While on the road last week, I was asked whether I knew of any surveys about perceptions of government entities. This question probably came up because I was talking about the extraordinary rise in coverage and chatter on country reputation. At the time, I said that I did not really know of any survey on government bodies and thought it would make for an interesting survey. When I returned home, we looked into whether such a survey existed and yes, found one. The GFK Roper Consulting survey on federal agencies was mentioned in the The Washington Post in January 2008. The sample comprised nearly 2,000 Americans in the summer of 2007.
The most favorable ratings were given to the U.S. Postal Service, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. The lowest favorability was given to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (for the second year in a row FEMA came in last place). The poor handling of Hurricane Katrina has been responsible for lowering perceptions of FEMA’s reputation over recent years.
Interestingly, Americans did not know much about some agencies to be able to rate them. This included the Bureau of Land Management, the Administration of Aging, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hate to say it but they need some pr assistance on getting their reputations noticed!
