Today’s contract tip is about quality standards for services.
It is much easier to define and measure quality standards when talking about goods or deliverables. We use specifications and acceptance criteria to objectively measure if the good or deliverable meets the contract requirements.
But when the contract is for services only, we have a tougher defining when the performance is good enough.
We typically include a description of the standard that services much meet. But these phrases are inevitably vague and hard to nail down. So we do our best to describe an objective standard for something hard to measure objectively.
Here are some common phrases we use to describe the quality standard:
- good and workmanlike manner
- in a professional manner
- in a manner that is used by professionals in that location that have ten or more years of experience
- in accordance with the highest standards in the X industry
- in accordance with the standards that a skilled and experienced professional in this industry would use or follow for a similar scale and type of project in this location
The exact wording for that descriptive standard depends heavily on the industry, the nature of the service, and external quality measurements for that kind of work.
What’s your preferred approach to quality standards for services?
