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Personal Development
for Customer Service Professionals

Customer Service Directors/Leaders -
Behavioural Competency Framework

New research available as at October 2008. The research was conducted over 2007/8 by Glowinkowski International, led by David Physick and by Don Hales of World of Customer Service.

If you occupy a senior position in customer service management or aspire to do so, the information in this report is important to you. How do you measure up against the critical competencies?

To find out more contact Don

Profiling services - Calipher

Calipher was formed by the legendary Herb Greenberg in the U.S. in the 1960s. As a young man he discovered and developed his research, for commercial, purposes but with the aim of providing roles for people that suited their personalities and skills. Herb still works today, despite being in his eighties and being blind since childhood. His company has been operating in the UK since 1988 and is led by Sally Duff, who has been associated with the company since they first came to this country and Jennifer Ibbetson-Revell.

In the UK, they have worked extensively in the field of customer service and they have developed profiling tools specifically for contact centre staff. www.calipher.co.uk ????Link does not work????

For more information email Jennifer ????This is a link to a site not an email and then it doesn't mention Jennifer????

Public speaking for service professionals

Don Hales and Cindy-Michelle Waterfield, who each have over fifteen years experience, of the speaking world, hold sessions to develop speaking skills for service professionals.

“Without question your constructive feedback, positive attitude and relevant advice have made a terrific impact on my confidence.  I'm now looking forward to my upcoming presentations at SME and the World Conference in America”.
Chris Farnath, Senior Director, Customer Support, EA, Aspect Software

To discuss how to dramatically improve your presentation skills email Cindy-Michelle Waterfield

Customer Service Qualifications

This is a definitive overview of qualifications (as opposed to Training Courses) for customer service professionals.

Customer service professionals do all sorts of jobs and work in all sorts of organisations. Their main responsibility is often to make sure customers, both internal and external, get a high standard of service.

Customer service professionals are also employed in leadership and management roles. This may involve setting their organisation’s strategy for customer service, or leading a team that delivers service direct to customers. Other customer service professionals provide support, for example by training people who are still developing their customer service skills.

Trends in the labour market mean that customer service professionals are in ever-greater demand. So more and more job and career opportunities are becoming available to them.

Whilst we are all experiencing turbulent economic times, it's heartwarming to witness so many organisations putting great service delivery and experience at the top of their agendas. Service will continue to be the differentiator throughout these difficult times. The winning organisations will be those who recognise this and are committed to providing great service experiences through training and development.

What National Qualifications are available in customer service?

National Occupational Standards in Customer Service

The National Occupational Standards in Customer Service are used as part of the government-regulated system of vocational qualifications in the UK. They’re the basis for customer service NVQ/SVQs and other qualifications which can be used as a stand-alone qualification or as the ‘core outcomes’ of Customer Service Apprenticeships.

These qualifications are based on National Occupational Standards which reflect the skills and knowledge needed to do a job well. They’re a way of measuring achievement at work.

The customer service NVQs/SVQs are some of the most popular vocational qualifications in the UK. Over 550,000 candidates have registered for them since they were first launched, and over 200,000 qualifications have been awarded. On average, 12,000 new candidates register every quarter.

Customer service NVQs/SVQs are so popular because people with well-developed customer service skills are increasingly in demand by employers, a trend that’s repeatedly confirmed by labour market information. Also, the customer service qualifications have been designed for all sectors – private, public and voluntary – and for anyone whose job has a customer service element, whether their customers are external or internal.

For qualification purposes, the standards have been rated at four levels of competence. In broad terms, these are aimed at:

Level 1: people who are about to embark on a career in customer service. This is suitable for people of all ages – whether they’re going into employment for the first time, have just started a customer-focused job or are thinking of changing their career path. This level gives people a foundation to help them progress in a future customer service career.

Level 2: people whose customer service role calls for well-developed behavioral competence but whose scope for bringing about change and independent decision-making is limited.

Level 3: people who have the scope to bring about permanent improvements in service delivery that benefit their organisation and its customers. These people don’t necessarily have to be in a role where they’re directly responsible for people.

Level 4: people who manage customer service functions, who have more general management or technical responsibilities, or who occupy a specialist internal consultancy role within their organisation.

You can read more about customer service NVQs/SVQs or apprenticeships.?????Where????

