> I then asked the lady washing my hair about whether they consciously ask for feedback from clients, and mentioned how surprised and amazed I was that they had actually listened, discussed it and made a decision about how to improve the experience.<p>This is <i>so</i> the exception.<p>My experience has been that <i>unless I'm speaking to a founder or very senior manager</i> all suggestions and ideas for improvements disappear down a black hole.<p>The employee will nod and say things like "oh, that's a good idea", but will almost never pass it along to a decision maker.<p>If you are the decision maker in a small company, you have to create the culture for employees to speak up.<p>In a big company, the culture is impossible to change. A decision maker in a big company has to "spy" on the employee/customer interactions (record customer service calls for example) to find out what customers are suggesting.