Jewish Care Again Excels In Customer Service

Online, September 3, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Jewish Care has again been awarded the Customer Service Excellence hallmark, three years after its first certification.

Tom Banks, Assessor for SGS United Kingdom Ltd, found evidence of "a deep understanding and commitment to Customer Service Excellence".

He says: "Jewish Care has around 1,200 staff and 2,800 volunteers and I was very impressed with their universal commitment. They have always understood the link between vision, culture, commitment, staff involvement and service quality."

Following visits to several of Jewish Care's facilities and services, Mr Banks identified some areas of particularly good practice which touch people of all ages, from youth to those at the end of their life:

• Jewish Care's youth strategy has helped to attract many more young people to the volunteer programme;

• Jewish Care's merger with Jewish mental healthcare charity, JAMI, is being carefully managed to maximise benefits and minimise service disruption;

• Jewish Care's mental health education group involves young people in the development of materials to be used in schools;

• Continued and expanded activities in dementia mapping give a voice to a small but previously under-engaged customer group;

• There is strong commitment to the Gold Standard Framework, which aims to prove care for people at the end of their life;

• Jewish Care has developed a new format for quality assurance.

Cydonie Garfield, Jewish Care's Head of Strategy and Quality Assurance, says: "Back in 2007 we took a deliberate decision to focus on customer service. Our CSE recertification demonstrates our continuing commitment to our customers and community and helps us to ensure that people have a good experience when they come into contact with Jewish Care. We are not resting on our laurels though - there's always more we can do!"

Notes for Editors:

SGS is the world's leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. SGS is recognised as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 70,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 1,350 offices and laboratories worldwide.

Jewish Care is the largest health and social care charity for the UK's Jewish community, caring directly for over 7,000 people every week. Its high-quality care is delivered with compassion and is sensitive to Jewish values.

Jewish Care runs 70 centres and specialist services throughout London and the South East of England. It provides a wide range of services for people who are elderly, mentally ill, physically disabled or visually impaired, as well as Holocaust survivors and refugees.

Jewish Care also offers support and guidance to families, carers and the bereaved, as well as programmes for children and young people.

Customer Service Excellence (CSE) is the UK Government's standard, tool and driver for efficient, effective, customer-focused services. It is based on a target-plan-do-review cycle of continual improvement.

The five criteria for CSE are: customer insight (knowing customers, consulting with them, meeting their needs and measuring satisfaction); organisational culture (ensuring a customer-focused culture); information and access (communicating effectively with customers and optimising service availability); delivery (using customer feedback to improve service); and timeliness and quality of service (responding promptly and keeping to timescales, while ensuring quality).