It’s always nice to have an idea of what our customers think of us, isn’t it? After all, we want to know if the work we do is appreciated or not.

That’s where the annual Harris Poll that measures public opinion about different industries becomes useful.

First, cut to the chase. The list of 21 is topped by supermarkets; tobacco companies are in last place.

Supermarkets consistently get high marks in this polling. About 90% of adults said supermarkets do a good job, and only 6% didn’t like the job that supermarkets did.

A few trends:

Five fields enjoyed a boost in reputation score of more than 6 points between 2007 and 2008:

• cable companies
• health insurance
• life insurance
• Internet service providers, and
• managed care.

Professions that have lost ground since last year:

• investment and brokerage firms
• banks
• online search engines
• packaged food companies
• car manufacturers, and
• pharmaceuticals.

There have been a few highly visible changes in this ranking list over the past 11 years,

Industries that took it on the chin since 1997:

• Oil companies
• airlines
• pharmaceutical companies
• managed care
• telephone companies, and
• health insurance.

The complete list:

1. supermarkets
2. computer hardware companies
3. online search engines
4. hospitals
5. computer software companies
6. banks
7. packaged food companies
8. electric and gas utilities
9. Internet service providers
10. car manufacturers
11. telephone companies
12. online retailers
13. life insurance companies
14. investment and brokerage firms
15. airlines
16. pharmaceutical and drug companies
17. cable companies
18. health insurance companies
19. managed care, such as HMOs
20. oil companies
21. tobacco companies

Tags: companies, industries