Customer Service National Occupational Standards 2006

You can download overviews of the 2006 standards. ICS also publish the full details and content on a CD-Rom – this is for sale in the ICS online shop. 

Customer 1st International who specialise in high quality learning resources has developed two new e-workbooks to help organisations with the delivery of Customer Service S/NVQs or as part of an in-company improvement programme.

These e-workbooks are based on the exceptional content of The Best Practice Guide for Customer Service Professionals (Edwards, 2006)  and The Best Practice Guide for Customer Service Managers (Edwards, 2008). The e-workbooks contain the underpinning knowledge and understanding for the Customer Service  level 2 and 3 S/NVQ offering all the required skills needed to become customer service professionals.

For more information visit The Institute of Customer Service

Customer 1st e-portfolio to Support S/NVQs in Customer Service

Customer 1st International is delighted to announce a pioneering venture which will revolutionise the delivery of Customer Service qualifications.  A partnership with SkillWise, already highly accredited for its e-portfolios, has taken the exceptional learning content from the Customer 1st Best Practice Guides and embedded it at key points within the Customer Service NVQ structure.

This means that any S/NVQ assessment plan created within the e-portfolio will automatically have all of the relevant learning content and knowledge checks built in, delivered as a distance-learning resource.  Furthermore, the content from the Best Practice Guides have been mapped against the Knowledge and Understanding elements of Customer Service NVQ Levels 2 and 3, so that candidates completing modules within the Best Practice Guides will automatically see which areas of their NVQ they map against.

Customer 1st and SkillWise recognise that the Knowledge and Understanding aspects of an NVQ can often be the most difficult for assessors in the field to deliver.  We believe that this new integrated delivery of knowledge together with competence assessment will be more cost-effective, improve the quality of delivery and enable S/NVQ providers to offer their learners a superb learning experience. Contact: Email trevor@customer1st.co.uk to find out more

Apprenticeships in England/Wales

Apprenticeships are planned programmes of training, learning and assessment aimed at young people.

This government-led initiative is primarily aimed at 16- to 25-year-olds, although if you’re over 25 and live in certain parts of the country you might still be able to get funding. There’s also funding available to help employers to deliver apprenticeships. The amount of funding can vary from region to region, so if you’re an employer it’s worth checking to find out what funding is available in your area:

PART 2  ASET/EDI Accredited - Blended E-Learning Courses

These Awards are delivered by Customer 1st International, a member of the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), and its learning content is based on the UK National Occupational Standards for Customer Service.  It is awarding body accredited, and successful participants receive a valuable ASET certificate, recognised globally. 

The Award for Customer Service Professionals (ASET) 

The Award for Customer Service Professionals is a blended e-learning course in Customer Service.  It is ideal for all those who deal with customers, whether internal or external.  It aims to enhance peoples’ knowledge and understanding of customer service, encouraging professionals to identify the key steps they can take to help their own teams and organisations deliver world class service excellence.  The Award also recognises those who already meet and exceed customers’ expectations, offering them a transferable qualification.

The Award for Customer Service Managers (ASET)

This is an innovative e-learning course, designed for both Customer Service Managers and Team Leaders who wish to manage customer service effectively and proactively – through motivating and inspiring their teams.  It focuses on meeting and exceeding customer expectations by placing customers at the heart of all the team does.

Customer 1st International has built these high quality, tutor-supported e-learning courses around their successful books, “The Best Practice Guide for Customer Service Professionals (2006) and “The Best Practice Guide for Customer service Managers (2008).” These tutor-supported e-learning courses enhance participants’ knowledge and understanding of customer service issues, encouraging them as customer service professionals and customer service managers to identify the key steps they can take to help their team and their organisation deliver world class service excellence.

Customer 1st International’s Online Tutors are qualified and experienced Customer Service Professionals themselves.  They all have a background in training and development, and are qualified online facilitators – they know how to motivate and support their learners through the online medium.  All Online tutors will have relevant sector experience.

There is also an opportunity for organisations to deliver the programme themselves - which could prove an attractive option - and Customer 1st International will train staff in on-line facilitation, a requirement of ASET quality assurance.

