Goldman Loves its Customers so Much it Won't Talk to Them

Goldman Sachs takes seriously the charge that it exploits and abuses customers.

So seriously that it went to the trouble of commissioning a survey, described here in a post on the Financial Times website.

And, what do our people think about how we interact with our clients? Across the firm at all levels, 89 percent of you said that that the firm provides exceptional service to them. For the group of nearly 12,000 vice presidents, of which the author of today’s commentary was, that number was similarly high.

Read that again. Goldman Sachs' idea of a rebuttal to Greg Smith's piece is to point out that it provides "exceptional service"—in the opinion of its own employees! 89% of them! And the firms' vice presidents (12,000 of them? Is that even possible?) likewise agree: they're doing one hell of a job.

I wonder if Goldman ever surveyed its actual customers. It would certainly be interesting to hear how they felt—possibly, in Goldman's opinion, too interesting.