Considering Quality When Selecting Service Providers: Does It Help?

by Michael Epner

It's a ritual reminiscent of a peacock strutting its tail feathers. To woo potential clients, service providers parade their quality achievements and certifications in front of potential suitors, trying to convince them that on-time delivery is a foregone conclusion. If you've dealt with these organizations, you can probably recite the pitch, "We're CMM [Capability Maturity Model] Level 5, so..." or "Our entire organization is ISO [International Organization for Standardization] certified, therefore..." One group even touts its ability to make your organization CMM Level 3 just by contracting with it. It sounds great, but in many cases the quality aura lasts about as long as it takes for the ink to dry on the contract. Does that mean that considering quality in the buying process is a futile undertaking?