Customer Service

Unit 1: Understanding the organisation

Session 5: Policies and procedures

In this Session you will learn about:

The principles, policies and procedures of your organisation

How your organisation communicates its principles to employees
Your organisations policies and codes of practice and how you are made aware of
these
Consultations on changes to principles, policies and procedures
Issues of public concern relating to your industry and organisation.

Principles, policies and procedures

Pages:

Principles, policies and procedures ensure that an organisation achieves its aims,
objectives and overall purpose. Principles, policies and procedures let employees know
how they are expected to treat customers and behave at work.
What will principles, policies and procedures look
like?
Principles, policies and procedures will differ in every organisation and across the three
sectors (commercial, public and third). However, you can use the information below as
general guidance about what they may look like in your organisation.

Principles

Principles are the foundation of a system of beliefs within an organisation. Principles

are the philosophy of the organisation which set out how the organisation thinks.
Overarching principles are often set out in mission or vision statements.

BSI recommendations
The British Standards Institute (BSI) published a Customer Service Code of Practice in
2007. A summary of its contents can be found here. Tap to see the essential Customer
Service Principles as outlined by the BSI in this publication.

These recommendations for customer service principles outlined by the BSI are a good
template for any organisation defining their own principles. However, organisational
principles will vary according to the values of the organisation and the sector
(commercial, public or third).

Policies
A policy is a definite course of action adopted by an organisation.
Policies guide employees through the decision-making process, helping them put
organisational principles into practice.

Industry-wide similarities
Customer service policies may be similar in many organisations, as most organisations
have the same aim to please and retain their customers. Whether the interaction with
the customer takes place in a retail store or over the phone in a contact centre, this aim
to please and retain customers is the same.

Depending on the organisation, a customer service policy may simply state the manner
in which staff should behave, or it may spell out customer service roles and what is
expected of certain staff.

Remember that certain policies may be tailored to fit principles specific to your
organisation be aware of this when describing your own organisations policies!

Procedures

A procedure is a series of actions conducted in a certain order or manner. While a policy

is a basic guide to conduct, a procedure is a series of steps to be followed as a
consistent and repetitive approach to accomplish an end result.

Organisation particulars
While customer service principles and policies are similar, procedures tend to be much
more specific to individual organisations.

Procedures ensure that principles and policies are implemented in the correct manner,
and employees should follow them by the letter to meet their employers expectations.

Procedures will usually be put in place to give step-by-step guidance on how to answer
the telephone, deal with complaints, give refunds, respond to feedback, communicate
messages to customers etc. These will be different in every organisation!
 Case study
Tap to move to Page 2a to see some examples of the principles, policies and procedures
of commercial, public and third sector organisations.

Key point
For question 1 in section 5 of your Assessment you must be able to describe the main
principles, policies and procedures of their organisation and its documentation (5.1).
You need to be confident using the terms principle, policy and procedure in order to
describe them within your own organisation. For example, think about things like your
chosen companys mission statement, health and safety and refund policies and where
these might be documented.

Principles, policies and procedures in the

three sectors
Back to Session
So what do the principles, policies and procedures of companies in
the commercial, public and thirdsectors commonly look like? Weve provided
examples from each of these sectors below.

Commercial Cosy Coffee

Principles
Lets take a look at an example of a commercial sector organisation first; a regional
coffee chain called Cosy Coffee.

Cosy Coffees mission statement is: To make people feel happy, secure and cosy just like
a home away from home.

It outlines its customer service principles:

We aim to reach out to our customers and bring joy to their lives even if just for a few
minutes. Of course, it starts with a perfect cup of coffee in cosy surroundings, but our work
goes far beyond that; its really about making people happy.

Cosy Coffees customer service principles reflect the mission and values of the
organisation; namely, to connect with people and provide products and services that
promote customer loyalty.
 The organisation you work for may provide different products and services from this
coffee chain, but for most organisations, whether they are in the commercial, public or
third sector, attracting and retaining customers is a key concern.

