The knowledge economy has, perhaps, rendered this degree of personal interface to a Utopian dream, but the final word in quality still belongs to the customer.
Business has become more customer-centric than ever before, with customer satisfaction being the raison de etre as well as the acid test of every organisation. Consequently, quality can no longer be defined in terms of statutory requirements or standards alone.
These need to be accompanied by customer-centric metrics, and all modern quality management systems are based on the principle that the customer is the best judge of quality.