|
Some of the benefits of becoming
certified to the International Customer Service Standard include:
-
Continuous improvement and
benchmarking of the organization’s customer service efforts through the
annual audits to ICSS.
-
An ability to determine gaps
between managements’ expectations of customer service levels and actual
delivery levels.
- A
useful tool for quantifying the performance of customer service
professionals within an organization.
-
Greater focus on customer service throughout the organization.
-
Enhanced morale at all levels of the organization, brought about by greater
autonomy to deal with customer complaints and an overall reduced level of
complaints.
-
Enhanced organizational recognition, as a result of both the fact of being
audited and certified, as well as being able to display the visual symbol of
certification, the “Certified Customer Service Organization” logo (see
below).
Organizations certified to
ICSS will be entitled to use the “Certified Customer Service Organization” logo
for a period of one year, after which time the organization is required to be
re-certified.
Organizations with offices
in more than one State or Territory would be required to gain certification for
the main office in each State or Territory. Organizations with multiple offices
in one State will be covered by a single assessment.
Where an organization has
multiple offices, a random sample of individual offices may be sufficient to
assess the entire organization.
Organizations divided into
autonomous divisions can be certified at the divisional level, rather than at
the organizational level. Prior to seeking certification, organizations in this
category should contact the CSIA to discuss the most appropriate level of
certification.
The ICSS is
the Standard used globally and is the only Standard acknowledged by the
International Council of Customer Service
Organizations. ICSS is internationally acknowledged – it has been
recognized by the International Standards Accreditation Board and has been
adopted by the British Department of Trade and Industry.
Customer service is both an
outcome and a profit strategy.
Organizations with a balanced
approach to customer service reap the rewards while poor service delivery
results in loss of profit and market share or in the case of not-for-profit
organizations, in escalating costs, diminished productivity and lack of
effectiveness.
Many organizations have already
begun to address improvements in customer service delivery and usually adopt one
of the following approaches:
PASSION
– these are organizations that embark on smile campaigns and look to addressing
all of the softer issues relating to service. They believe that the customer is
always right and that in every business transaction or ‘moment of truth’, the
customer must come first.
The downside to this approach is that many
organizations that have adopted this philosophy have taken their eye off the key
issues. They have lost sight of the business imperatives and indeed, there are
many examples of outstanding customer service providers who have gone bankrupt.
PROCESS
– these are the organizations that have developed and implemented strict
processes and systems to enhance customer service. Often they are represented
by strict policy guidelines, queues, customer numbers for service, voice-mail
and recorded telephone messages and inflexibility in relation to delivery.
The downside to this approach is
that while it guarantees consistency of delivery, it fails to
recognize
that each customer is an individual, with different needs and expectations.
Eventually the
customer may decide that these organizations are too difficult to deal with.
ICSS recognizes that to maintain
service excellence, an organization requires an alignment between Passion and
Process. This balance will not always be 50/50.
Some organizations,
because of the nature of their operation, will need to lean more towards Passion
and some will lean towards Process. The important feature however, is the
recognition that a focus on both is required for sustained success.
Outstanding
customer service cannot be a stand-alone approach: it must be reflected in the
overall business goals in order to maintain the balanced approach.
ICSS
identifies the 4 key components necessary to maintain the alignment through a
cause and effect relationship and balance between Passion and Process:
·
A Service
perspective in relation to customers
·
A Financial
perspective in relation to customers
·
An Operational
perspective in
relation to customers
·
A Learning and Growth
perspective in relation to customers
ICSS is a
recognition that service excellence is an outcome, and one that relies heavily
on people. For this reason, the 4 key customer perspectives focus not just on
the customer, but on the internal workings and infrastructure of the
organization; those things that are essential in order to deliver outstanding
service.
Within each customer perspective there are 3
elements and each element has a number of service attributes. These service
attributes are divided into 2 categories: mandatory and desirable.
Conformance to all mandatory
attributes is required in order to achieve certification to ICSS.
Beyond the mandatory attributes,
implementation of the desirable attributes will see organizations
approach best practice.
ICSS requires an organization to
address all 4 key customer perspectives, all elements within those perspectives
and all mandatory service attributes. It does, however, permit differing
approaches depending on the nature of the organization.
To measure progress against each
of the service attributes ICSS adopts the 3 ‘I‘ approach:
-
Intention
-
Implementation
-
Integration
Intention
– evidence exists to show that the service attribute is to be addressed in the
current or next business planning phase (Score: 0-2).
Implementation
– evidence exists to show that the service attribute has been addressed within
the organization and success measures identified (Score: 3-5).
Integration
– evidence exists to show
that the service attribute is part of the culture of the organization and
measurement data is being used to enhance service delivery (Score: 6-10).
The scoring range acknowledges that there will be varying rates of progress in
Intention, Implementation and Integration. In order to achieve certification of
to ICSS, it is not necessary to achieve a ‘perfect 10’ for each service
attribute.
However, under normal
circumstances, certification to ICSS will not be granted to organizations where
mandatory service attributes fall only under the ‘Intention’ category.
The certifying body will be seeking evidence of Implementation and Integration.
Progress towards a score of ‘10’ will be expected over time as the organization
continues to learn and grow in service excellence.
|