Policies
Employees at Cosy Coffee follow these customer service policies, which are outlined
in a staff handbook:

Ensure customer comments and feedback are always welcome

Enable customers to submit feedback via an in-store customer service survey
Respond to negative feedback promptly and efficiently
Listen to customers and meet their needs wherever possible
Always deal with customers in a friendly and approachable manner.

Procedures
Cosy Coffee employees have clear customer service procedures, particularly in
relation to customer feedback and complaints:

Meeting and greeting

Always say hello to customers, ask them how they are and what they would like
to drink
Always ask customers if they would like any food or snacks with their order.
Feedback and complaints

Respond to negative in-store surveys within seven days by email, telephone or

letter, depending on customer preference
Verbal complaints must be dealt with in a calm and courteous manner by store
managers
Store managers must apologise and attempt to offer a solution to a problem where
possible
Managers must make a written note of all verbal customer complaints, with time,
date, customer name where appropriate, and a brief outline of the complaint
Customer in-store and verbal feedback must be discussed during weekly staff
meetings.

Public Sector The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation

Trust
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a public sector organisation that provides
NHS care to NHS patients. Its Customer Service Policy outlines the following principles,
policies and procedures that it expects its staff to provide for all customers.

Principles
We aim to offer a service that is efficient, effective, excellent, equitable and
empowering, with the patient and their family, friends and carers always at the heart
of service provision. We believe in providing equity in our services, in treating people
 fairly with respect and dignity and in valuing diversity both as a provider of health
care services and as an employer.

This healthcare organisation has tailored some common customer service principles
to the particular service that it provides. Your organisation may do something similar,
whether its in the commercial, public or third sector, common customer service
principles will probably be tailored to your organisations own services and customer
requirements.

Policies
This public sector organisation has clearly defined policies and procedures, with a
focus on excellent communication with customers.

Throughout all contact with customers, staff should aim to meet their needs through
professional, courteous and efficient service.

Staff will:

Treat all customers with respect and courtesy

Listen to what customers have to say
Personalise service to the needs and circumstances of each service user where
practical
Always do what they say they are going to do, or update the appropriate people
promptly if things change, offering an explanation for the change
Respond to enquiries promptly and efficiently
Consult customers about their service needs.

Procedures
elephone calls

When answering a telephone call, staff should greet the caller and identify
themselves, giving their name and department. Staff will remain polite at all times
and assist the caller where possible. Staff will aim to answer the telephone within
three rings.

Typing

As a minimum, all letters will be transcribed, signed and posted out within six
working days. Contact names and telephone numbers for the department or person
sending the communication should be provided in all correspondence.

Email

All emails sent to the website will be responded to within two working days. If it is
going to take longer than two working days to provide a response then the enquirer
will be informed of progress and a realistic timescale set for resolution.

Face-to-face meetings
 Where staff meet face-to-face with customers, they will greet customers immediately,
or if the staff member is already engaged with a customer, as soon as they are free.
Staff should deal with the enquiry/transaction quickly and in a professional,
courteous and helpful manner. Receptions will be manned at all times during the
normal working period for the area.

Third Sector Mind Matters

Charities have to service a variety of customer groups all with different needs:
volunteers, fundraisers, donors, staff, companies and most importantly service users.
The individuals within each of these groups also have different needs, which means that
providing excellent customer service is often a complex task for third sector
organisations.

Mind Matters is a small mental health charity with ten regional retail outlets. Lets take
a look at its customer service principles, policies and procedures in relation to its
donors.

Principles
Mind Matters mission statement is: To promote good mental health and emotional
wellbeing for everyone.

Donors are hugely important to Mind Matters. The charity realises that it needs to
engage with donors on a personal level to ensure their continued loyalty and to
attract new customers. Its customer service principles in relation to donors are as
follows:

We work as one integrated organisation where staff and working volunteers

contribute their views on how the charity is run and what they think donors may
value
We pride ourselves on developing personal relationships with our donors and
providing a high level of one-to-one customer care.
 Policies
Mind Matters staff deal face-to-face with donors in its retail stores and also
communicate with them via telephone, email and post. Lets take a closer look at
their customer service policies and procedures.

