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Introduction to Information Quality in Customer Care
This chapter on Information Quality in Customer Care is the first of the IQ
Applied chapters precisely because the Customer is the second-most important
Stakeholder to any organization, next to its Employees. Organizations must focus
on the Needs, Requirements, and Expectations of its Customers to succeed in
accomplishing its Mission, let alone to become World-Class.
I originally entitled this chapter “IQ Applied to Marketing and Sales,” but
I rejected that precisely because of the severe lack of care for the individuals
and organizations who are the lifeblood of any successful organization—their
Customers. Customer Value does not come from exploitation of those who fund
the organization by buying products and services, nor does it derive from unscru-
pulous behaviors such as up-sell, bait-and-switch, misrepresentation, and fraud.
The sub-prime and variable-rate mortgage schemes that led to the 2007–2009
real-estate crisis and financial meltdown in the U.S. and around the world that
were foisted on gullible and unsuspecting homebuyers by lenders who knew
that the rate increases were going to cause payment failure. The tragedy is the
suffering and loss incurred by the Consumers and their Neighbors whose homes
lost value as well.
C H A P T E R
9
Information Quality Applied to
Customer Care: “Prospect-to-Valued-
and-Valuable-Customer ...