If an individual or organization bases their decisions on poor quality information there will be a wide range of consequences:
• The Wrong Decision - choices may be made which end up costing time, money and other resources to put right. Decisions may cause time to be wasted, products to be of poor quality or a negative impact on staff/customers.
• Inefficiencies - poor decisions may lead to sub-optimal use of resources. If a business does not have an accurate view of staff productivity, they may set lower targets for them - causing more staff to be hired than necessary.
• Mistrust - if poor quality information leads to slower manufacturing, decreased quality of good or services or mistakes in healthcare, it can lead to poor perception of the organization by customers as well as the the wider public. Such events can be very damaging for any organization and many may not recover from these events at all.
• Missed Opportunities - if a company receives poor quality information when engaging in market research or collecting customer feedback, they may miss a chance to forge better relationships with current customers. Customer relationship management is essential for any business.
• Lost Revenue - business who receive high quality information while engaging in market research, customer polling and customer relationship management may learn of more ways to service their customers than they had anticipated. These conversations could lead to ideas for new products and services. Business who receive poor quality information may miss out on such opportunities.