The Vole --- Customer Survey

I've always thought that bringing in management consultants is an admission that your own management is inept. Some are convinced consultants only say what the MD wants to hear. They don't get their invoices cleared otherwise! ( you are getting cynical.... Matt) .

The latest group of consultants floating around Ivory Towers are carrying out customer surveys, focus groups, interviews and the like to discover what the customers want, but more importantly, what the customers think of AV(2010)PLC. The budget for this is a cool £100k my informant in the Accounts Dept. tells me.

I would have thought standing a few selected managers by busy locks would have given them the information they seek. Many locks get 100+ boats per day through them so it wouldn't take long to get a meaningful sample of opinions.

Perhaps the reason this very cheap option is ignored is this. The last thing managers want these days is to meet customers i.e. boaters. Maybe I'm being charitable here. The lower ranks at AV have their own ideas. Some say the senior managers are chicken, others say they are afraid that a boater might stick a windlass in their hand and expect them to operate the lock!