TELUS is BC's most respected company, according to British Columbians
These findings are based on a survey conducted by Ipsos-Reid late this summer. Ipsos-Reid surveyed 800 British Columbians between August 7th and 14th 2001 using the BC Reid Express, Ipsos-Reid's monthly BC omnibus survey.
Although 9% of the popular vote isn't very high, it is a considerable figure given the thousands of companies people have to choose from. This figure also represents a very large number of British Columbians. Projected onto the total population of the province, this translates to more than 283,000 people who would pick TELUS if asked.
There are a few strong regional variations in the selection of BC's most respected companies. For example, Thrifty Foods receives virtually all of its votes on Vancouver Island while VanCity Credit Union receives all of its votes from Lower Mainland residents.
Notable in this top 10 list is Ballard Power Systems. It is the one company in the top ten with which people in BC have very little interaction. As they do not deal directly with British Columbians, their position on the top 10 list is quite notable. "This really underlines the success of their public relations and marketing efforts", says Rhys Gibb of Ipsos Reid.
Least Respected Companies
On the other side of the coin, TransLink and MacMillan Bloedel/Weyerhaeuser are mentioned the most often as companies that are respected the least. Each of the two is picked by 4% of British Columbians as companies that are respected the least. TransLink's inclusion in this list of least respected companies is likely largely driven by the fact that the survey of British Columbians took place in early August, during the 4th month of a bitter transit strike. Again, garnering 4% of the votes may seem low. However this represents more than 126,000 people in BC who would specifically say that they respect these companies the least.
Familiarity with companies also impacts the results. Larger companies that are in the news more often are the most likely to be mentioned as either "most respected" or "least respected" companies. For example, while TELUS is the most respected company overall, it also ranks number 3 in terms of companies that are respected the least. Rounding out this list of BC's least respected companies are ICBC and BC Hydro.
Reasons for Respecting Companies
The most important factor in picking respected companies is the quality of the service that the company provides to its customers. The second most important factor is how well the company treats its employees. In the minds of British Columbians, therefore, it is vital that companies treat both customers and employees well.
British Columbians were presented with a list of different reasons that they might respect a company for and asked to rate the importance of each factor. Over the past 5 years, these reasons have been established and refined by the BC Reid Report, BC's most respected syndicated study of public attitudes towards the provinces largest businesses. A 10-point scale was used where a 10 means that the factor was very important and a 1 means that it is not important at all.
Four-out-of-five British Columbians rate the quality of service provided to customers as an 8, 9 or 10 out of 10. Almost three-quarters of people (73%) rate the treatment of employees as an 8, 9 or 10. Other factors that are seen to be important to British Columbians include having careful environmental practices (66% rate this as an 8, 9, or 10 out of 10), whether or not the company tries to do the right thing (65%), and how well the company listens to the concerns of the public (64%).
At the other end of the scale, only 45% rate contributions to worthwhile causes and activities as very important. Believability (52%) and how well the company is managed (52%) also take a back seat in terms of why people say they respect a company.
This Ipsos-Reid, BC Business poll is based on a random provincial telephone survey conducted between August 7th and 14th, 2001 among a representative cross-section of 800 British Columbian adults. These data are statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional, age and sex composition reflects that of the actual BC population according to 1996 Census data. With a provincial sample of 800, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results are within +3.5 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult BC population been polled. The margin of error is much lower for small proportion responses. For example, if only 5% of the 800 provide a specific response, the margin of error is only 1.5%.
Established in 1979, Ipsos-Reid is Canada's leading market research and public opinion company. Its is best known for the Angus Reid Express Poll, the most widely quoted source of public opinion in the country. Founded by Dr. Angus Reid, Ipsos-Reid has conducted extensive market and social research in 80 countries and in 40 languages, and serves clients around the world through more than 300-professionals and 1,000 data collection staff in eleven offices. The company is a member of the Paris-based Ipsos Group, ranked among the top ten research companies in the world.
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For more information, contact:
Steve Mossop, Senior Vice President,
Ipsos-Reid Vancouver
t: 604.893-1609
e: [email protected]
w: www.ipsos-reid.com
