Principles of The International Customer Service Standard
(TICSS)
The International Customer Service Standard (TICSS) contains the
main principals required for the delivery of customer
service excellence and provides clear guidance on developing,
implementing and improving a service quality system of a customer
focused organisation.
The integrated principles, as outlined above, assist
in improving, understanding and serving customer needs.
TICSS focuses on adding value to the organisation by giving
guidelines on what the customer expects and appreciates in return
for their loyalty. The Standard is not a strict set of requirements
but rather provides advice on how an organisation should operate
day-to-day to ensure employees are in a position
to maximise customer satisfaction.
TICSS describes a generic approach to be applied for customer
focused organisations within any culture and industry regardless of
the product/service provided. TICSS can be used for all
organisations that have customers, no matter whether the customer
is an end user or a business buyer.
The aim of TICSS is not to achieve "compliance" with the
standard, but to build a customer focused culture and as a result
improve customer satisfaction by successfully implementing ground
rules that positively influence each and every customer
experience.
The organisation must first interpret TICSS (criteria and
guidelines) to fit within the current language of the organisation
and then focus its objectives so that they are aligned
with TICSS.
TICSS can be implemented and used independently or
simultaneously with any management systems already operating
within an organisation. TICSS will complement any
well-structured and properly managed quality management system.
Organisations implementing TICSS can do so through implementation
by function or department or as an organisation as a whole.
Implementation can be for a single location or multiple locations
and branches.
During the implementation process of TICSS and at later stages
of performance measurement against the requirements of TICSS, The
Institute recommends the usage of its online customer service
assessment and reporting solutions. These online
solutions provide detailed assessment and comprehensive reporting
which outlines organisational strengths and weaknesses making it
easy to identify areas for improvement. A free online
assessment and reporting tool is available for all
organisations who are committed to customer service improvement and
seek professional guidance.