We always personally thank donors for their efforts and donations

We communicate regularly with donors, with news and information about the
charity
We obtain regular customer feedback through questionnaires and use this
feedback to make changes and improvements to the organisation
We consult customers on how and when they would like us to communicate with
them, i.e. monthly or quarterly, by email, telephone or post.

Procedures
Donations

Send donors personalised thank you cards when they make a donation to the
charity.
Customer feedback

Carry out a bi-monthly review of customer feedback questionnaires, using

customer comments and suggestions to improve our service
Personally thank customers for their feedback and inform them about
improvements to the organisation that have been made in response to customer
feedback.
Retail customers

Staff must greet customers when they enter the store

Staff must thank customers for their purchase or donation
Customer complaints must be noted and passed on to the Area Manager
Staff must answer the telephone as promptly as possible and deal with customer
enquiries in a friendly and helpful manner.
Your organisation may have very similar or very different principles, policies and
procedures in place to the examples outlined here. This will depend on the nature of
the business, the circumstances under which staff come into contact with customers
and the specific customer service principles and policies.

Communicating principles
As you now know, an organisations principles guide how the organisation thinks.
These principles can be seen as the organisations philosophy.

Communication is key
If organisational principles are a set of beliefs or a philosophy specific to that
organisation, how does the organisation distribute these principles to all of its
employees?
 Lets consider some ways that organisations distribute their principles to employees.

The recruitment process

By incorporating their principles into the recruitment process, the organisation can
ensure those hired are aware of, and have some affinity with, these principles. Some
interviewers may review principles with the candidate and ask them for feedback to
determine whether the candidate is a good fit for the organisation.

Organisational principles may be worked into the recruitment process

Interviewees may be asked about organisational principles.
Reading material

The organisation handbook and vision or mission statement, if one exists, may well be
the first two pieces of reading material that new recruits receive. Many organisations
communicate their principles in these two documents, so that new recruits and all
employees understand how they are expected to behave in the workplace and have
written material to refer to if they are ever in doubt.

The handbook and vision statement may detail the organisations principles
The information included in this reading material will probably be the first thing new
recruits learn about the organisation.
 They appear everywhere

Ensuring that principles are printed out and widely displayed in the organisations
premises so that they feature in everyday office life is another way to distribute
principles to employees. Providing employees with daily messages (in forms that they
cannot avoid) ensures the principles are continually read and understood. Mission
statements are good ways of doing this.

Printing principles on the back of business cards, at the top of newsletters, on ID badges,
notice boards, email signatures, letterheads and displaying them on the intranet are just
a few ways to communicate principles on a daily basis to employees.

Printing the principles and making them visible throughout the office ensures they feature
in every employees day
Printing principles on commonly used items is a great way to effectively communicate
them.

Group discussions
 Some people pay more attention to messages communicated verbally. For this reason,
an organisation can voiceprinciples regularly by adopting a policy, which states that
principles should be considered in decision-making processes and in meetings.

The organisation can also encourage managers and team leaders to remind staff of
principles in everyday discussions to ensure they are at the heart of each employees
knowledge of the business.

Verbal communication of principles can be more effective for some

Managers and team leaders may be responsible for reminding other employees of the
principles.

Appraisals and feedback

Methods put in place to improve individual and organisational performance are also
opportunities to discuss principles with employees. Structured, formal reviews of
performance, such as appraisals and feedback systems, are a great opportunity for
managers to discuss with employees whether or not employees are adhering to
organisational principles.

Some organisations also give out awards to those employees who most faithfully
adhere to principles as a means of promoting and encouraging awareness of principles
throughout the organisation.

Discussion of whether an employee adheres to principles may be included in a formal

review
Awards are another method used to publicise organisational principles.
 Improving team performance

Methods aimed at improving organisational performance, such as away-

days and team-building exercises, are also great opportunities to communicate
principles by working them into tasks and exercises.

For example, in an organisation where trust is a key principle, tasks and exercises could
be centred on building and sustaining trust between employees.

Away-days and team-building exercises are opportunities to remind employees of

principles
Team-building tasks could be centred on organisational principles.

Time to think
Does your organisation use any of the methods outlined here to distribute its principles
to employees?

