To become part of the NFEA network, business support organisations must be not-for-profit, have a primary or major objective to support potential and existing small and medium sized enterprises, and have either achieved or be working towards the quality standards of either ISO or Customer First.
Customer service in business is a topic too often taken from granted. Everyone knows how important customer service is, and how easily organisations can loose clientele if it’s not practised correctly, yet few commit to proper assessment and accreditation. By including these standards in our requisite terms of membership, NFEA has created a network of agencies operating as shining examples of customer dedication.
It wasn’t however until last year that we realised despite rightly advocating good customer service, NFEA had not achieved accreditation itself. On 27 July we committed to the Customer First Standard - Putting the Customer First, and we can proudly report that as of last week, we are officially compliant.
The process of achieving the standard was an extremely beneficial business practice alone. Through reviewing 32 statements against our organisations activities, it was almost immediately apparent areas in which we were strong, and those that could do with some tightening up. And it’s not just customer service. Internal procedures, systems and structures were all evaluated and improved, resulting in a more efficient, customer orientated business.