Do quality consultants offer a quality service?

By the end of year 2000, more than 3800 Spanish companies had been ISO certified (ISO, 2001). Aiming for a quality certification is still the most extended practice leading to quality improvements in companies. Of the total number of companies aiming to obtain certification, about 80% contracted external consultancy services to help them implement quality systems (Casadesús, 1998). Despite that, there is no clear evidence that consultancy contributed to enhancing the implementation of quality systems. In this article, we present empirical research on this issue, in a sample of Spanish companies. We use SERVQUAL methodology to study several factors: potential benefits obtained by customers of quality consultancy services, customers' perceived quality and expectations of the quality of the consultancy service, relationship between perceived quality and benefits provided by the consultant, relationship between the quality of the consultant companies and their size and, finally, the cost of the quality consultant services.