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Quality management in services

Quality management in the service industry encompasses a variety of processes to assess the quality of services according to customer expectations. Quality management standards can help improve your service company’s processes, services, and culture to achieve the long-term success that stems from customer satisfaction.

Improving processes through a structured approach

Discover how standards help to achieve and maintain a desired level of quality within service organizations

How to ensure quality with a service management system
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How to ensure quality with a service management system

IT service providers need to deliver the very best for their customers, however, sometimes in the face of new technologies or unforeseen circumstances they can struggle.  Facing conflicting business conditions such as time and cost, providers often find themselves spending too much time reacting to problems rather than spending time preventing them. Good providers will be planning, training, investigating, and working with customers to ensure problems do not occur in the first place. Whilst striving to deliver high levels of service to their customers, providers are also being asked for improved quality, lower costs and faster customer responses. An integrated framework for delivering and managing IT services to the customer can provide control, greater effectiveness, and opportunities for improvement within the organization.  IT service management standard BS ISO/IEC 20000 provides such a framework. What is IT Service Management Standard BS ISO/IEC 20000? BS ISO/IEC 20000 is the first internationally recognized standard for IT service management.  The IT service management standard is published in three parts. BS ISO/IEC 20000-1 outlines requirements for developing and implementing an IT management system. The standard outlines how to implement IT services that are driven by and support business objectives – rather than just technology needs. It is applicable for any service organization, large or small, in any sector or part of the world which relies on IT services. The standard is particularly suitable for internal IT service providers, such as IT departments, and external IT service providers, such as IT outsourcing organizations.  The IT service management standard is making a positive impact in some of the leading IT-dependent service organizations such as the business process outsourcing, telecommunications, finance, and public sectors. The benefits to be gained from the implementation of service management best practices include: Improved customer service Focused service that supports the business strategy Cost efficiency Reliable and consistent service quality Independent proof of service quality To learn how standards support new trends in the service industry, click here. Service management systems: What are BS ISO/IEC 20000-2:2019 and BS ISO/IEC 20000-3:2019? These are Parts 2 and 3 of the international standard on how to put a service management system (SMS) in place. This type of SMS was traditionally applied to IT service management, but it’s now recognized that the techniques and discipline of an SMS are useful in other areas as well, such as facilities management and business process outsourcing.  They’re essential for those implementing a service system management based on BS ISO/IEC 20000-1. They can also be used by any organization looking for guidance on how to improve service management, whether or not they’re interested in seeking certification. The standards apply to service management supplied by any service provider: internal or external, large or small, and commercial or non-commercial. They are easy to read and understand. Part 2 follows the clauses in Part 1 and from clause 4 onward provides three sections per clause: Required activities, Explanation, and Other information. Part 3 focuses on fulfilling the requirements specified in Part 1, the applicability of Part 1, and general principles for the scope of an SMS. The requirements for service management best practices processes do not change according to the organizational form. The service management framework provided allows processes to be followed and applied accordingly. The BS ISO/IEC 20000-1 and over 100,000 more internationally recognized standards are available for simple and flexible access with a BSI Knowledge subscription. In your trust-critical industry, our subscription service puts the control in your hands, with traceability to monitor and demonstrate your business's compliance to standards, and self-serve functionality that enables you to manage your subscriptions, standards, users, and content quickly and simply. Request to learn more. Ensure quality within your service organization by adding standards BS ISO/IEC 20000-1, BS ISO/IEC 20000-2, and BS ISO/IEC 20000-3 to your collection today.Read more
How standards help organizations achieve excellent customer service
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How standards help organizations achieve excellent customer service

Whether you’re offering a service or a product you need to satisfy your customers, and that relies on delivering consistent quality time after time. Standards offer a superb set of tools to achieve consistent quality and customer service excellence. They lay out good practices for carrying out a whole range of services and the processes and systems that underpin customer excellence. That’s not all: in a complex, interconnected global economy, standards can help you work seamlessly with supply chains and partners, and provide assurance to those procuring services, whether in the same region or on the other side of the world. They do this by providing a common language and helping to define service requirements, customer expectations, and recognized terms and definitions. They also reduce the risks that might hit customers, such as data security vulnerabilities. Why are Customer Excellence Standards Important to an Organization? Achieving customer excellence isn’t just about being courteous to your customers – it’s a vital element of business operations that can impact your bottom line and affect how your company is viewed in the public eye. Customer expectations in today’s competitive world have changed and are constantly evolving. Today, globalization and digitalization and the increased variety of products and services allow customers more freedom of choice. A lot of businesses just like yours are competing for customer money and customer loyalty. Chances are good that you’re investing in marketing and advertising efforts to bring consumers through your doors. The important part of customer service is in keeping the customers once you bring them in. It costs significantly more to attract new customers than it does to take care of the ones you already have. Several high-profile companies have found themselves in the spotlight because of poor customer service policies. Customers frequently share their opinions of businesses online and through social media, which means even one wrong move or perceived slight can spread quickly and damage your business. In addition to providing high-quality service, monitor what’s being said about your business online so you can quickly address and resolve any complaints as they arise. To find out more about how your organization can improve its management of complaints, click here. The good news is that it’s relatively simple to implement a customer service improvement plan that keeps your business on top. Achieving Excellence Through Standards: Fair, Flexible Services for All Our range of customer service standards can help your business implement the necessary frameworks to achieve excellent customer service. BS 8477 Code of practice for customer service sets out principles for establishing and maintaining an effective customer service culture and mindset in an organization of any size, geographical location, or business sector. It also provides recommendations on applying these principles so that the organization has the capability to deliver a consistent standard of service that meets or exceeds the expectations of its customers. BS ISO 23592 Service excellence. Principles and model is the international standard that focuses on helping business organizations provide excellent services to their consumers. It specifies service excellence terminology, principles, and model to achieve outstanding customer experience and sustainable customer delight. To ensure excellent customer service is being achieved organizations also need to fully consider the potential impact of a new product or service or assess the most appropriate approach to anticipate and meet the needs of their customers. BS ISO 22458 Consumer vulnerability. Requirements and guidelines for the design and delivery of inclusive service is a pioneering new international standard that specifies requirements and guidelines for organizations on how to design and deliver fair, flexible, and inclusive services that will increase positive outcomes for consumers and minimize the risk of harm. It covers organizational culture and strategy, inclusive design, and how to identify and respond to consumer vulnerability. BS ISO 22458 is applicable to any organization that provides services, including service-related products, to consumers, regardless of location or size. This framework helps businesses to ensure they are doing all they can to shape their operations in a way that is most beneficial to all their consumers, and to achieve levels of excellent customer service. Get everyone in your business involved in embedding a culture of excellent customer service. A BSI Knowledge subscription gives you instant access to the resources you need to improve your customer service and complaint management processes and the performance of your people - all in one place. The flexibility and visibility it provides of the best practices guidance enables you to get the most from your standards. Request to learn more. Set the standard for customer service excellence. Implement these best practice frameworks today to meet the needs of your consumers.
Crack down on fake reviews with BS ISO 20488
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Crack down on fake reviews with BS ISO 20488

