Ad for British Rail!

A few years ago, British Rail had a real fall-off in business. Looking
for marketing answers, they went searching for a new ad agency—one
that could deliver an ad campaign that would bring their customers
back.

When the British Rail executives went to the offices of a prominent
London ad agency to discuss their needs, they were met by a very rude
receptionist, who insisted that they wait.

Finally, an unkempt person led them to a conference room—a dirty,
scruffy room cluttered with plates of stale food. The executives were
again, left to wait. A few agency people drifted in and out of the
room, basically ignoring the executives who grew impatient by the
minute. When the execs tried to ask what was going on, the agency
people brushed them off and went about their work.

Eventually, the execs had enough. As they angrily started to get up,
completely disgusted with the way they'd been treated, one of the
agency people finally showed up.

"Gentlemen," he said, "your treatment here at our Agency is not
typical of how we treat our clients—in fact, we've gone out of our way
to stage this meeting for you. We've behaved this way to point out to
you what it's like to be a customer of British Rail. Your real problem
at British Rail isn't your advertising, it's your people. We suggest
you let us address your employee attitude problem before we attempt to
change your advertising."

The British Rail executives were shocked—but the agency got the
account! The agency had the remarkable conviction to point out the
problem because it knew exactly what needed to change.

As Yogi Berra once said...

"Before we build a better mousetrap,
we need to find out if there are any mice out there."

I really think this is an excellent mail which suggests a way of
assessing the working of government organisations.

Do you agree? With which of the government organisations could start
this kind oc checking?