Tržište (Jul 2012)
Service quality concept and measurement in the business consulting market
Abstract
Service quality is a key factor of the competitive capability of business consulting services providers – it helps strengthen the image, create references, establish long-term business relationships and reduce the perceived risk to the customer of such services. The existing service quality models are not suitable for application to the business-to-business (B2B) market due to differences in service characteristics and specific behavior of B2B customers. Business consulting services are highly intangible and complex to evaluate, with a large number of people involved generally both in their provision and use. Typically, they are implemented in the form of a project, characterized by a high degree of interaction between service providers and customers, who differ by their ability to be integrated in their service provision process. It is essential to adapt these services to specific customer needs, and the outcome of service provision may sometimes only be apparent a while after the consulting project has been completed. Therefore, there is no single, generally accepted model of conceptualizing and measuring the quality of B2B services such as business consulting services. Building from existing theoretical notions, the paper determines the suitability of Donabedian's service quality model for conceptualizing and measuring the perceived quality of business consulting services. Based on the results of the empirical research conducted on a sample of 110 managers of the companies which use them, the perceived quality of business consulting services was found to be a multidimensional construct of a higher order which is perceived by customers through such dimensions as service potential, process and results. Thus, the preliminary hypothesis of the paper was confirmed. Research results provide the basis for recommendations to be presented for use by the marketing management of consulting services providers as well as serving as suggestions for future research.
