What Your Customers Know That You Don’t (Yet) …and why the businesses that listen win, again and again.
By Leilah King‑Gotlib
Here’s a truth many leadership teams quietly suspect but rarely confront:
They think they know what their customers want.
But their data says otherwise, if they’re brave enough to look.
In hospitality and healthcare, it’s not a lack of feedback, it’s what happens next.
Data is siloed. Feedback loops are broken. Insights stagnate in dashboards, never reaching decision rooms.
Yet the fastest-growing, most resilient organizations are those that place data at their core. Not because it looks good in a strategy deck. But because it’s the only way to connect every function to a single mission: delivering the promise made to the customer—profitably.
The Blind Spot: “We already know this.”
Many teams believe anecdotal knowledge or surface metrics are enough. But more often than not, they miss the moments that matter.
Take a recent I led for a resort brand. Their property NPS had plateaued—despite investments in rooms and services. A deep dive into survey responses revealed one overlooked friction point: poor Wi‑Fi. This insight, helped the team upgrade the network and retrained staff to proactively address connectivity. Within weeks, Wi‑Fi satisfaction hit 4.5/5 and NPS began climbing.
That’s the power of going from “we think” to “we know.”
The Opportunity: Put Data Where It Belongs – at the Center
By turning customer feedback into meaningful, integrated insight, organizations can:
- Pinpoint churn drivers or friction points
- Detect low-engagement segments early (one client revealed 75% low usage—a risk for defaults)
- Identify high-value segments ripe for upsell, advocacy and referrals
- Align functions through shared OKRs and KPIs
- Build a scalable foundation for innovation
—and when executed well, this becomes a cross-functional growth engine.
Bonus Takeaway: AI Without Clean Data Is Just Hype
AI is the talk of the town, but many businesses are sprinting before they can walk, launching tools on every buzzword without laying the groundwork.
A recent feature from Interesting Engineering drives it home: “before you bring in AI, ensure your data is in order.” They coined it the “streetlight effect” — searching where it’s easiest, not where it’s most effective..
Even top institutions agree: a 2024 RAND report found that 80% of AI projects fail, largely due to poor data quality and misaligned business priorities.
What does this mean in practice?
- You need integrated, clean customer data across systems and functions
- You need data connected to strategic priorities, not vanity metrics
- You need cross-functional access and alignment—or AI can’t deliver value
Put simply, clean insight now leads to intelligent automation later.
What We’re Doing at Mobius Vendor Partners
Since late 2024, I’ve been partnering with Mobius Vendor Partners to launch a Data Analytics & Insights Reporting service tailored for each of their clients..
Their dashboards are strong and experience tells us even data-savvy clients lack the time, internal structure, or clarity to extract deep insight and apply it cross-functionally. This new service changes that.
This is about transforming passive data into directional strategy and creating cross-functional momentum for growth.
Ready to See What Your Data’s Telling You?
I offer a no-pressure, 30-minute intro call to explore how well your customer feedback and internal data are aligned with your goals and whether this service might be right for you.
With over 17 years’ in global commercial & marketing transformation, I’m the consultant you need for high impact.
👉 Book your session here
About the Author
Leilah King‑Gotlib brings 17+ years of commercial & marketing transformation experience across travel, hospitality, ecommerce and financial services. Formerly at TRAVEL+LEISURE Co., she now works with Customer Count to turn customer feedback into actionable growth strategies. Click here for full details on the Marketing & Commercial Consultancy services.
Leilah specializes in insight-led problem-solving, from post‑M&A owner profiling to path-to-purchase diagnostics. She helps organizations unlock
growth by aligning customer data with business action, and laying the
groundwork for future AI capability.
