Customer Service Excellence – a practical tool for driving customer-focused change.

Today’s customers expect services that are efficient, effective, excellent, equitable and empowering,placing them at the heart of service provision. With this in mind Customer Service Excellence was developed to offer organisations a practical tool for driving customer- focused change within their organisation.

The foundation of this tool is the Customer Service Excellence standard which tests in great depth those areas that research has indicated are a priority for customers, with particular focus on delivery, timeliness, information, professionalism and staff attitude. There is also emphasis placed on developing customer insight, understanding the user’s experience and robust measurement of satisfaction.

The Benefits

Customer Service Excellence is designed to operate on three distinct levels:

1. as a driver of continuous improvement. By allowing organisations to self assess their capability, in relation to customer focussed delivery, identifying areas and methods for improvement;
2. as a skills development tool. By allowing individuals and teams within the organisation to explore and acquire new skills in the area of customer focus and customer engagement, thus building their capacity for delivering  improved services
3. as an independent validation of achievement. By allowing organisations to seek formal accreditation to the Customer Service Excellence standard, demonstrate their competence, identify key areas for improvement and celebrate their success.

How to get started

- Read and familiarise yourself with the Customer Service Excellence Standard. Get together with your colleagues to plan how you could use the standard and discuss with them how to take this forward.
- Contact Amanda Whitehouse on 01925 256661 to arrange an informal discussion.

Centre for Assessment Ltd can offer:

- professional, qualified assessors

- a mentor scheme

- opportunities to celebrate your organisations success in celebration events

- opportunities to combine your assessment with other frameworks

- a quality service at competitive rates

Get a Quote

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To gain a clearer understanding of the ‘value’ of accredited certification, the global association of accreditation bodies, the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), carried out a survey of businesses in 40 different economies. The survey aimed to clarify the drivers for seeking certification, the factors involved in choosing a certification body, and the extent of any benefit derived from the certification process……….To read the full article please click here

Have you ever wondered how two people can have the same conversation but go away with a different idea about what was discussed?

How can two people have the same experience and yet argue about what happened?

What does it mean when someone agrees with you?

What are they agreeing to?

The answer lies in how we organise and give meaning to our experiences……This is NLP

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is the practice of understanding how people organise their thinking, feeling and language to produce the results they do. It’s about understanding others and ourselves; how we perceive the world around us and how this ultimately affects the way we behave and communicate.

The Benefits

And, the science has an application across every area of business life – with NLP everyone can be naturally talented!

In Business

Leaders travelling through NLP Programmes have been developing innovative approaches for:

• setting objectives and defining strategies and translating them into action
• bringing about change
• maintaining concentration and focus
• aligning business and individual values
• improving communications
• motivating others
• understanding how customers make decisions about their products and services

In Personal Life

Delegates who have attended an NLP Course have found that after the course they are able to:

• communicate more effectively with others
• think more clearly
• manage their thoughts, moods and behaviours

How to get Started

We are proud to be able to offer a range of courses in which delegates can explore the world of NLP at their own pace.

Our open courses are a great way for individuals to learn from other delegates from a variety of backgrounds, whilst each session can also be delivered in-house giving organsiations the chance to tailor their own course to meet their specific needs.

Participation, practice and demonstration is encouraged at all sessions and group numbers are kept to a minimum so that the delegates have the opportunity to interact with the trainers on a one to one basis.

The Introductory Session is a great place to start and will introduce delegates to the different elements of NLP whilst also looking at specific organisationsal issues.

Our Diploma Course then allows delegates to concentrate more specifically on the techniques of NLP including Sensory Acuity (why you notice what you notice) and Filters (detecting how others make sense of the world).

Completion of the Diploma course facilitates progress to the Practitioner Course and eventually the Master Practitioner Course.

The Diploma, Practitioner and Master Practitioner courses are all accredited by the International NLP Trainers Association (INLPTA) and each delegate who completes these courses will receive a certificate from INLPTA enabling them to move onto the next level of learning as they desire.

Events

Click here to view our current events

Centre for Assessment Ltd is a UKAS accredited certification body. We have been involved in management systems assessment and certification since 1999 and are in the process of extending our range of accredited services.

We are currently in the process of applying for full UKAS accreditation for the construction sector. As part of this application we are required to undergo a head office visit followed by witnessed assessments of organisations in the construction sector.

