George Clooney isn’t a fan of Facebook. According to the UK media, Clooney reportedly remarked about the social media site:
I would rather have a prostate exam on live television by a guy with very cold hands than have a Facebook page.
Apparently, Clooney isn’t alone. The Michigan Business School’s American Customer Satisfaction Index included Facebook in its regular survey of consumer satisfaction with companies this year. The results weren’t pretty. Facebook pulled a rank of 64 out of 100, which puts it in the bottom 5% of all private sector companies. What other companies pulled scores that low? Not even the IRS – their e-filers ranked them higher overall than Facebook. I guess that means that folks find it more pleasant to file and pay taxes than sort out Facebook’s privacy settings or figure out how ignore requests for Mafia Wars.
The final numbers indicated that a whopping 90% of federal government entities outscored Facebook in the survey. IRS managed to rack up an outstanding 73 out of 100, placing it lower than the Archives but above the State Department. You can read the complete results at Foresee Results – be forewarned that they’ll make you register (it’s free) to download the reports.
Facebook, for its part, acknowledged the survey by agreeing that they need to make improvements.
As for me, I don’t have the same hang-ups about Facebook as Clooney. There’s even a Facebook page for taxgirl – feel free to check it out. No prostate exam included.
Kelly, It looks like you took the time to really do your homework and read the actual study more thoroughly than the WSJ did. The WSJ headline got it wrong–check out: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/07/20/users-rate-facebook-slightly-above-the-tax-man/?KEYWORDS=facebook+irs
So, congrats to you for taking the time to get the story right! 74 is indeed an impressive score for the IRS, especially given the unpopular but necessary nature of their mission, but I know they’re not content to rest on their laurels either–they’re working hard to improve too. As I note in my blog post, I’m proud of former students who are working at both the IRS and Facebook and hoping for improvements at both places.
http://bedbuffalos.blogspot.com/2010/07/irs-beats-facebook-73-to-64.html
Thanks Mary! I usually try to get the back story straight before I write a piece. I did read all of the relevant reports (the government one, in particular, is really interesting).
And thanks for the link, I’m going to check out your post now…