Prime Minister congratulates Hopwood Hall College

Director of Students at Hopwood Hall College, Mrs Kris Skelton, was delighted to receive a letter from Prime Minister Gordon Brown congratulating her on the College achieving the challenging Government standard for excellence in customer service – “The Customer Service Excellence Standard”.

Customer Service Excellence is a national standard consisting of 57 different criteria. Organisations have to provide evidence of how they meet these 57 elements which an appointed assessor then verifies on site in a rigorous four day process which includes a review of documents and in depth discussions with students, employers, partners and staff. Hopwood Hall College was assessed as fully compliant with all 57 elements, which is a tremendous achievement.

The 57 elements cover:

1. Customer Insight - proactively consulting customers and using their feedback to develop and improve services. 
2. Culture of the Organisation – demonstrating a corporate commitment to providing a customer focussed service. 
3. Information and Access – providing easily accessible and up to date information about services to customers.
4. Delivery – how responsive services are to customer needs.
5. Timeliness and Quality of Service – demonstarting efficiency and effectiveness of services

To progress its work towards the ‘Excellence Standard’ the College formed a multi-disciplinary Customer Service Working Group, made up of Team Leaders who deliver services across departments. This group not only helped to implement the good practice that was evidenced in the assessment, but is also responsible for ensuring the College maintains its Customer Service Excellence rating by making the continuous improvements that the Standard demands.

Kris Skelton, Director for Students, said: “Hopwood Hall College works proactively to capture the views and ideas of its customers and uses these to improve the quality of our services. We are delighted to have achieved recognition from the Centre for Excellence for the work we are doing.”