Two lines of thought here. Ask the right questions and you'll get the feedback you want. There IS substantial evidence from a lot of frequent flyers that they feel that our Business and first class services are well up on what they used to be. Are they in the same realm as SQ? I dunno. Are they better than what they used to be? I reckon they are just from the infrequent paxing that I do!
The follow on from that though is that if you have all this evidence telling you how good you are (evidence such as winning the occasional award) then you're probably more likely to disregard the internal whinge as just that. You're more likely to put down the external whinge as the person having a 'bad day' or 'bad flight'. Thus, you don't accept any responsibility for it. I'm not advocating it, just reflecting on something I read in one of my uni texts- and people say uni courses aren't worth anything!
Of course, the application of organisational CRM concepts will ensure that those opinions that disagree with the 'group' thoughts or feelings is examined for accuracy. Perhaps this is what is lacking in certain areas?!?! (I wouldn't know, I'm just a peon). Perhaps they are so used to rationalising out the adverse comment that they no longer see it for what it was. I know of a few crew members over the years who have been disenfranchised to the extent of not bothering to provide the feedback anymore. No adverse feedback? Can't be anything wrong!!
I wonder how QF did in their recent staff survey though! I bet the results of that are VERY interesting!