BS EN 15838:2009 Customer contact centres. Requirements for service provision
Customer contact centres (CCCs) have 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 standards and levels of efficiency.
BS EN 15838 is the standard that sets out service requirements for contact centres irrespective of the service sector with a focus on the operational aspects of running a contact centre. The standard applies to both in-house customer contact centres as well as outsourced centres.
Implementing the standard should improve both customer service and business success. It is designed to achieve customer, staff and stakeholder satisfaction. It should create a culture of continuous improvement and foster increased understanding of the value of the customer contact centre.
It would be especially beneficial for CCCs that don’t always live up to the customers’ expectations, as it can help address problems such as long queuing times, failure to answer queries promptly and efficiently and impersonal treatment.
Customer contact centres (CCC) have an important role in the interaction between the organization purchasing the CCC service and their customers.
BS EN 15838 was developed in response to European Commission mandate M/378. The Mandate states that the goal of the standard is to provide quality of service requirements for contact centres, common to all centres, and irrespective of the service sector, technical approach to the provision of the service, or the service provider. The standard applies to both in-house customer contact centres as well as outsourced centres. The standard has been devised to benefit both of these types of contact centre and the customers who make use of their services.
Whilst the standard is voluntary, it aims to bring the following advantages to those that adopt it:
- Improvements in customer contact quality, which can give a competitive edge to the organization and avoids 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, whilst maintaining quality outcomes and effectiveness
- Improvements in staff retention through understanding and valuing the staff contribution to customer service and outcomes
- Customer satisfaction.
BS EN 15838 aims to encourage the development of services, which are effective, high quality and cost-efficient and which meet customers' expectations. It addresses a number of areas, using a balanced approach.
Contents of BS EN 15838 include:
- Introduction
- Scope
- Normative references
- Terms and definitions
- Management Strategy and Policy
- Job descriptions
- Operational roles and responsibilities
- Human resources
- Information and communication technology (ICT)
- Quality assurance
- Training
- Operations management function
- Planning and control function
- Client organization management function
- Contact Centre agents
- Tasks and functions with regard to agents
- Requirements for agents
- Communication and customer service
- Technical skills
- Specific skills and knowledge
- Recruitment process
- Training of agents
- Ongoing training and coaching
- Performance
- Agents’ satisfaction
- Agents’ privacy
- Infrastructure
- Communication channel
- Contact management (hardware and software tools)
- Confidentiality and data protection
- Working environment
- Back-up systems
- Processes
- Introduction
- Agreement with the client organization
- Service statistics
- Handling deviations
- Monitoring process quality
- Workforce management
- Access channels
- Complaints processing - CCC service
- Privacy
- Business continuity plan
- Customer satisfaction
- Customer satisfaction survey
- Results
- Complaints analysis
- Customer protection
- Social responsibility
- Mandatory KPIs
- KPIs for agents
- KPIs for customers
- KPIs for processes
- KPIs for contact quality
- KPIs for infrastructure
- Recommended KPIs
- KPIs for client organization
- KPIs for processes
- KPIs for efficiency
- KPIs for customer and/or client organization complaints
- Best practice guidelines for client organizations
- Recommended skills for management and strategy in a Customer Contact Centre
- Operations management function
- Client organization management function
- Bibliography