Where did all the Quality go?

Is it just me or is no one understanding the importance of Quality and most importantly Customer Service? The past months have seen more recalls on cars than I can ever remember. General Motors (GM) needs to pull out their old Dr. Deming four day seminars and review what it means to be a Quality company.

http://autos.aol.com/info/recall/

It's just not GM. Chrysler, Ford (8/14/14 - I just got a Recall on my new Edge)  and the once Quality driven Japanese (Deming Award) car companies are also riddled with poor Quality and recalls.

The United States Government is riddled in Cost of Poor Quality - According to a new report, the U.S. government paid $106 billion in payments in error last year. These included Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid Benefits, unemployment and tax refunds. The Department of Agriculture’s school breakfast program which provides meals to needy children had the highest error rate last year of 25 percent. This is unexeptable. These departments think they have absolute power (Especially IRS) and spend what they want, when they want with no one caring about checks and balances.

Just this week I had three conversations about poor customer service at various schools and colleges in three different states. One school was a college in Ohio, another a private school K-12 in Michigan and another a public high school in South Carolina. When will organizations learn that the hiring process is the most important and customer facing employees (i.e., Secretaries, Administrator Clerks, Admissions Reps, Customer Reps, etc...) the first ones to create a lasting partnership or send people to the exists.

http://qualityg.blogspot.com/2007/09/hiring-process-is-most-important.html

Recently had dinner at Bob Evans - Took 15 minutes for waitress to take order, Cook Dropped Waffle had to re-cook, Gave me a free cookie!