Customer Service Excellence

Customer Service Excellence is a government-backed industry standard focusing on service delivery, timeliness, information, professionalism and staff attitude. It emphasises customer insight (knowledge about the people who use our services), understanding the user experience and robust measurement of service satisfaction.

We were assessed against 57 different elements of the standard. The assessments involved providing evidence of how we meet the standard, together with assessors interviewing our staff, service users and stakeholders.

The Customer Service Excellence standard means you can expect to receive a high standard of service from us, whatever the outcome or decision. We will make sure we understand your circumstances and needs. We will explain our processes to you and what you can expect from us at every stage of our work - and we will always treat you with respect and courtesy. You can read more about our commitment to you in our service standards.

Our accreditation

In July 2023, we returned to the start of the three-year Customer Service Excellence® cycle, meaning we had to prove our compliance with all 57 elements of the standard in detail.

We achieved nine Compliance Plus ratings in areas of particular strength (read more about these below), and 45 Compliance ratings for areas where we are meeting the required standard. We received three Partial Compliance ratings for elements where more work is needed to fully reach the required standard.

In our first full assessment in March 2020, we achieved only three Compliance Plus ratings, and six areas of Partial Compliance. Our improved results reflect our continuous commitment to improve the IOPC journey for our service users – we are proud of our progress, and will continue to listen to and act on your feedback.

Our next annual review will take place in Summer 2024.

Customer service excellence journey. The image shows the scores for each year from 2020 to 2023.

2023 achievements

Customer Service Excellence Report 2023


You can read our latest report to learn about our use of the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) Standard as a framework to contribute to achieving our organisational priorities.
Customer Service Excellence Report 2023