Key point
In your Assessment you must be able to explain how the organisations principles are
disseminated to employees (5.2). Thinking about the ways the organisation you work
for (or one youre familiar with) disseminate information to employees will help when it
comes to answering this question.

Policies and codes of practice

As you now know, a policy is a definite course of action adopted by an organisation.
Organisations may build their policies around a trade associations or professional
bodys code of practice to ensure they are complying with industry-wide guidelines.

A code of practice is a set of written rules or standards outlining the responsibilities of

or proper practices for an employee or organisation.
 Customer service codes of practice
Customer service codes of practice include guidance on how to deal with customers,
particularly when handling complaints. They do not have the same kind of authority as
regulation and legislation, but help to encourage good standards of industry practice.

The British Standards Institute published a British Standard Code of Practice for
Customer Service in 2007. A summary of the contents of this publication can befound
here. This is a good general guide to codes of practice within the customer service
industry.

The ICS states that a Customer Code of Practice should:

1. Spell out standards of service customers can expect
2. Tell customers how to complain or suggest improvements
3. Clarify the organisations contact details
4. Make information accessible and clear
5. Involve customers and employees in the preparation of the code of practice
6. Explain plans for further improvement
7. Assure customers that they will receive a fair service
8. State any relevant legislation
9. Ensure the publication date is clear and that content is updated

On the web
Examples of codes of practice relating to customer service, established by trade
associations and professional bodies can be found on the following websites:

ABTA (The Travel Association)

Care Quality Commission

Organisational policies
A customer service policy is vital for any organisation involved in providing customer
service because it tells staff how they are expected to behave and informs the customer
of the level of service that they can expect from that organisation.
 Policies are often more specific to the organisation than an industry-wide code of
practice, so it is often useful for an organisation to work policies into their own
personalised code of practice.

On the web
Some examples of organisations customer service policies can be found on the
following websites:

British Airways
NHS Scotland Practitioner Services
Third Sector Services

An organisation with a clear set of customer service policies or a code of practice needs
to ensure that this information is available to customers and employees. To behave as
expected when providing customer service, employees need to be made aware of
relevant policies and codes of practice.

How have you been made aware of an organisations code of practice and/or policies?

Tap the headings below to see how an organisation may make its employees aware of
its codes of practice in relation to these specific areas.

Online
Published the code of practice/policies on their website or intranet.

Email
Emailed a copy of the code of practice and organisational policies to all employees
whenever it has been updated.

Handbook
Included the code of practice and policies in the handbook.

Appraisals
Based appraisals or feedback systems around the organisations code of practice, to
determine whether individuals adhere to this and other policies.

Trade association
Referred employees and customers to the trade association or professional body
responsible for the relevant customer service code of practice.
 To behave as expected when providing customer
service, employees need to be made aware of
relevant policies and codes of practice

Key point
For your Assessment you must outline relevant policies and codes of practice adopted
by the organisation and how employees are made aware of this (5.3). Use the examples
on this page to help you answer this question, but make sure you relate them to your
own organisation.

Consultations on change
How are you consulted on changes to your organisations principles, policies and
procedures?

If you are consulted on changes, this means that you are provided with information
regarding the proposed changes and asked for your opinion, which is then taken into
account by those who make the final decision.

How are employees consulted?

Consulting employees on changes encourages dialogue within the organisation. Small
group meetings and questionnaires are good means of encouraging responses from
employees. Consulting employees through an employee representative is an effective
means of putting forth the opinion of a group of employees.

How you are consulted on changes to principles, policies and procedures will depend on
the size and structure of your organisation, your usual work practices and exactly what
is being communicated.

Ways of consulting employees

Small group meetings
Questionnaire
 Line manager/Team leader discussion
Intranet bulletins
FAQ page on the intranet
Email
Team bulletins
Monthly newsletters
Video-conferencing
Letter
Through an employee representative or staff council.
Size and structure of the organisation

In larger organisations, it is likely that employees may be informed of changes and given
the opportunity to respond through an employee representative or a staff council. In
smaller organisations, it may make more sense to consult employees on changes
in small group meetings or through a discussion with their line manager or team
leader.

