights, the book provides an invaluable roadmap for becoming the company that everyone wants to do business with, the employer everyone wants to work for, and the leader everyone wants to follow.

"From Impressed to Obsessed is an enlightening read. Excellence is never an accident, and Jon Picoult brilliantly pulls the curtain back to reveal how great companies inspire customer loyalty. If you endeavor to be the rare business that customers find magnetic or even magical, then this is the book for you." —Horst Schulze, cofounder and former President and CEO, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

"What a great, insightful, practical book! With his 12 Principles, Jon Picoult gives us an incredibly thoughtful and actionable guide to delivering lifelong fans, which is the dream of any business." —Hubert Joly, former Chairman and CEO, Best Buy

"From Impressed to Obsessed is one of the few books that made me look at leadership differently after nearly 40 years of executive coaching! Picoult deftly illustrates how the very techniques that help cultivate loyalty between a customer and a company, can also be used to accomplish the same between a leader and an employee. No matter what type of constituency you serve in your role—customers, colleagues, employees or others—this book will help you do it with distinction." —Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times #1 bestselling author of Triggers, Mojo, and What Got You Here Won't Get You There