There is a commercial risk in lanching evaluation, namely that the customers start to think about the service and may become dissatisfied as a result.
There is also a commercial risk that if things stay as they are, numbers will drop and schools will go out of business due to Joe Public thinking that GA training is a farse.
I would hazzard a guess that currently the dissatisfied punter either walks away to another school or walks away from learning to fly completely. Who does that help?
It is a very short sighted view of a company in any field or service to exercise an ignorance of the paying customers perception of it.
To follow on, a mid 20's-30's guy (or girl) has good job and plenty of spare cash to spend on recreational activities. Some will pi$$ it up the wall every weekend (as I used to), some will buy an expensive motor, some will go on holiday to far and wide places, some will buy a motorbike (and do trackdays
etc. etc. In the car example, they pay 20-30k+ for a car, get a new one every 2-3 years and have an image that goes with that.
Is it cool to fly an aeroplane, or even own one? It might be to a small minority, but I'm afraid to say, a lot of people think having a M3 on the drive is a much better "icon".
So what am I saying (as I appear to be going off topic)......
Flying is seen as ever so slightly "geekish" and this problem can probably be traced back to the standard of clubs, schools and instruction. Schools need to attract new blood to the realms of GA, but having an instructor turn up late for a lesson, not turn up at all, not know what you've done before, not know what your supposed to be doing, not know how to teach etc. does nothing to help. The only people who will put up with this are those with a childhood interest in learning to fly. The guy with his £47k M3 will get his "customer experience" from driving his car, and taking it for service, where he will be offered a cup of coffee, given somewhere nice to sit, a courtesy car, offered a lift to work/home, given a phone call to say what's going on etc. etc. etc.
I'm sure some people will disagree with my thinking, but were it not for my 'wanting' to fly, then sometime in the next few months, I'd have something like a Skyline R34 V-Spec, STi8, M3 or an M5 on the drive, I'd not do my IMC and certainly not bother trying to learn aero's this year.
If I get poor instruction in either I may walk away from flying and take the fast car/bike route.
Sorry to waffle BTW
Another line of attack is the current proliferation of speed camera's. A lot of people drive fast cars, or ride fast bikes to get a buzz. However the opportunity to go fast and get a buzz is now becoming confined to trackdays.
Some fresh thinking is what's needed !!!!!