ISO 18295 – Requirements for Customer Contact Centres

Excellence in customer communication is achieved through the implementation of the requirements set out in ISO 18295.
Whether you are offering advice, clarifying complex questions, or handling complaints, it is essential to listen actively to your customers and understand their concerns. For many organizations, effective customer contact centres are a valuable tool for professional dialogue with clients. They ensure that incoming customer inquiries are handled correctly and promptly, allowing for strong relationships to develop and for services to continuously improve.

Call centres face the challenge of effectively responding to customer concerns while fulfilling the promises made to them. The service delivered by a contact centre plays a crucial role in maintaining a constructive dialogue with the customer and, therefore, must meet strict requirements. This is precisely where ISO 18295 certification by TÜV HELLAS TÜV NORD comes into play.

ISO 18295 is an international standard. As the successor to EN 15838, it defines the requirements for both the contact centres themselves (ISO 18295-1) and the organizations that use their services (ISO 18295-2).

Certification to this standard allows both contact centres and their corporate clients to demonstrate that they provide a consistent and sustainable level of excellent service and customer satisfaction.

What are the benefits of certification according to ISO 18295?

• Systematic improvement in the quality of customer communication.
• Competitive advantage through enhanced customer loyalty.
• Cost reduction due to improved processes and better understanding of service importance.
• Enhanced internal support network, as staff contributions to customer service and outcomes are increasingly understood and valued.
• Proof of service quality, demonstrating that the provision and management of internal or external contact centres meet specific quality standards.

Key characteristics of ISO 18295-1 and ISO 18295-2:

• Specifies service requirements for both internal and external customer contact centres, regardless of size.
• Applies to all sectors and interaction channels, including both inbound and outbound communications.
• Covers topics such as customer protection, including data security, staff competence and satisfaction, as well as employee engagement.
• Provides a proactive approach to consistently meet the needs of both corporate clients and the end customers using the contact centre.
• Defines quality indicators for information delivery, customer interaction, and complaint handling.

Certification can be obtained either individually or in combination with ISO 18295-2 and ISO 9001.

• Certification is only available in conjunction with a contact centre that complies with ISO 18295-1.
• Specifies requirements for corporate clients outsourcing customer communication services to internal or external contact centres.
• Ensures that customer expectations, as defined in ISO 18295-1, are consistently fulfilled.
• Systematically defines aspects of products and services that fall under the responsibility of the corporate client and must be considered accordingly.

Contact centres and their corporate clients seeking to promote effective and structured communication with their customers can obtain ISO 18295 certification following an audit conducted by independent and qualified inspectors from TÜV HELLAS TÜV NORD.