Customer insight

In this lesson, you learn about customer insight, what is needed to understand your customer.

Guest centricity, customer focus and customer relationship management are crucial in delivering tourism experiences. In order to match the offer with the demand, a profound understanding of the customers is needed.

Watch the webinar on the different levels of customer understanding and read the article.

In the data-driven world, decisions should not be educated assumptions but based on relevant data. To know what data is relevant, the company first needs to define the target and then ask the right questions.  

Task: Test the market orientation of your company with the Customer Insight Instrument (Excel file) developed by the Seinäjoki UAS.

Market orientation means how well the company gathers information on current and potential customers and competitors and how well the company can use this information in developing its offering.

The instrument is an Excel sheet that gives instant feedback. You may also download the file for yourself.

Sources and further reading:

Formplus Blog 2009. Customer Insight: Types, Forms & Tools Guide. https://www.formpl.us/blog/customer-insight.

GlobalWebIndex 2021. Creating Consumer Insight. The Smart Researcher’s Guide. Downloadable at https://www.digitalmarketingcommunity.com/guides/creating-consumer-insight-the-smart-researchers-guide-globalwebindex/ .

Innovation Norway 2019. Key Figures for Norwegian Travel and Tourism 2018. https://assets.simpleviewcms.com/simpleview/image/upload/v1/clients/norway/Key_figures_for_norwegian_tourism_2018_f9ac4f82-7b02-4fee-a67b-dcf98c4bd403.pdf.

Keane, L. 2021. Creating Consumer Insights: A Quick Guide to Great Research. https://blog.gwi.com/marketing/consumer-insights/.

Komppula, R. & Konu, H. 2017. Designing Forest-based Wellbeing Tourism Services for Japanese Customers – Case Study from Finland. https://erepo.uef.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/2595/Final_Revision%20Komppula%20and%20Konu%2019%20May_rk_HK-1.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=4.

Konu, H. 2017. Customer Insight in Tourism Product Development-Importance of Cultural Pre-understanding. The 4thBusiness Management International Conference “Challenges of Creative and Innovative Management”. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321358884_Customer_insight_in_tourism_product_development-Importance_of_cultural_pre-understanding .

Kähkönen, O. & Hanni-Vaara, P. 2022. From Data to Customer Insight and Improved Customer Experiences. In M. Angeria, M. Hirvaskari & O. Kähkönen (Eds) Phenomena of Arctic Nature. Principles and Practices of Nature-based Tourism, 77-81. https://issuu.com/lapinamk/docs/b_2_2022_angeria_et_al/78.

Metsähallitus Parks and Wildlife materials (in Finnish), for example, visitor studies https://julkaisut.metsa.fi/assets/pdf/lp/Muut/inari_kavijatutkimus_2018_2019_tiivistelma.pdf.

PALMA 2018. Palvelumuotoilulla asiakasymmärrystä. http://palma.fi/tyopajat/tyopaja1/palvelumuotoilulla_asiakasymm%C3%A4rryst%C3%A4_PALMA.pdf.

Rantala, O., Hallikainen, V., Ilola, H. & Tuulentie, S. 2018. The Softening of Adventure Tourism.  https://lacris.ulapland.fi/ws/portalfiles/portal/5948728/The_Softening_of_adventure_final_version_authors.pdf.

SAS 2021. The Future of Customer Experience https://www.sas.com/sas/offers/20/futurum-experience-2030-emea-110977.html.

Tunkkari-Eskelinen, M., Matilainen, A. & Asunta, J. 2014. Customer Insight as a Driving Force for Development of Sustainability Elements in Rural Tourism. In J. Suni & R. Komppula (eds.) International Conference on Rural Tourism and Regional Development, 56-66. https://erepo.uef.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/13513/urn_isbn_978-952-61-1416-3.pdf.

Visit Finland 2017. Tunne asiakkaasi. Kohderyhmäopas matkailuyrityksille. https://www.businessfinland.fi/globalassets/tunne-asiakkaasi—kohderyhmaopas-matkailuyrityksille—visit-finland.pdf.

Visit Finland 2019. Brand Tracking. https://www.businessfinland.fi/4b134d/globalassets/julkaisut/visit-finland/tutkimukset/2019/visit-finland-brand-tracking-2019–ipsos-presentation-pdf.pdf.