Find out more email stephanie@customer1st.co.uk

www.customer1st.co.uk

PART 3  The Institute of Customer Service Qualifications

www.instituteofcustomerservice.com

“At ICS our mission is to lead customer service performance and professionalism”.

 ICS Professional Awards

  • ICS Communications Award
  • ICS Solutions Award
  • ICS Innovations Award

The ICS has designed these awards to help people improve their performance in delivering customer service.

People achieve them when they can demonstrate in their day-to-day work that they can meet our requirements in four key areas:

  • You and your customer
  • You and your organisation
  • You and your colleagues
  • You and your development

The ICS Communications Award requirements focus on the key behavioral skills needed to build relationships with customers and colleagues, as well as on the wider purpose of the job role and how it fits in with the needs of the organisation.

The ICS Solutions Award requirements build on the Communications Award as it relates to solving customers' problems. To achieve the Solutions Award, people need to demonstrate that they inspire confidence, are proactive and respond quickly to service trends and customer feedback. They need to show that they’re a team player who gives practical support to others to help them improve their performance.

The ICS Innovations Award requirements go a step further than the previous two awards. People need to demonstrate that they understand the importance of customer loyalty and retention to the future success of their organisation. They’ll need to show that they’re proactive, flexible and creative, and are always on the lookout for new ways of improving customer service. We’ll ask them for examples of how they’ve identified new ways of doing things and recommended improvements. On top of this, they’ll need to be able to show how they motivate and influence others.

People use the Passport to Learning and Achievement in Customer Service to build a picture of how they meet the award requirements. They do this together with a designated coach who also does part of their assessment. A final assessment, focusing on the candidate’s ability to deliver a fully-rounded service to customers, is undertaken by one of our accredited assessors.

You can only work towards an ICS Professional Award if your organisation is a Council or Corporate member of the Institute of Customer Service.

What is ICS qualified individual membership?

Our qualification shows that you’ve achieved a national standard in customer service and gives you independently recognised customer service professional status. It’s a clear statement about your achievement and potential.

To become a qualified member of ICS, you need to have been assessed against ICS standards for the level of membership you want to apply for. The generic term customer service professional is used to cover all qualified members.

What’s the right membership level for me?

ICS offer four levels of membership for practitioners who have proved they can deliver customer service to a national standard: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Foundation.

ICS practitioner membership is a clear statement that you’re aiming to be a customer service professional who has not only achieved a national standard, but is also focused on continuing to learn and develop.

What do I need to become a member?

Gold member PMICS (Practitioner Member of Institute of Customer Service)
You’ll need to have achieved the ICS Innovations Award or to have completed an ICS-accredited in-organisation development and assessment programme at an equivalent standard.

Silver member
You’ll need to have achieved the ICS Solutions Award, an NVQ/SVQ level 3 in customer service or to have completed an ICS-accredited in-organisation development and assessment programme at an equivalent standard.

Bronze member
You’ll need to have achieved the ICS Communications Award, an NVQ/SVQ level 2 in customer service or to have completed an ICS-accredited in-organisation development and assessment programme at an equivalent level. If you have an NVQ/SVQ or other ICS-recognised qualification at level 3 or equivalent which includes a significant customer service component, you can also become an ICS Bronze member.

Part 4 Graduate and Post-Graduate Programmes

Many UK universities and business schools offer graduate or postgraduate qualifications in customer service.

Graduate qualifications:

The Universities and Colleges Admission Service website is the place to start if you’re looking for up-to-date graduate courses. Select the student tab and the 'Course Search' option. Put ‘services’ in the search box to bring up a list of course subjects.

There are courses in:

  • service sector management
  • retail management
  • public services management
  • hotel services management
  • health services management
  • financial services management

*** Warwick University Business School***

The Warwick Diploma in Service Leadership

Six four-day workshops are matched with assignments and a business project. Learning and working through the 15 months of the programme immediately embeds key service leadership principles in your business. The study modules ensure you develop a rounded understanding of business and management:

  • Service Operations
  • Strategy & Planning
  • Service Performance
  • Service Excellence
  • Customer Service
  • Personal Effectiveness
  • Service Marketing
  • Change Management.

Each learner completes a final project which delivers valuable service improvement to their business. The topic is determined by the three-way review involving the learner, their manager, and their WBS tutor

Email for more information about dates, fees, and eligibility.