Evaluating the perceived quality of the service from the perspective of the us
ers, as
well as their satisfaction with the service received at Procon Fortaleza is the objective
of the study. Despite advances in the management reform of the 1990s that
introduced the concept of quality in the public service aimed at the user rather tha than complying with bureaucracy, the need to ensure not only the quality of public services
but also satisfaction of citizens, in the pursuit of excellence. The study was of
fundamental importance due to the increase in social demands for quality public
servi ces, the growth of problems with products and services in the current Consumer
Society, the greater awareness of citizens about their rights and complaints about the
quality of public services in Brazil. The dissertation is a unique case study, of a
qualit ative nature, carried out through Field Research, with the application of
standardized interviews with 15 users and the Categorical Content Analysis
technique, with a fulcrum in Bardin (1977). The dissertation constitutes an important
contribution in the S ocial Sciences, aiming to fill academic gap. The objective was to
make a survey of the socioeconomic profile of the users, to evaluate their
perceptions regarding the perceived quality and their satisfaction with the service and
to discuss the importance o f the perceived quality. From the literature, it was verified
the main theories and influential factors in the perception of the quality of the citizens
in the service. Based on Cronin and Taylor (2002), the categories of Quality of
service, Satisfaction w ith service and Reuse of service were selected, the categories
Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Security and Empathy, based on
Parasuraman et al . (1988) and the Suggestion category was added. Procon users
evaluated the perceived quality of care as positive and were satisfied with the care,
as well as expressed satisfaction with the influential factors of the perceived quality of
the SERVQUAL model, by Parasuraman et al. (1988), suggesting important
improvements such as the increase in the number of attendants and conciliators. It is
concluded that Procon enjoys credibility and positive image due to the high rate of
reuse and recommendation of its services by the users and that it has developed
actions to increase the quality of the service and the s atisfaction of the users, in the
search for excellence of the public service.
Key words: Consumer. Rights and Consumer Protection. Quality perceived in the
public service. Procon Fortaleza.
