The Cost of Not Listening: Why Insights Matter

John Kandemir
2 hours ago
4 min read

Consumer insights have long been a cornerstone of success in packaged goods. Manufacturers rely on research to refine formulations, improve packaging, optimize pricing, and launch new products with confidence. The product itself is tangible, standardized, and repeatable; once perfected, it can be produced at scale with minimal variation.

Hospitality operates in a fundamentally different reality. The “product” is not just a room or a meal; it is the entire experience, shaped by the people delivering it. Every interaction is live, human, and variable.

Unlike manufactured goods, hospitality products cannot be quality-checked on an assembly line before reaching the customer. This inherent complexity makes delivering a consistently “perfect” experience far more challenging.

And that is precisely why consumer insights are just as, if not more important, in hospitality.

Because service businesses are shaped by human behavior on both sides of the counter, understanding customer expectations, emotions, pain points, and unmet needs is essential.

Assumptions are risky in a world where small moments can define an entire brand. The only way to reduce uncertainty is through disciplined, ongoing research.

This includes the full toolkit: surveys, focus groups, voice-of-the-customer programs, intercept surveys, social listening, and qualitative deep dives.

Importantly, the goal isn’t just to understand what guests like or dislike. The real value lies in uncovering unmet needs, those frustrations or desires customers may not articulate directly, but that often represent the greatest opportunities for differentiation.

When done well, consumer insights fuel service and product innovation. They inform better training, smarter processes, more intuitive service flows, and experiences that feel genuinely proactive rather than reactive. Insights help companies anticipate what guests will want next, not just fix what went wrong last time.

Equally important are the lessons learned when insights work is skipped. Whether due to tight timelines, budget constraints, or internal pressure, decisions made without insight often carry real costs: wasted investment, misallocated resources, and initiatives that fail to deliver value.

Guessing is no substitute for listening.

Below are three examples from my career spanning 10 years in manufacturing and 20 years in service industries, where skipping critical upfront insights led to significant losses (though valuable personal learnings).

Manufacturing without market insight
I once worked for a large paper manufacturer that also owned a door manufacturing business. I led an internal consulting team sent to a newer facility in Ireland that was underperforming compared to similar U.S. plants.

Senior leadership assumed the issue was workforce productivity or training. Our analysis showed otherwise. The real problem was changeovers. European door sizes vary widely by country and customer, resulting in more than 30 SKUs. Each size change slowed or halted production. In the U.S., by contrast, doors are largely standardized, allowing long, uninterrupted production runs.

Our recommendation, counterintuitive at the time, was to reduce changeovers through better forecasting and higher inventory levels, even though inventory reduction was typically a core objective.

The bigger lesson came later. The plant had been designed by replicating the most productive U.S. facility. Had the company conducted proper upfront market insight work, it would have designed a very different operation and avoided a costly mistake.

Innovation without consumer validation
Earlier in my career, I worked on promoting a new coffee packaging innovation to one of the largest U.S. coffee brands. Our research team developed a multi-layer package designed to absorb carbon dioxide emitted after roasting, eliminating the need for the one-way degassing valve used in most flexible coffee packaging.

The hypothesis was compelling: remove a $0.05–$0.10 component per bag while keeping coffee fresher longer. The coffee brand was initially interested, but asked a critical question: had any consumer research been done? The answer was no.

They conducted their own focus groups and intercept surveys and ultimately rejected the concept. Consumers perceived the valve as a value-added feature; being able to smell the coffee reinforced the quality. Without it, the product felt inferior, despite the technical advantages.
Speed to market without price sensitivity insight
Most recently, during the COVID pandemic, the foodservice company I worked for developed a comprehensive “Safety Concept” to reduce virus transmission. The program included high-tech devices, an app, and a partnership with a respected healthcare system.

After significant investment, the solution was rolled out internally with success. Leadership then decided to take it to market for commercial restaurants. Marketing requested a quick insights study to test value perception and price sensitivity, but this was declined in favor of speed.

Several restaurants piloted the program for free. After the trial, the pilot restaurants were happy with the product, but did not want to pay for it. Follow-up research revealed the issue: independent restaurants, already under severe financial strain, were unwilling to pay for a premium system and preferred simpler, lower-cost solutions.

These are real examples of what happens when insights work is skipped. In part two, I’ll share cases where smart, well-timed insights directly improved sales and helped companies meaningfully differentiate.

In the meantime, if you need support with consumer insights, please reach out to me at 4xi Global Consulting.

John Kandemir

CMO in Residence

4xi Global Consulting

Global amenity services and operations, transforming the work experience, and leveraging the 4xi strategic and tactical network.

You can contact John directly at johnkandemir@4xiconsulting.com or learn more about John by reading his bio.

4xi Global Consulting & Solutions is a team of talented leaders from both the client-side and service provider side, impacting the Human Experience (HX) for people at work, in education, rest, and at leisure.

We believe in a people-first, experience-led philosophy. Whether client, employee, or guest – their experience is the fundamental foundation of success.

WHAT WE DO

We work with corporations, service providers, and innovators:

Strategic Advisory & Special Projects (SPx)
Headquarters Fractional Support On-Demand
Global Amenities Strategy, Design & Operations
Market Research Reports & Benchmarking
Project Management Office
Food Craft Culinary Consulting
CREATE. : Graphic Design and Creative Services
DATAxi: Data Ingestion and Visualization
Explorers Innovation Directory: Gateway to Innovation

4xi is proud to be Chair of WORKTECH Academy for North America and a member of its Leadership Advisory Board. 4xi is a Global Ambassador for WORKTECH Academy.

Our Strength is in the Power of Our Collective.