Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. 

In this episode, Elena and Rob dig into research showing that managers consistently misjudge how their own customers feel. They explore why loyalty is the biggest blind spot and what that misread costs a company. 

Topics covered:   
[01:20] "Do Managers Know What Their Customers Think and Why?" 

[02:10] Comparing 70,000 customer surveys to manager guesses 

[03:35] Managers were too optimistic across the board 

[04:30] Why loyalty was the worst miss 

[05:00] The blind spot on customer complaints 

[05:55] A $25 million gap in perception 

 


To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter. 
 

Resources: 
Hult, G. T. M., Morgeson, F. V., III, Morgan, N. A., Mithas, S., & Fornell, C. (2017). Do managers know what their customers think and why? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(1), 37–54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-016-0487-4 
 

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