Methods to signal the quality of services to buyers, include

Signalling quality of services edit

Methods to signal the quality of services to buyers, include obtaining titles and/or qualifications, establishing reputations, advertising, or becoming members of professional organisations. Membership of a professional body, for instance, can require members to maintain certain standards, and provides an incentive to ensure that other members do likewise, so that the organisation as a whole can create a reputation that may otherwise be difficult for individual members to create. This can provide buyers with a degree of certainty regarding the quality of service they will receive from these members.

An alternative method by which quality can be gauged, is if the service, or service provider, is evaluated by an independent third party. This evaluation service may be provided by the state or could be supplied by private operators in response to demand from buyers.

An advantage of quality-signalling approaches is that information asymmetries can be resolved by market-based responses to buyers’ demands without imposing costly regulation and without restricting competition. Additionally, higher-cost, high quality professionals can coexist alongside lower-quality, lower-cost professionals, benefiting buyers by providing them with the opportunity to purchase the quality of service that best suits their needs.
professional services

Dublin

2 February 2011