A new global standard for customer service excellence was launched in the UK last week when two leading customer service organisations announced their partnership.

Customer Service Network (CSN) and The International Customer Service Institute (TICSI) hosted an event at Drummond Gate, London on Thursday 14 June when a number of organisations including UNICEF, Virgin Active, Legal & General, Welsh Water, McCain Foods and Philips attended to learn how the standard works and how they could benefit from it.

Philip Forest (right) and Mark Hammil joined John Hughes (CSN) at the launch of The International Standard for Service Excellence.

The International Standard for Service Excellence is a robust and rigorous accreditation of customer service performance against the 5P’s model of policy, process, people, premises and product. It also assesses customer and employee engagement and feedback. Organisations will be able to achieve one of three levels of accreditation – International Standard, International Benchmark or International Excellence.

Developed and governed by TICSI, the standard is designed to help companies to focus on delivering service excellence, and benchmarks them against other organisations inside and outside of their sector. A detailed report provides recommendations on how to improve and deliver an excellent customer experience.

John Hughes, Managing Director of CSN talks about the 5P’s criteria in The International Standard for Service Excellence.

Organisations achieving the standard benefit from higher levels of customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy, as well as making significant cost savings by concentrating on what matters to their customers.

TICSI – based in Dubai – is partnering CSN, who will have exclusive rights to sell the standard in the UK.

“We believe this product sets the bar for service excellence right across the globe and we are delighted to be working with TICSI to deliver this product,” said Darren Young, Business Development Director at CSN.

”Our aim is to inspire the achievement of the highest standards of professionalism in all aspects of service quality in every international market.”

The International Standard for Service Excellence (TISSE) is widely recognised as the global quality mark in the Middle East and is starting to be adopted in Asia, America and Australia.

“CSN will be the delivery partner in the UK where – for the first time – there will be a universal benchmark for everyone to measure their organisation against,” said John Hughes, CSN’s Managing Director.

“We are confident that this can help to raise customer service standards in all business sectors. Every organisation has the potential to be the next John Lewis.”

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