Most of us wouldn’t trust a stranger to make decisions on our behalf, but we do let them influence how we spend our money. It's become almost second nature to check a review site before buying or booking anything from restaurants to clothes and holidays. However, a Government crackdown on online consumer reviews is on the horizon. Online reviews are highly influential, impacting purchasing decisions for over 93% of consumers. But with 2.2 million fake or harmful reviews posted to TrustPilot in 2020 alone, it’s a significant issue for businesses and individual consumers alike. To tackle the issue of misleading information, the UK Government has recently announced that they would be cracking down on fake reviews under new measures proposed by the Competition and Markets Authority. For businesses, this news means they must be more vigilant than ever when it comes to ensuring the reviews of their products and/or services are genuine, or risk financial penalties worth up to 10% of their global annual turnover. What’s the harm with fake online consumer reviews? For the many reliable reviews that are written each day, there are just as many that are less so, with controversies around fake reviews, customers with an axe to grind, companies modifying or screening notes to weed out bad testimonies, false negative reviews written by competitors and other “dodgy dealings” that erode trust in the whole process. Far from being an issue that just affects consumer confidence, false reviews skew the marketplace, giving some businesses an unfair advantage while disadvantaging others. Fake reviews can also represent unfair commercial practices under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, but this can be challenging to enforce. Even where procedures exist to have a fake review taken down, this can be time-consuming to achieve. In the meantime, the review will often continue to cause reputational and financial harm. To learn about the key principles of online consumer reviews, download our BS ISO 20488 Online Consumer Reviews Brochure here. Protecting your consumers Tackling misleading information is long overdue. For the many businesses who make their profits from enticing us to browse, click and buy online, the temptation to get creative in paraphrasing testimonials, needs to be reined in. A plan to make it illegal for people to write or host fake reviews has been outlined by the government. The proposals would see bigger fines for firms that trick consumers into spending more than they want to online. Businesses offering subscriptions would also be required to make clear exactly what consumers are signing up for and allow them to cancel easily. The government’s proposals include: Giving powers to regulators to address misuse of online reviews Penalties for companies that trick customers into spending more than they intended Penalties for concealing the fact that a company has paid for its product to be featured prominently on a trading website So, what will these changes, if implemented, mean for you? For your business, these changes will mean that any consumer reviews about your products and/or services will have to be checked to see if they are genuine before they can be posted online. You will also no longer be allowed to remove unfavourable reviews and will have to be transparent about payment for better search engine results. In order to fully comply with these proposed measures, your business should also make it easy for consumers to find out how they can make complaints about defective goods or services across all your channels of operation. To learn more about business best practices on customer complaints, read our article ‘Managing complaints: Customer service standards for your business' Manage your online consumer reviews with BS ISO 20488 With these new measures likely to be introduced pending parliamentary approval, it is now more important than ever for businesses to demonstrate that they value their customers and are committed to providing reviews that consumers can trust. Applicable to all types of businesses, including review websites as well as the companies themselves, BS ISO 20488 Online consumer reviews – Principles and requirements for their collection, moderation, and publication reflects international best practices for the online consumer review process. Consumers place trust in standards and so from the collection to moderation and publication of reviews, BS ISO 20488 helps companies boost consumer confidence, protect suppliers, and improve the quality of products and services provided. It also gives users suggestions for improving the purchase decisions of consumers and the quality of products and services provided by organizations. David Fatscher, Head of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) at BSI said: ‘This guidance strikes the right balance between verifying the authenticity of a review whilst respecting the reviewer’s right to privacy. BS ISO 20488 is an answer to the current thorny issue of online reviews, where a lack of standardized guidance has left consumers in the dark as to the accuracy of a review.’ Get everyone in your business involved in embedding a culture of trust. A BSI Knowledge subscription gives you instant access to the resources you need to improve your management processes and the performance of your people - all in one place. The flexibility and visibility it provides of the best practices guidance enables you to get the most from your standards. Request to learn more. Build confidence in the quality, integrity, accuracy, and transparency of your online consumer reviews, by adding BS ISO 20488 to your collection today.

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