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Charity Commission: open all hours?

Finance | 13 Jan 2009

The Charity Commission is rightly proud of its customer service centre and last week was once again proudly shinning up to its rooftops to shout tidings of yet more recognition for excellence.

But getting the customer service hours wrong in a press release bragging about good customer service deserves recognition of a different kind.

Charity Commission Direct, the Commission's single point of contact for all enquiries from charities and the public, has achieved certification to the Customer Contact Association (CCA) global standard.

We are sure that what this actually means is pretty much a given to all, but to recap indicates that the Commission has been judged to meet the CCA's criteria for best practice and customer service excellence in contact centre operations, joining, in the words of CCA's Judy Smyth, a "unique group of over 200 contact centre operators" (so not strictly speaking unique) who are "leaders in delivering consistency, efficiency and continual improvement within their customer contact centres".

However, it is to be hoped that the information provided to CCA to secure this prestigious piece of paper was more accurate than that in the accompanying press release. Exactly 88 minutes later a correction email came round stating that "the Charity Commission Direct Contact Centre is open from 09:00 to 13:00 on Saturdays, rather than 09:00 to 3:00, as originally stated".

These ghost hours at the weekend could well have made all the difference in the eyes of CCA, impressed that the regulator was on hand to answer queries in the wee small hours of Sunday morning from members of the public unable to sleep from worrying about the proportion of phone revenues from The X Factor given to charities.

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