In organisations structured in a way that means not all employees or team members are
in the same place at once, a video-conference or questionnairemay be a good means
of ensuring all employees are consulted on the matter.

Usual work patterns

If employees work shifts and struggle to all be in the same place at the same time for a
team or departmental consultation meeting, it may be best to be consulted on changes
via the organisations intranet.
The form of this consultation could be an intranet bulletin giving details of the changes
and explaining how to get in touch with views, or it could be a Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQ) page on the intranet to encourage discussion between colleagues.

What is being communicated

If the employer is proposing fundamental changes to organisational principles,

policies or procedures, which will affect the direction of the organisation, then it is likely
that such significant changes will be formally communicated to employees, in
a letter for example.

If the changes being proposed by your employer are expected to be discussed for an
extended period of time, it may be best to update employees on discussions and
progression in a monthly newsletter. If the changes affect only one department or
team within the organisation, only onedepartmental/team meeting may need to take
place.

Did you know?

If you work in a workplace with 50 or more employees, by law you can request
consultation on planned future changes through what is known as Information and
consultation arrangements.

Information and consultation (I&C) means that there is ongoing, flexible communication
between employer and employee regarding whats going on in the business and any
planned future changes including changes to the organisations principles, policies and
procedures.

If you dont already have an information and consultation arrangement with your
employer, you can set one up by sending a request to your employer in writing, which
states the date the request was made and the name of the person requesting the
arrangements. It should be noted that your employer is legally obliged to consult
employees when they are proposing redundancies, transferring ownership of the
organisation or proposing changes to a work-based pension scheme. In these
circumstances you have the right to be consulted, regardless of any information and
consultation arrangements in your workplace.

For more information on this right to consultation, see the gov.uk website.
 Key point
For your Assessment you must be able to explain how employees are consulted on
changes to the principles, procedures and policies within the organisation (5.4). You
might want to make a note of some of the ways explored on this page as this will help
you when it comes to completing your Assessment.

Issues of public concern

Organisations providing products or services to customers will most likely have issues
related to them that attract public concern. In an age where information about
companies is much easier to access via the internet, it is important for organisations to
be aware of, and able to deal with, these issues.

What could be cause for public concern?

Lets think about some issues of public concern that could relate to your industry or
organisation. Remember that some issues will be more relevant to certain sectors and
industries than others. You can read some common issues of public concern on the
right.

Issues of public concern relating to your organisation may be related to which sector
you are working in. Read on to find out which issues are typically more relevant to
which sector.

Potential issues of public concern

Product recall are your products safe and reliable?
Confidentiality do you store customer information, such as bank details, securely?
Accessibility is it easy to contact your organisation, get appointments etc?
Quality is your product/service equal to or better than the competition?
Responsiveness how quickly will you respond to a customer and resolve any problems?
Value customers do you value your customers and treat them appropriately?
Finances what is your organisation spending money on?
Wider concerns does your organisations product/service have any impact on wider
issues such as public health, the economy, the environment etc?
Commercial sector issues

Responsiveness
Demands on commercial sector organisations may be higher in terms of responsiveness
and quality of customer service. Commercial sector customers may feel that they have
more of a right to demand better service or to complain when they have paid money
directly to your organisation for your product/service.

Confidentiality
The confidentiality of customer information is an issue attracting more public concern
as we increasingly use the internet to communicate our personal and financial details to
companies. Take, for example, the amount of public interest shown in how Facebook
uses its customers personal information or in how banks keep our financial details
secure online.

Economic concerns
The one issue strongly connected to the commercial sector is how commercial sector
organisations impact the national economy. Do they encourage trade, growth and create
jobs or do they take financial risks and require government intervention or
involvement? The huge public interest in the banking industrys contribution to the
economic downturn of 2007 demonstrates the high level of public concern regarding
the economic impact of commercial organisations activities.
Public sector issues

Accounts
Public sector organisations tend to attract a lot of public interest about their finances
how much it is costing the public to run such organisations, how is this money raised
and what is this money being spent on exactly?

