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Reclaiming Quality in the Age of AI, Drift, and Customer Distrust

Searching for hidden defects

Erhan Astam / Unsplash

Akhilesh Gulati
Mon, 08/11/2025 - 12:03
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Complacency won’t show up on a control chart. But its damage is real. Can AI and systems thinking help us detect it and respond before trust is lost?

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As customer expectations evolve, one question remains: Are customers still at the core of your company’s operations?

Back in 1999, a simple but provocative assertion was made: Without customers, everything a company produces is essentially waste. That idea now feels obvious. Yet in 2025, many leadership teams still treat customer experience as a “soft” initiative—secondary to efficiency, compliance, or cost.

However, from a quality perspective, customer-centricity isn’t about branding—it’s about meeting requirements. Quality is the act of delivering what the customer expects—no more, no less.

A 2023 Global Service Study by PwC underscores the challenge: 73% of consumers say experience is vital to purchasing decisions, yet 54% feel most companies need to improve the experience. That gap isn’t just a service failure—it’s a quality failure.

What if we reframed that gap as an opportunity?

Today’s customers want speed and personalization: automation and empathy, innovation and stability. These may seem contradictory—but TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, teaches us that contradictions aren’t obstacles. They’re signals for innovation. TRIZ reminds us: Don’t choose between competing demands—transcend them.

Beware complacency

Now, let’s talk about a quiet killer of quality: Complacency.

We once had a supplier who proudly displayed the motto, “The Customer Pays Our Bills.”

But over time:
• Performance dropped
• Responsiveness declined
• We moved on

It wasn’t because of price, and it wasn’t because of specs. We left because of perceived indifference—a red flag most quality systems miss.

This wasn’t a sales or price issue. So let’s name it: Complacency is a quality defect. It doesn’t show up on a control chart, but the damage is real:
• Inconsistent service = variation
• Variation = risk
• And unmeasured risk silently compounds

According to Bain & Co., improving retention by just 5% can boost profits by up to 95%. So why don’t more quality systems treat customer retention as a key metric? Why don’t we track trust erosion like we track defects?

In TRIZ terms, our supplier violated the Ideality Principle: The ideal system delivers value without added cost or complexity.

The supplier added friction—and lost trust.

AI: New possibilities, new contradictions

Artificial intelligence can detect weak signals: subtle drops in engagement, early signs of churn, shifts in tone. Algorithms can analyze trends humans find hard to see, surfacing issues before they escalate.

But AI isn’t a silver bullet. Without thoughtful design, it can automate indifference at scale. If our data reflect complacency, so will our model. Just like any quality tool, AI reflects the assumptions behind it.

The real challenge isn’t technical—it’s systemic. Can we use AI not just to optimize transactions, but also to safeguard trust?

In TRIZ terms, AI brings new contradictions. How do we automate empathy? How do we scale personalization without losing human nuance?

These aren’t tech questions—they’re quality questions. So let’s ask ourselves, as quality and operations leaders:
• Do our systems flag early signs of customer drift?
• Are we tracking complacency like any other defect?
• What tools help us uncover the root causes of hidden churn?

Let’s raise the bar and rethink: What does customer-centric quality really look like in our organizations?

Comments

Submitted by Rebecca Mott (not verified) on Mon, 08/11/2025 - 11:23

Be Proactive

Customer-centric quality means building your organization’s processes, culture, and decisions around delivering value to the customer—consistently and intentionally. Everything should be built around the Voice of the Customer and the customer's anticipated needs. It’s not just about fixing problems when they arise; it’s about proactively anticipating needs, identifying potential pain points before the customer experiences them, and continuously improving to exceed expectations.

One of the greatest threats to true customer-centricity is complacency. When an organization assumes that customers will remain loyal without ongoing effort, it risks stagnation. Quality suffers when teams focus only on meeting minimum requirements rather than reaching out, listening, and adapting to changing expectations. A customer-centric organization doesn’t wait for feedback to come in—it actively seeks it out through surveys, conversations, and market insights, then acts quickly on what it learns.

Embedding proactivity at the heart of operations means empowering employees to take initiative, rewarding innovation that benefits customers, and making decisions with the customer’s perspective as the first filter. It also means regularly asking, “What would make this experience better for our customers?” and taking bold steps to deliver it.

As you mention, "Today’s customers want speed and personalization: automation and empathy, innovation and stability."

Ultimately, customer-centric quality is not a static achievement—it’s a constant pursuit. By refusing to become complacent, organizations maintain the trust, loyalty, and advocacy that drive sustainable growth.

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Submitted by Akhilesh (not verified) on Mon, 08/11/2025 - 14:06

In reply to Be Proactive by Rebecca Mott (not verified)

Rebecca, I truly appreciate…

Rebecca, I truly appreciate your thoughtful response. Your point about complacency is so important—and, sadly, I’ve seen it even within professional organizations. When member questions or suggestions go unanswered, sometimes as a matter of routine, engagement and membership naturally declines.  On the other hand, organizations that make it a habit to listen and respond quickly tend to foster stronger connections and see their membership grow.  I'm sure you can name a few on either side of this spectrum.

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Submitted by Sergey Grigoryev on Tue, 08/12/2025 - 00:50

Shewhart control charts easily detect signals of customer churn

Dear Akhilesh,
Thank you for your article.
I would like to point out that Shewhart control charts easily detect signals of customer churn caused by common systemic causes (management responsibility) or special causes (requiring immediate intervention to eliminate them).
Shewhart control charts remain an unsurpassed tool for the prompt monitoring of any numerically measured indicators.

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Submitted by Akhilesh Gulati on Wed, 08/13/2025 - 11:07

In reply to Shewhart control charts easily detect signals of customer churn by Sergey Grigoryev

Sergey, I truly appreciate…

Sergey, I truly appreciate your perspective; you’ve touched on a point that often goes unnoticed. While Shewhart control charts are a familiar tool for most quality professionals, I’ve found they’re seldom applied to uncover softer signals, like the first signs of complacency.  Several ASQ colleagues have shared the same view.  Your experience could make for excellent case studies on how to use control charts in this way.

Best regards,
Akhilesh

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