ICS Professional Awards (For Individuals)

What is the ICS Professional Award?

• An independent and formal recognition given to individuals who have achieved excellence in customer service.
• Achievement is done through COACHING AND GUIDANCE under an appointed Coach
• Successful individuals will be accorded the status as Customer Service Professional under the ICS Professional Awards
• The programme is successfully implemented in UK over the last 5 years and presently there are more than 4, 500 Customer Service Professionals
• Designed based on a set of requirements under four key areas which are Customer, Organisation, Colleagues and Development (COCD). This set of requirements meet and exceed the UK National Occupational Standards in Customer Service (NVQ Level 2). For more information on why we use the COCD approach, please click here

Who will be eligible for the Awards?

The Awards can be applicable to the following group of individuals:

• Those currently working in the customer service environment and wish to aspire and be recognised as Customer Service Professional
• Those presently not working in the customer service environment and wish to get the recognition that will help them to pursue a career in customer service
• Those intended to get the recognition and take it further to be Coach or/and Assessor under the ICS Professional Awards programme

 What are the categories of the Awards?

There are three categories of Awards for different individuals requiring different skills and knowledge in their jobs. These three categories are:

• ICS Communications Award

For those individuals whose jobs involve day-to-day direct contacts with customers and able to demonstrate the values of good service delivery practice through the holistic approach of thinking for customers, organisation, colleagues and development (COCD).

• ICS Solutions Award

For those individuals who are proactive in their customer service approach, able to alert their needs and trends, have the experience and confidence to solve complex problems and able to balance the customer needs and organisation needs.

• ICS Innovations Award

For those individuals who are empowered and actively seek new ways of delivering improved service, able also to motivates and influence others and do think commercially.

Why is the Award important to me?

The Awards is important to you if the answer to the following questions is “Yes”.

• Are you interested in getting the most out of work?
• Do you regularly look for ways to improve your skills?
• Do you deserve recognition for your customer service skills?
• Do you aspire to be a qualified Customer Service Professional?

Upon achieving the Awards you would have possessed the following SKILLS:

• Personal skills

  • Knowing how to make each customer feel he or she is being treated as an individual by providing a personal touch
• Diagnostic skills
• Using listening and speaking skills to assess precisely what the customer’s needs are
• Sensing skills
• Picking up on clues from the customer’s tone of voice, body language, etc, as to customer’s mood and responding accordingly
• Decision making skills
• Using knowledge of the organisations’ products and services to help reach the right decision for the customer and the organisation and to resolve any problems well

What are the stages involved?

• Initial Briefing
  
  • Awareness of the ICS Professional Awards programme
  • Understand the overall plan including coaching expectation of each stage and deliverables output
  • Agree on the timetable for the coaching sessions
    
    
• Personal Profile

Help Coach to understand the role and customer service requirements of the individual. It also helps to pull together individual’s thoughts on what customer service means to them.

• Helping You Think About Yourself (HYTAY)

Help the individual to form a picture of their current thoughts and feelings about their customers, organisation, colleagues and their development needs in relation to their service delivery.

• Personal Development Action Plan (PDAP)

Based on the Personal Profile, HYTAY and one-to-one meeting, the Coach would be able to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the individual in relation to customer service.

The above will be recorded in the PDAP whereby there will be agreed actions to be taken within the likely timeframe and it forms the basis for the individual to focus on their developmental needs and actions taken.

• Passport Learning Log

Record the individual’s experiences and observations in any service related incidents. Information recorded includes:

• What Happen?
• What You Did?
• What You Have Learn?
• How It Relates To COCD Requirements?

The process involve coaching and guidance to TRANSFORM individual ability to visualise the impact of any service delivery initially ONLY on customers but subsequently to organisation, colleagues and development.

• Awards Requirement

Under each of the COCD (Customer, Organisation, Colleagues, Development), there will be a set of requirements that each individual will be coached on to achieve and meet these requirements.

The Coach will periodically review the progress of the Passport and through the used of these Award Requirements will highlight to the individual their achievements as laid down in the PDAP and what they need to focus on to further improve their ability and competency.

Reference will be made also to the Personal Profile and the HYTAY and if necessary these two documents will be review, revise and update accordingly to reflect the individual progress and achievements.

• Key Events

Individual under the guidance of the Coach will be assessed if they are ready for submission of the 5 Key Events based on information contains in the Personal Profile, HYTAY, PDAP and the Passport Learning Log.

This will allow the Coach to evaluate whether the individuals are able to understand the holistic application of the COCD and thus ready for the Final Assessment.

• Final Assessment

The Final Assessment will be conducted by ICS Accredited Assessors. Each assessment including preparatory time will be about 2 hours. The actual assessment will take about 35 to 55 minutes.

The assessment will be conducted in a one-to-one environment to confirm Practitioner’s customer service skills are in line with the Award Requirements and also to confirm if the Practitioner understands the holistic nature of customer service.

Do I need to demonstrate continuing competency after achieving the Awards?

Yes, as part of the Continuing Professional Development, you will need to continue maintaining and updating the Passport Learning Log.

Every three years, there will be a renewal assessment.

What are the benefits of the ICS Professional Award?

Upon achieving the Award, you will be invited to join as an exclusive Practitioner Member of the Institute of Customer Service. The Award through its continuing maintenance will benefit you in the following areas:

• Developing personal or job/career action plans
• Preparing for internal performance appraisals/discussions
• Demonstrating employability in the customer service marketplace
• Demonstrating continuous personal and professional development
• Gaining recognition for achievement

What are the benefits of ICS Practitioner Membership?

• Membership Certificate
• Annual Membership Card
• Membership Badge
• Bi-monthly customerfirst magazine
• Other regular newsletter
• 20% discounts on CFS/ICS publications, events and merchandise
• Access to Member pages of the ICS website