FAQ: How to choose an ISO 9001 quality
consultant - 15 questions to ask
1. May I ask you some questions?
If they do mind, they probably don’t want your business. And you
certainly don't
want them.
But you should find a reasonable time to ask your questions. What's 'reasonable'?
It might be when you meet. Or at a time you mutually arrange. And you should expect any good consultant
to need to know
something about your
particular situation before offering either advice or a price.
What isn’t reasonable: phoning up out of the blue and expecting a
busy consultant (if we're good, we're usually busy) to stop whatever
they are doing and give you an immediate cost, and/or
provide a large amount of information right then and there. Especially if you've never even met or spoken before. That said,
we'd be very happy to talk to you, especially once you've read
through some
of the information on our site that covers the basics.
2. How long have you been in the field of quality management? And as a
consultant?
It's important to know something about their history and experience. What's
their background. What
have they achieved? How much experience do they have?
And in what fields? You really don't want to be the first client for
someone who just got made redundant (or sacked even) and decided to 'become a consultant'.
Or do you?
3. What do you see as the most important factors in getting ISO 9001?
Their answer will give you some clues to their approach, their
values and their priorities. Do these sound compatible?
Is there any fit with your ideas, or
are they completely different?
4. What do you mean by ‘quality’?
This will tell you if they've even taken the time to think about
this, let alone develop their own definition. Can the consultant explain
to you what they mean by quality? Does what they say
align with
your thoughts? Do their eyes light up, or their voice fill with enthusiasm? Do they
sound interesting and interested? Do you understand what they say?
Some warning bells: they spout a lot of incomprehensible ‘quality speak’ at this point,
and/or quote the official
ISO definition to you (rather than using their own words), or perhaps they get very vague and
waffle on a lot. If so, watch out; it's often very unlikely that
they'll
improve on further acquaintance.
5. What would you need from us? What can we do to make this
project go smoothly and minimise the cost or time?
You’re looking to see if the way you want to approach getting ISO
9001, and the
way that they do, are
going to be compatible. Are they?
Caution: If they say anything like 'You just get on with what
you're doing; I'll
do it all for you and make it all happen,' run a mile.
6. What’s been your best quality/ISO 9001 job?
And why?
Some possible answers:
* One that took the shortest time
* The one that took the longest time (therefore paid well?)
* One which was easy and involved very little effort
* One that resulted in great improvement in business processes, management,
etc
* A great client to work with (why?)
* Really lucrative one.
Listen for what's important
to them - note the criteria they use.
If they indicate the job where they earned the most or took the longest,
probe further. If their main motivation appears to be
fees or income, think
twice if not three times! You should feel you're in partnership with a consultant, not
that they're out to
gouge every last possible dollar.
7. What was your most difficult one?
Any experienced consultant will have had at least one difficult job.
How did they respond? Do they lay blame or accept some
of the responsibility? Did they learn anything, or was it all
the fault of the client?
Recruiters love to ask this kind of question, because the answer usually
indicates
how someone dealt with
difficulties in the past, and thus what their approach
is likely to be in the future.
8. Are your clients mostly in services or manufacturing?
Partly you're just gathering information about their
experience and history. But also, you're
looking to see if they understand your field. Manufacturing ('making stuff') and services
('doing stuff') are very different.
If you are in a service field but the
consultant only has experience in manufacturing or industrial businesses, I'd
be cautious. Very cautious. Because it's rarely
successful, and I'd always want one who with experience of how to apply
the Standard in service sectors. Conversely, a
consultant with experience only in service industries may lack understanding
of manufacturing.
But don't be put off if they don't have the exact same experience in
your precise field or business niche. Because 1/
it may not happen
and 2/ with a good consultant, the skills are transferable.
A good consultant without specific experience in a specific field is
infinitely preferable to a poor consultant but with specific experience.
9. Could you show me some samples of your previous work?
Samples will give you some idea of their approach, their style of
documenting/writing and their skill (or lack of it) in presenting information.
If they show you a manual that would double as a doorstopper, or
documents that make your heart sink just to look at - let alone read -
thank them. And keep looking.
They probably can't show you a full set (we keep our client information
confidential, remember), but any reputable consultant should be able
to show you some samples. If they can't show you anything at all... why not?
10. Can you give me some references?
A good consultant would provide contact details of previous clients,
or written referrals or testimonials (or even both). If you do follow up
references, contact at least a couple of people.
Were they happy with the services? Also, expect references that are relatively recent, say within the last 18 months to 2 years.
Warning: if testimonials refer only to the 1994
version, run. The consultant is
so far out of date it's not
even funny.
Some fine consultants may not have written referrals or
testimonials. Not everyone asks for them and many organisations have definite policies about
not providing them in our litigation-prone
days. But if you cannot obtain any feedback at all from any past clients,
I'd be extremely
suspicious.
11. Will you give us a written proposal?
Even for a relatively small job or project, you should receive something in writing that sets out
some basics. You
both need to be clear about what will be done, who is
responsible for what, as well as the deliverables (ie, the services,
documents, training sessions, or other artifacts that will be delivered),
the timing and
of course the costs and terms.
12. If we do decide to use you, how will progress be tracked?
You should know how you will be kept informed. For example, does
the consultant provide
written reports, or are there scheduled progress meetings? If they have no plans to do this, how will
you know how things are going?
Getting a quality system in place and achieving certification is a
project - you need a consultant who understands at least the basic
disciplines of project management. And if you don't
want to know and think it's all entirely up to them (after all, that's
what you pay them for), then please rethink, preferably right now!
If any slippage or holdups occur, you risk not finding out that things
are off the rails until too far down the track. Which is usually
expensive, among other negative outcomes.
13. Are you willing to do some part of the project first, such as a gap analysis or
a project plan to an agreed price?
This enables you to try them out without
committing yourself further at this point. For example, the
consultant might do something they call 'benchmarking', 'scoping' or a
gap analysis. This is quite a
common practice among professional services consultants.
Unprofessional
or bad consultants
won't like this suggestion. If they refuse or become
agitated, say goodbye. Now.
14. Do you guarantee your services?
If you aren’t happy
with some aspect of their work, what will they do? What will you do? Trades
people provide guarantees – why shouldn’t consultants?
15. If we use you and don’t get our certification
first time, what will you do?
If you don't get through the external audit because you ignored the consultant’s advice (which should be written if it’s
something important), then that’s your prerogative and the failure is
yours. But if not, why? You pay for the consultant’s advice and expertise not to
"fail"
the audit!
PS: If you get an answer like “Eat my hat” then engage them.
Because
you've found a consultant
who not only has the right experience and the confidence
that goes with it, but also
has a sense of humour.
And that's a wonderful thing to
have at any time, not least in quality management.
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