We are seeking pilot organisations to demonstrate our competence to UKAS during our accreditation journey. To be part of the pilot scheme your organisation will need to be:-

1. Delivering construction services

2. Have a system in place that meets the requirements of ISO 14001 2004

3. Be ready for an initial or 3 year assessment before July 2012

Benefits of the pilot scheme:-

- Special pilot day rate

- Promotion of your organisation through case studies, press release, website etc

- ISO 14001 certification *

Please note the involvement of the UKAS will not impact your assessment outcome. They are there to review our procedures only.

You will initially receive a non accredited certificate once we have been granted accreditation by UKAS, we will upgrade your certificate to an accredited version.

If you are interested in taking part in the scheme please contact us on 01925 256650.

Revised to enhance its relevance to the profession, with increased risk management requirements, the Lexcel standard now provides greater support for outcomes-focused regulation ( OFR). The Lexcel office of The Law Society has worked in partnership with practices, both accredited and non accredited, the SRA and Professional Indemnity Insurers to ensure a holistic revision of the Standard.

In order to support Law firms during this transition period, Centre for Assessment are running a number of Lexcel Version 5 update training for existing Lexcel Holders. These workshops will cover the changes to the standard for example; outsourced activities, social media and what the assessor will be looking for during the assessment.

Law Firms who are currently assessed against V4 or V4.1 have until 30/06/12 to ensure compliance with these changes to the standard. From 1^st July 2012 all Law firms must be assessed against Version 5 of the standard. Law Firms who have their assessment due between 01/01/12 & 01/07/12 are able to choose which version of the standard they wish to be assessed against, either V4, V4.1 or V5.

To find out more about these sessions or, to speak to someone on the Lexcel team call today on 01925 256650.

What is Green Deal?…..put simply, the Government is establishing a framework to enable private firms to offer consumers energy efficiency improvements to their homes, community spaces and businesses at no upfront cost, and recoup payments through a charge in instalments on the energy bill.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) believes the Green Deal will revolutionise the energy efficiency of British properties.  Following a survey by a registered advisor, consumers may be offered energy efficiency improvements at no up-front cost.  Instead, the value of the investment will be recouped through a charge on the energy bill, fixed to the property.

To provide reassurance to those undertaking Green Deal improvements on their homes, community spaces and businesses, DECC has announced that it will require installers and Advisors to be subject to accredited certification.  UKAS accreditation underpins the certification process for the Green Deal. It will provide end consumers with confidence that there is a complete chain of competence right through to the organisations or individuals undertaking the Green Deal projects.

For further information regarding the Green Deal Advisor Scheme call us on 01925 256650

Integrating the standard into your business will help in a number of ways:  Reduce bottom line energy costs and put controls in place to sustain these reductions; confidently predict and report on your energy use and identify deviations quickly; improve compliance; entrench energy efficiency principles and thinking at all levels of your organisation; have full understanding of roles and responsibilities for energy reduction and management.

Certification to BS EN 16001 will demonstrate a commitment to energy management and will provide a sound basis for compliance to current and future legislation.

What are the benefits?

·         Reduce bottom line costs, by measuring and managing energy use
·         Demonstrate your company’s commitment to its corporate responsibility to reduce energy use and be seen as a leader in energy management
·         Enhanced compliance with current and future energy efficiency targets and Green House Gas emission reduction legislation

And many more……..

If you would like further information on the standard and how Centre for Assessment Ltd could help, click here to contact us.

The purpose of this new standard is to help the events industry conduct business operations in a more sustainable manner.

BS 8901 shares common management system principles and processes with the ISO 9001 standard on Quality Management and the ISO 14001 standard on Environmental Management. If you already have systems in place to meet either of these standards then you will be well placed to adopt BS 8901.

BS 8901 is a management system standard. A management system is defined as a system to establish policy and objectives and to continually achieve those objectives. BS 8901 requires organisations to understand the sustainability issues relevant to their event(s) and to put in place measures to control and minimise these impacts. It requires organisations to aspire to continually improve their sustainability performance in relation to the management of events.

In time, meeting the requirements of BS 8901 will become a minimum requirement for anyone wishing to operate in the events industry.
If you would like further information on the standard and how Centre for Assessment Ltd could help, contact the team on 01925 256650