ISO Standards
ISO is a global Quality Framework (ISO stands for International Standard Organization) that is often applied to call centres and customer service functions.
There is a range of ISO different standards but the ones that most typically relate to call centres, customer service, complaints departments etc are:
- ISO 9001 Quality Management
- ISO 27001 Information Security Management
- ISO 182945 Customer Contact Centres
- ISO 10001 Quality management – Customer satisfaction – Guidelines for codes of conduct for organizations
- ISO 10002 Quality management – Customer satisfaction – Guidelines for complaints handling in organizations
- ISO 10003 Quality management – Customer satisfaction – Guidelines for dispute resolution external to organizations
- ISO 10004 Quality management – Customer satisfaction – Guidelines for monitoring and measuring
If you need to learn more about the ISO standards visit their website.
ISO 182945 for contact centres
In 2017 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) implemented the new ISO Standard 182945 for contact centres.
The ISO 182945 standard provides a framework for any contact centre that aims to assist in providing clients and customers with services that continuously and proactively meet or exceed their needs.
It compromises of two key parts:
ISO 18295-1 Part 1: Requirements for customer contact centres
Part 1 of ISO 18295 specifies best practice for all contact centres, whether in-house or outsourced, on a range of areas to ensure a high level of service.
These include:
- Communication with customers
- Complaints handling
- Employee engagement
ISO 18295-2 Part 2: Requirements for clients using the services of customer contact centres
Part 2 is aimed at those organisations making use of the services of a customer contact centre to ensure their customers’ expectations are being met through its effective engagement.
It provides guidance on the types of information the organisation needs to provide in order to achieve high levels of customer engagement.
Whilst ISO 18295 is specifically for contact centres, there are other a number of other related ISO Standards that include Quality Management, Complaints Handling, Information Security and so on.
Do you need to have ISO certification?
It depends.
If your call centre is part of, or plans to service, large corporate businesses then yes, you will most likely need certification.
In Australia, ISO certification is often mandatory for a number of Public Sector outsourcing opportunities.
Even if you don’t need it, the ISO framework can often be a great audit tool for your business as it sets minimum expectations and benchmarks ensuring you are operating at global best-practice.
Whilst not an ISO Standard, you may also be interested in learning more about the PCI-DSS requirements if you are handling payments over the phone.
How can you gain ISO certification?
There are a number of specialist consultants in Australia that can audit your business against the ISO Standards and provide ISO accreditation and/or ISO certification for contact centres and customer experience.
Use our free CX Connect service to confirm your requirements and we’ll connect you to consultants that are able to assist.
There are also a number of training and consulting businesses that provide frameworks and certifications such as COPC, CCXP and our own training solutions via CX Skills.
