Who’s Paying Attention to the Polls and Customer Satisfaction Surveys?

Posted by: Jonena L. Relth, President and Leadership Evangelist

On July 30th I read the results of five recent polls which were taken to determine how the American public feels about the proposed healthcare reform. 

Take a look at the results and then I’ll turn this around to my favorite topic, business ethics and leadership.
•    Wall Street Journal/NBC News -- 36% support government-run healthcare; 42% oppose it.
•    National Public Radio -- 42% support government-run healthcare; 47% oppose it.
•    New York Times/CBS News -- 31% believe healthcare reform will help them; 59% believe it will not benefit them; and 81% worry that the legislation will lead to job losses.
•    Time Magazine -- 62% believe the final healthcare reform bill will raise healthcare costs, not lower them; 65% worry it will be more complicated; and 56% fear it will result in lost freedoms like the ability to choose their own doctor.
•    Gallup – Only 30% believe healthcare reform will lower costs, and only 26% expect it will improve the quality of their medical care, while 34% fear it will make their medical care worse.

Remember, polls are just a snapshot in time and they can and do change on a dime, not to mention that they can often provide conflicting or contradictory information from one poll to the next.
Now here’s my question: Why is our congress pushing through legislation that “we the people” don’t appear to want at this point of time for one reason or another?  Please note: all five polls show at this moment in time that we are less than pleased with the idea of government-run healthcare.

And now my transition question:  Why do marketing and sales departments administer customer satisfaction surveys (corporate polls, if you will) and then continue business as usual, not taking into account what products or services our customers really want to buy from us?

And have you noticed a lot less customer satisfaction surveys lately from the likes of companies who have taken stimulus funds and then turned around and awarded millions in bonus to execs?  Obviously, those bonuses were not tied to performance but rather some vague numbers that had nothing to do with profits or shareholder equity.

As customers of our government and businesses, we need to hold leadership to a higher ethical standard that says, “I will serve the people of this great nation with the services and products that they want” I will run our government or business in a way that will benefit the consumers, and not just the execs.  Bonuses and promotions will be distributed only when our business is profitable and we’ve paid our stockholders from the ”first fruits”.  To do otherwise would be cruel and unethical. And if they don’t serve us, the customer, we should simply discontinue voting them into office or the boardroom.

So, next time you watch the polls or fill in a customer satisfaction survey, request feedback on what will be done with the data collected… It’s time we get back to treating our customers as we would like to be treated.