Web host was finally able to help by amending the sql query as follows:

This is what needed to be run:
ALTER TABLE zen_customers ADD COWOA_account tinyint(1) NOT NULL default 0;
ALTER TABLE zen_orders ADD COWOA_order tinyint(1) NOT NULL default 0;
INSERT INTO zen_query_builder ( query_id , query_category , query_name , query_description , query_string ) VALUES ( '', 'email,newsletters', 'Permanent Account Holders Only', 'Send email only to permanent account holders ', 'select customers_email_address, customers_firstname, customers_lastname from TABLE_CUSTOMERS where COWOA_account != 1 order by customers_lastname, customers_firstname, customers_email_address');

Just basically adding zen_ in front of the table names.

Seems to be working fine.