The Marketing Leaders - ICS celebrates 10th anniversary

Ten years ago the founders and think tank visionaries behind the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) realised that customer service would become the key business differentiator moving into the 21st century.

It is thanks to them - and to the belief and immeasurable support from the pioneering Founder Member organisations and many others that have followed in their footsteps - that ICS is this year celebrating its 10th anniversary.

 “In an age where great customer service makes up more of 'the offer' and is pivotal to exceptional profit-making, the ICS takes a lead and reminds us all that we still have got some way to go.”
David Hood, Community Director, THE marketing leaders ^TM

 “The ICS provides real opportunities for employees at all levels to develop their practical customer skills. The ICS Awards really help to build employee confidence and give them the personal recognition that doing any job well brings.”
David Maxted, Strategic Director, Birmingham City Council

 “From the outset the ICS was committed to developing the skills of those who worked directly with customers. The approach adopted by ICS benefits the organisation, individual staff members and, of course, puts customers at the heart of service delivery.”
Ita O’Donovan, Chief Executive Officer, London Borough of Haringey

 “Congratulations to ICS on its 10th anniversary. I thought it was a good idea then and I think it is now. Good for customers and good for the people who serve them.”
Professor Wendy Thomson, McGill University, Montreal (formerly the Prime
Minister’s Principal Advisor on Public Services Reform)

Organisations like Prudential, Zurich, NatWest/RBS, AXA/PPP, Royal Mail Group, Anglian Water, Tesco and BT have all played a crucial role in establishing ICS as the independent professional body for customer service –there at the beginning, and still involved today.

Their influence in supporting and shaping ICS policies in the early years provided the inspiration for hundreds more organisations across the private and public sectors to unite behind the ICS cause - all sharing the same convictions about the significance of service excellence and the role of individuals and dedicated customer-focused teams in delivering it.

Previously, customer service was something that had been toyed with, almost in a gimmicky, knock-about fashion, primarily across the pond. And customer service professionalism, as such, was still awaiting invention. Even where it was spoken of, no one seriously took much notice.

As ICS registered as a company limited by guarantee back in February 1997, Founder Chairman and Chief Executive Stephen Connock outlined the vision for an Institute that, like the very people it was created for, “would make a difference” to service organisations and customer-facing staff working in every sector.

“No matter who we are or where we work, we all have customers,” he said at the time. “Satisfying customer requirements and, whenever possible, exceeding their expectations will increasingly become the difference between success and failure in business.”

The inaugural ICS President, John Devaney, predicted: “Service delivery will become the key differentiator which will set successful companies apart from their competitors”.

If it was the stuff of dreams and visions then, it has certainly become the compelling force of reality for all service providers today.

ICS has become an increasingly influential voice in helping to change people’s perceptions of customer service - both for those at the receiving end and those providing it. With nearly 400 organisational members from all sectors of Private and Public enterprise, plus nearly 7000 individual members, it is certainly making a difference, not just for customers, but for the lives of the many hundreds of thousands of people, working in customer service roles today. ICS is also responsible for the launch, and highly successful development of, National Customer Service Week, now in it’s 7th year.

Progress has also been substantial in ICS’s influence in raising the bar on service standards - not least through its extensive research programme, and through national standards and performance-linked qualifications - impacting organisational and individual achievement in delivering improved service.

Rapidly changing customer needs and expectations now place heavy demands on organisations and individuals seeking to deliver high standards of customer service. ICS believes that to succeed organisations need to transform their approach to customers and individuals need to have high levels of personal effectiveness as recognised Customer Service Professionals. ICS provides the framework to make this possible.

Work is well advanced on a new five-year strategy that builds on the foundations and achievements of the first 10 years which will move ICS forward in proactively serving the best interests of all Member organisations and the wider customer service community in the years ahead.



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