I come across countless articles, columns, and blogs about poor customer service daily. People can present their frustration and pitiful experiences in the most creative, peculiar, hilarious, and shocking ways. Most of them just want to vent, but others are determined to give their expert advice on how companies could improve their service. With all the finger-pointing and good discussions out there, I couldn’t help but wonder: As a customer, do I have any responsibility in a company’s poor product or service?

 Story update 10/7/2010: We edited the last sentence of the first paragraph to reflect an amendment from the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program.

Known for the past 23 years as the Baldrige National Quality Program, the nation’s public-private partnership dedicated to performance excellence has changed its name to the “Baldrige Performance Excellence Program,” to highlight that mission. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award will keep its name.

Companies that apply heijunka to their production system understand the true meaning of the proverb, “Slow and steady wins the race.”

Discussions of a merger between European management system registrars DNV and Intertek, as reported in Quality Digest Daily on December 8, have been put on hold due to unplanned "complexities," according to a joint statement.