Quick Study: Public on Nuke Fence; Retailers Customer-Savvy; Managers Lack Training; Social Ads Low Traffic Drivers

â–¶ U.S. Divided on Nuclear: Three weeks after a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled four nuclear reactors in Japan, Americans are displaying only a slight shift in their opinions on nuclear power, says a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll, fielded March 23-25. The U.S. public is almost equally divided on whether or not more nuclear power plants should be built on American soil, with 41% supporting the idea and 39% opposed—which represents only a slight change from three years ago, when 49% supported nuclear plants and 32% opposed them. Other poll findings include:

• 73% of respondents believe that nuclear waste disposal remains a “major problem,” while 55% think that the possible escape of radioactivity into the atmosphere is equally dangerous.

• Almost a third of all adults (29%) still consider nuclear power plants “very safe,” with another 34% saying they are “somewhat safe.”

• 46% of U.S. adults agree that “the risk of accidents and radiation exposure from nuclear power plants is too high to be acceptable.”

• More than half (55%) of Americans agree that there is a need to build nuclear power plants because they do not produce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, unlike those that use oil, gas or coal.

• Additionally, 59% of those surveyed agree to this statement: “It is OK to build nuclear power plants if we build them far enough away from earthquake fault lines and areas with large populations.”

Source: Harris Interactive

â–¶ Healthcare Providers Score Lowest in Customer Experience: A report by Temkin Group —based on a survey of 6,000 U.S. consumers who had recent interactions with 143 large U.S. companies—found that Amazon.com, Kohl’s and Costco came out on top of the ratings in which only 24 companies (or 16% of the total) received a “good” or “excellent” mark. Other findings include:

• Retailers take 15 of the top 20 spots in the ratings. The only non-retailers represented on the top 20 list are three major hotel chains ( Marriot, Hyatt, and Courtyard By Marriott), one bank ( Regions) and an insurance company ( USAA).

• Anthem and CIGNA are two of the seven health plans that ended up in the bottom 13 companies in the ratings.

• Three companies rate at least 10 points higher than the average in their industry: TriCare, USAA and Regions. Radio Shack and Motel 6 ended up the farthest below their industry average scores.

Source: Temkin Group

â–¶ Lonely At the Top: According to a CareerBuilder survey, more than one-quarter (26%) of managers said they weren’t ready to become a leader when they started managing others, while 58% said they didn’t receive any management training. The top concerns workers have with their boss include:

• Plays favorites – 23%

• Doesn’t follow through on what he/she promises – 21%

• Doesn’t listen to my input – 21%

• Doesn’t provide regular feedback – 20%

• Doesn’t keep me motivated enough – 17%

• Doesn’t help me develop – 17%

Source: CareerBuilder

â–¶ Chalk Up One for Traditional Advertising: A Deloitte study finds that traditional media advertising remains a more effective driver of online traffic than the social networking equivalent. Some 12,000 people in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K and the U.S. were asked how often they visited Web sites after being exposed to various types of media. Across the board, social media registered scores below those of newspaper ads, radio spots and offers distributed by e-mail. Specific findings include:

• Just 3% of respondents in the U.K. and 9% in the U.S. said that social media ads drove them to other Web sites.

• Search engines returned the best ratings, as 36% of contributors agreed properties like Google and Bing regularly led them to visit other Web sites.

• Television ads followed with 20%, beating e-mail alerts and deals with 16%, and print advertising’s 13%. PRN

Source: Deloitte