Accessibility
There may be interest in the accessibility of your service because public sector
organisations are funded with public money.

For example, can anyone needing an appointment with their GP easily get one? Can
anyone wanting to speak to their local councillor do so with ease?

Confidentiality
Because public sector organisations often gather a lot of information about customers
from different services within the sector, confidentiality can be a huge issue. For
example, will the NHS respect patient confidentiality and ensure all patient information
is securely stored?

Wider concerns
The nature of the public sector means that most of the issues concerning organisations
in this sector are broad-ranging such as the health and wellbeing of the nation, the
state of the countrys roads, the fair and democratic running of election processes, etc.
 Third sector issues

Accounts
Third sector issues of public concern are often related to the finances of the charities in
question. Those who donate to a third sector organisation, and those who do not, may
be concerned about how money raised through donations is being spent.

Trust
Public confidence and trust is a major issue as far as third sector organisations are
concerned. People want to know that money going to charities is being spent effectively
and ethically. The significance of this issue is highlighted by the fact that, if a charitys
yearly income is greater than 25,000, you can view details of their accounts on
the Charity Commission website.

Ethics
The morality of third sector organisations is a point of huge public interest. Charities
trade on the fact that their purpose is a purely ethical one to help others. The public
want to be sure that third sector organisations help the people, animals, projects etc
that they promise to help, that they abide by clear codes of conduct when fundraising,
and that they are accountable to those they aim to serve. A good introduction to ethical
concerns relating to the third sector is available on the BBC website.

Dealing with issues of public concern

Issues of public concern relating to your organisation can be numerous and wide-
ranging, and therefore ways of dealing with these issues will vary. Many issues of
concern are dealt with by ensuring accurate and effective communication of intentions
and principles to the general public.

Further ways your organisation may deal with issues of public concern include:

Establish stringent testing and health and safety processes to ensure products/services
are high quality and safe
 Ensure means of communicating with the organisation are varied (face-to-face, online,
telephone, post) and easily accessed by having enough customer service representatives
on hand to respond to queries and problems
Invest in public relations communicate the organisations message effectively to the
wider public
Establish clear customer service policies make them clear and easily available to the
public (not just customers) and ensure that staff abide by these policies
Publish the organisations accounts
Publish a code of practice relating to the organisations economic, ethical, environmental
responsibilities.
Many issues of concern are dealt with by ensuring
accurate and effective communication of intentions
and principles to the general public

Time to think
How does your organisation (or one you are familiar with) deal with issues of public
concern? Take a moment to list your thoughts. Why not start a discussion in the group
forum about the issues you have raised?

Key point
For your Assessment you must be able to identify issues of public concern relating to
your industry and organisation and how these are dealt with (5.5). It might be worth
familiarising yourself with the sector which your chosen organisation belongs to so that
youre aware of the potential issues of public concern that may arise.

In summary
In this Session you have learned about policies and procedures. You should now be
able to:

Describe the main principles, policies and procedures of your organisation and its
documentation
Explain how the organisations principles are disseminated to employees
Outline relevant policies and codes of practice adopted by the organisation and how
employees are made aware of these
Explain how employees are consulted on changes to the principles, procedures and
policies within the organisation
Identify issues of public concern relating to your industry and organisation and how these
are dealt with.
 Policies and procedures
Principles, policies and procedures
Principles
- BSI recommendations
Policies
- Industry-wide similarities
Procedures
- Organisation particulars
Communicating principles
Recruitment process
- Asking interviewees about principles
Reading material
- Handbook and vision statement
- Given to new recruits
Widely displayed
- Visible throughout office
- Principles on commonly used items
Group discussions
- Verbal communication
- Managers and team leaders
Appraisals and feedback
- Formal review
- Awards
Improving team performance
- Away-days
- Team-building exercises
Policies and codes of practice
Customer service codes of practice
- ICS Customer Code of Practice
Organisational policies
- Online
- Email
- Handbook
- Appraisals
- Trade association
Consultations on change
Ways of consulting employees
- Small meetings
- Questionnaire
- Team discussion
- Intranet bulletins
- Email
- Newsletters
- Video-conferencing
- Letter
Factors that affect consultation
- Size and structure of organisation
 - Usual work patterns
- What is being communicated
Issues of public concern
Common issues
- Product recall
- Confidentiality
- Accessibility
- Quality
- Responsiveness
- Whether customers are valued
- Finances
Commercial sector issues
- Responsiveness
- Confidentiality
- Economic concerns
Public sector issues
- Accounts
- Accessibility
- Confidentiality
Third sector issues
- Accounts
- Trust
- Ethics

Unit quiz
Q1. Complete the following sentence:

"Commercial sector organisations ____________."

