What is this standard about?
Customer contact centres (CCCs) play an important role in the interaction between organizations and their customers. They vary in their levels of service quality and consumer protection, and work to many different levels of efficiency. This new two-part standard (BS EN 18295-1 and BS EN 18295-2) has been created to help organizations achieve and maintain higher customer satisfaction levels.
This part of the standard, Part 2, is aimed at those organizations that employ customer contact centres, whether in-house or managed by an outsourcer. A customer contact centre is not responsible for certain aspects of products and services which remain the responsibility of the client organization and Part 2 gives guidance on those types of issues. It aims to ensure that customer expectations are consistently met through the provision and management of appropriate arrangements with their in-house or outsourced customer contact centres.
Who is this standard for?
It is applicable to clients employing customer contact centres of all sizes and across all sectors.
Why should you use this standard?
Part 2 works with Part 1 (BS EN ISO 18295-1) which sets out best practice for all contact centres, whether in-house or outsourced and irrespective of the service sector, on a range of areas to ensure a high level of service. These include multichannel communication with customers, complaints handling and employee engagement.
The ongoing success and development of any organization relies on its understanding of the expectation levels and perceptions of its customers. Together both parts will be especially beneficial for organizations that don’t always live up to customers’ expectations as they can help address problems such as waiting times, means of contacting the company and meeting customer experience expectations.
This standard will bring the following advantages to those who adopt it:
- Improvements in customer contact quality, which can give a competitive edge to the organization and avoid the risk of customer criticism about poor service or service failure
- Cost efficiencies through better processes and a better understanding of the customer contact service, while maintaining quality outcomes and effectiveness
- Improvements in staff retention through understanding and valuing the staff contribution to customer service and outcomes
