UCL Library Services achieves Customer Service Excellence Accreditation

To achieve Customer Service Excellence (CSE), organisations are assessed against 57 criteria in the areas of Customer Insight, the Culture of the Organisation, Information and Access, Delivery and Timeliness, and Quality of Service. Most organisations pass with only partial accreditation in some criteria, but the library had full compliance in all criteria – an excellent achievement for UCL.

Service Excellence

Service excellence is a cornerstone of the 2019–22 Library Strategy which has six Key Performance Areas aligned to UCL 2034 Key Enablers. The Library Services Vision states:

The Library Services Strategy 2019–22 will enable UCL’s vision for 2034 through excellent, customer-focused services, world-class resources, state-of-the-art learning spaces and outstanding professional expertise.

Assessment process

The assessment consisted of a desktop exercise where 130 pieces of documentary evidence were submitted to the CSE Assessor as well as a two-day on-site Assessment. The Assessment involved visits to libraries, observation, presentations by Library colleagues and meetings with academic staff, students and partners in ISD and Student and Registry Services.

The Accreditation process runs in a three-year cycle and there are two Annual Review visits to ensure that CSE is used effectively as a tool for continuous improvement.

Peter Dennison (Head of Customer Service) said, “We have been informed that we have achieved CSE Accreditation with full compliance in all 57 criteria which is a significant achievement for a Division of our size – the first, we believe, in UCL to obtain such Accreditation. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to such a successful outcome.”