I love polls.

No not the nice folks just to the right of Germany but opinion polls. Often they are a slice of life, a moment, as people react to questions and situations, sometimes not thinking before they reply and sometimes replying with thoughts they wouldn’t normally share but are happy to hide behind an anonymous pollster.

Recent polls from Skyscanner give an insight into people’s psyche when travelling out of their comfort zone. A poll result suggesting that there should be demarcations between families with small children ( noisy ) and childless passengers raises the old chestnut of what people expect for their money and a comfortable and quiet flight is not that much to ask for. Family only sections on board planes has been suggested but like the old smoking areas of old, what happens if you are in the first row of seats in front of that family section? Just as it was difficult to stop the smoke wafting across the aisle or seat in front, noisy kids can still be heard 6 rows away. A recent uproar on a Qantas flight where a woman claimed a screaming baby made her ears bleed will no doubt keep this topic on the boil and maybe airlines are thinking of premium adults only flights for which they could charge an excess.

If the price was right I’m sure there would be customers for this type of service, think Concorde, but perhaps a better solution comes from the small percentage of poll respondents who would prefer children fly in the hold. Now there’s a suggestion made under anonymous polling.

Still on planes and on new products, 13% of people polled have said they were prepared to share a sky couch with a stranger on board Air New Zealand’s new seating configuration. The new lie down seats that can be transformed from 3 economy seats into a bed require two seats to be booked and paid for, with the third seat sold at a discount to make up the couch.

So how do those 13% of passengers think this will be accomplished? I hark back to my ski days and standing in line shouting single, hoping to attract another single skier to share the T Bar. All very common and accepted but then you are also wearing a lot of clothes and not deciding who will be the spooner, spoonee in the onboard situation. Will the check in staff have special match making training to help facilitate passenger requests or will the airline add their online flight bookings to sites such as RSVP to find a new revenue stream?

For both the above issues of zoning and seating, there are revenue opportunities for the airlines that could persuade even more people to use their services, hopefully with their clothes on in the case of Air New Zealand.

Caustic thoughts aside, from a business viewpoint surveys, straw polls and feedback results from your clients and potential clients should be taken seriously and actioned accordingly. If people are prepared to take the time to answer polls and surveys for you, then make sure you reach a solution satisfactory to their responses.