Katie Couric's Notebook: Customer Satisfaction
Are you satisfied?
Video: An annual survey recently said that most of us are - at least when it comes to being consumers.
The report on consumer satisfaction found that Americans are generally happier with products than they were last year.
For more from my Notebook, click on the monitor.
The Passion Runs Deep!
Some industries seem to have a customer hostile attitude. If they have limited competition or have government bailouts at hand they don''t care about the customer.
Just remember that especially now, it pays to speak up when you have a bad product or service. There is no need to be complacent. If hamburger merchants can make you happy, airlines should be able to do it also.
People are happier because they seek out the places that make them happier.
Keith Oberman, who has nothing to recomend him either, voted her the most detested person in the world.
It was about latest diatribe over Senator Hillary Clinton. Katie complained that reporters with no taste or intelligence pounded Ms. Clinton with sexist remarks.
Like this one:
""Someone told me your nickname in school was ''Miss Frigidaire''. Is that true?"
The reporter who asked this question was Katie Couric.
Wouldn''t common sense or humanity then dictate that she not comment about this topic.
Not our Katie. That is why she is Katie Couric.
Only in the waning hours of the network news could someone do as badly as she is doing and not be removed.
There is no longer any money in the network news.
The result is Les Moonves just doesn''t care, and the looses aren''t great enough for his shareholders to care.
I sent the following letter to you in private on May 19, 2008. Unfortunately, I didn''t receive any reply, hence my post here.
Of course, it''s possible your staff missed my letter. In this case feel free to delete this post, and contact me via my web site by e-mail. It isn''t my intention to make this matter public or to embarrass you, but, unfortunately, there are no other viable ways to get in touch with you.
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May 19, 2008
Dear Ms. Couric,
I am the author of the enclosed book entitled Fiber Menace, and its matching web site FiberMenace.com. Along with other articles related to colorectal health, this site features an essay entitled %u201CColonoscopy: Is it worth it?%u201D This essay outlines considerable risks related to colonoscopies, their relative worthlessness, and provides a balanced and weighted approach regarding colon cancer screening and risk avoidance.
Once you have had an opportunity to review my book and site, you%u2019ll have a much better perspective on why you are receiving this letter, and why I am asking you for help. My request is very simple: please use your considerable influence to become an agent of change. Some very unscrupulous people have been using your grief, prominence, and position to promote colonoscopies and fiber for their own good, not for the good of you, your family, or your audience.
(cont. next post)
At present, you are the only person in the United States who can facilitate abrupt change and bring to an end this ruthless exploitation of unsuspecting Americans. Just like you, all these millions of people who are submitting themselves to unnecessary colonoscopies are someone else%u2019s mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, or sons and daughters.
Lets work together to stop this disaster. I realize how embarrassing it may be for your to reverse your position and to admit that you have been used, but it would be even more embarrassing if people without your best interest in mind used this information against you, against the NCCRA, and against your current and past employers.
I look forward to meeting you in New York at your earliest convenience. You may contact me at [my cell phone number] to arrange a meeting to discuss this matter further. I have eight years of extensive experience in live radio and some experience in television, and am an effective spokesperson for causes I choose to promote. With your kind help and participation, we can save countless lives, and prevent more cases of colon cancer and more tragedies than any other approach.
Please help me, help yourself, help your fellow Americans, please, please, please!.. Thank you in advance for considering my request.
Sincerely yours,
Konstantin Monastyrsky, author of Fiber Menace
www.FiberMenace.com
If you call, you typically are put through a maze of canned "If dah dah dah push one, if dah, dah, dah push two. If at the end of this you get a real live speaking breathing person on the line you may not understand them or they may not have a good enough command of either the language or the product to tell you what you need to know. If you email you may get a reply two or three business days later; then again, you may not. If you go in person, expect to stand in a long line; the kind we used to ridicule the Soviet Union about having. Remember?
I have an educational computer game right now from Knowledge something that I am unable to use because you have to be online in order to register it before the child can play it. In order to get my money back I am supposed to mail it back to the company and they will not reimburse me for sales tax and shipping. I just looked at the box and couldn''t find anything on it big enough to read advising me in advance that I could not install it on a computer that wasn''t on the internet (children''s computer). Total waste of $30 and yes, I''m angry.
By the way, Katie, if you haven''t already seen it, you might want to go to Bill Moyers Journal and check out the New Gilded Age.
Have you every participated in one of those telephone customer satisfaction surveys on the back of some fast food chain stores'' receipts that offer you a free ice cream float or milk shake for participating?
Those customer satisfaction surverys are really quite comprehensive and use sophisticated rating scales, and I''m sure if the airlines did the same thing, they would learn more about their customer''s satisfaction, or lack thereof, as well,
Peter