A. Are owned and controlled by the government (either at local or national levels) and
provide a service to the public (e.g. local councils, the NHS, the police and fire brigades).
B. Provide hundreds of different products and services, all aimed at making a profit (e.g.
retailers, cleaning firms, food manufacturers, restaurants, hotels, water supply firms, gas and
electricity companies, etc.).
C. Are independent of the government and are not profit led; any money they make is
reinvested back into the product/service they provide.

The correct answer is: B. Provide hundreds of different products and services, all aimed at
making a profit (e.g. retailers, cleaning firms, food manufacturers, restaurants, hotels, water
supply firms, gas and electricity companies, etc.).
Answer selected: B. Provide hundreds of different products and services, all aimed at
making a profit (e.g. retailers, cleaning firms, food manufacturers, restaurants, hotels, water
supply firms, gas and electricity companies, etc.).

Q2. Which of the following factors might contribute to an organisation gaining a

negative reputation?
A. Negative customer feedback and negative publicity
B. Inconsistent provision of a product/service
C. Unreliable delivery times
D. Impolite, unhelpful or downright rude behaviour
E. Slow response to customer problems.
F. All of the above.

The correct answer is: F. All of the above.

Answer selected: F. All of the above.

Q3. Is the following statement true or false?

"Statutory employment rights address the legal rights of every employee in the
country. They are based on Acts of Parliament and regulations, and how these are
interpreted in the courts. They apply to all employees."

A. True
B. False

The correct answer is: A. True

Answer selected: A. True

Q4. Complete the following sentence:

"The ____________ is the main piece of legislation concerning health and safety for
employers, employees and contractors in the UK."

A. The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981

B. The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995
(RIDDOR)
C. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
D. The Equality Act 2010

The correct answer is: C. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
Answer selected: C. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

Q5. Complete the following sentence:

"The Equality Act 2010 protects against __ types of characteristic, making it unlawful
for employers to discriminate against their employees."

A. 5
B. 3
C. 9

The correct answer is: C. 9

Answer selected: A. 5

Q6. The Institute of Customer Service (ICS), The National Careers Service, websites,
public libraries and local colleges are all _________ sources of information that can
help you understand the roles available and opportunities to move along the
customer service career pathway.

A. External
B. Internal

The correct answer is: A. External

Answer selected: A. External

Q7. Is the following statement true or false?

"Non-trade unions are large organisations that represent the interests of their
membership. Their members may share an occupation or a common industry. They
also have regional and national expertise that they can use, and can offer assistance
through work based representatives."

A. True
B. False

The correct answer is: B. False

Answer selected: A. True

Q8. Which of the following is NOT an internal source of information about

employment rights and responsibilities

A. Line managers
B. Personnel specialists
C. Citizens Advice Bureau
D. Books and documents held within the organisation
E. Informed colleagues

The correct answer is: C. Citizens Advice Bureau

Answer selected: E. Informed colleagues

Q9. If employees work shifts and struggle to all be in the same place at the same time
for a team or departmental consultation meeting, it may be best to be consulted on
changes via:

A. A whole-organisation meeting
B. The organisations intranet
C. Letter

The correct answer is: B. The organisations intranet

Answer selected: B. The organisations intranet

Q10. Choose the missing word:

"_________ are the foundation of a system of beliefs within an organisation.

_________ are the philosophy of the organisation which set out how the organisation
thinks. Overarching ________ are often set out in mission or vision statements."

A. Procedures
B. Policies
C. Principles

The correct answer is: C. Principles

Answer selected: C. Principles