Customer service statement
Customer Service – the NCFE way
NCFE is passionate about providing exceptional customer service. Every single NCFE employee is focused on not just meeting, but exceeding your expectations. We believe our approach to customer service makes us different – easy to do business with, flexible and responsive.
Accessibility
To help you access NCFE products and services, we’ll:
• be easy to get in touch with during our office opening hours[1]
• allocate your centre a dedicated Centre Support Assistant responsible for dealing with all your enquiries and give you their direct line and email address. In case they aren’t available, we’ll also give you the contact details of your Centre Support Assistant’s ‘buddy’
• publish the direct line telephone numbers and email addresses for all our employees on our website (under the ‘contact us’ section). If you can’t access our website you can phone our main number and our receptionist will put you through to your Centre Support Assistant
• allocate your centre a dedicated Business Development Manager and Business Development Officer who can talk to you about your centre’s curriculum needs
• provide an informative and accessible website where you can download all our publications free of charge
• send you printed copies of our publications within 2 working days of request (just email info@ncfe.org.uk or call us on 0191 239 8000)
• send you Candidate Information Packs within 10 working days
• provide our publications and assessment materials in the Welsh or Irish language, or in an alternative format, on request.
Support
To help you to deliver NCFE qualifications and awards effectively, we’ll:
• allocate an External Moderator or Verifier for each qualification or award you offer
• arrange for your External Moderator/Verifier to visit you at least once a year to sample your candidates’ portfolios and provide support
• provide a range of training events for Assessors and Internal Moderators throughout the year (see the news and events section of our website for details)
• organise bespoke training events for Assessor and Internal Moderators on request
• provide annual training and networking events for Exams Officers
• publish our fees for the forthcoming year by April each year
• provide a step by step guide to our processes from approval to certification in our Centre Support Guide
Centre and candidate administration
To help you progress your candidates from registration to certification as easily as possible, we’ll:
• confirm approval for any additional qualifications or awards you want to deliver within 5 working days of receiving your completed notification form (existing centres)
• allocate an External Moderator/Verifier within 10 working days of candidate registration
• send you the results for multiple choice external assessments within 10 working days
• send you the results for other types of external assessment within 25 working days of the cut-off date for marking
• provide access to online assessment for qualifications which have an external
assessment
• award direct claims status for certificates , when centres meet our published quality criteria
• send you certificates and/or letters of unit credit within 15 working days of receiving the signed certificate claim form
• let you know if there is a problem with any stage of the registration/certification process which might cause delays
• make the best use of technology to make your life easier and provide online systems wherever possible
• provide non-online systems if you don’t have easy access to our website
Communication
To keep you up-to-date with NCFE products and services, we’ll:
• provide information in all formats, in plain English
• acknowledge or respond to any telephone message, email or letter within 1 working day of receiving it
• send you our quarterly printed newsletter (NCFE News) and regular email news updates
• send you printed copies of any revised qualification information for the qualifications you’re approved to offer whenever changes are made.
Comments, compliments and complaints
We rely on your feedback to let us know whether we’re providing the right kind of products and service. We carry out a number of surveys and focus groups throughout the year, but you don’t have to wait until then to tell us what you think. If you want to give us your thoughts you can email feedback@ncfe.org.uk or just pick up the phone and tell us!
We try to get it right first time, every time, but of course sometimes things don’t go quite according to plan. If you’re unhappy about any aspect of the service you’ve received from NCFE you should contact your Centre Support Assistant who will usually be able to put right whatever we’ve done wrong. If you’re still unhappy, you can contact one of our Centre Support Team Leaders, or our Centre Support Manager.
If you write or email us a complaint, we’ll acknowledge it within 1 working day of receiving it and give you the contact details of the person dealing with the complaint. Once we’ve fully looked into the problem, we’ll let you know what went wrong and what we’ve done, or are going to do, to resolve it within 20 working days.
After we’ve sent you a response, we’ll contact you again to make sure that you’re happy with the way we dealt with your complaint.
NCFE also has an appeals policy which covers enquiries about results, assessment and approval decisions available from our website.
If you have any questions about this please get in touch with Hilary Whitaker, Service Excellence Manager on 0191 239 8035 or email hilarywhitaker@ncfe.org.uk
________________________________________
[1] Office opening hours are 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am to 4.30pm on Friday (excluding Bank Holidays and the period between Christmas and New Year)
Page author Hilary Whitaker hilarywhitaker@ncfe.org.uk Dec 07
