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How do you define quality? A curt response might be, "I really can`t define it, but I sure do know it when I see it." A more reflective observer might say, "Quality is in the eye of the beholder." Assertions such as these frequently are offered as flippant response to the question. nevertheless they do offer some insight into the true nature of "quality" because they focus directly on the respondent rather than on a thing or an action being judged. In the popular sense, identifying quality is purely a judgement call. It is entirely dependent on the perception of the individuals, or collection of individuals, making the determination. You and I may agree on the quality of something, or we may completely disagree. If the good, service, activity, or whatever satisfies us, we judge it to be something of quality. If we are not satisfied, we judge it to lack quality. In the popular sense, we judge the degree of excellence of a good or service by comparing it explicitly or implicitly to something else and in the context of our life experience. The people who make the satisfaction judgement calls may be described as customers. Service professional, such as lawyers or engineers, may prefer to call them clients; computer service companies may call them users or subscribers; doctors use the term patients; educators prefer the term students; the customers of live entertainment performances may be called audiences or fans. It is a matter of complete indifference what term is used; in the broadest sense they all are customers and they are the ones that must be satisfied. Quality, then, must be judged in terms of customer satisfaction. Webster`s International Dictionary offers the following ad its first two definitions of the noun quality: 1a. peculiar or essential character; 1b. a distinctive inherent feature; property, virtue. 2a. degree of excellence; degree of conformance to standard; 2b. inherent or intrinsic excellence of character or type; superiority in kind.