CXC launches Customer Service Charter

The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has taken a major step towards improving the relationships it has with various stakeholders.

Yesterday, the Barbados-based educational testing body launched a Customer Service Charter. Speaking during the official launch held at the Council’s Pine Plantation Road headquarters, Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Glenroy Cumberbatch, indicated that the Customer Service Charter was created because CXC recognised that stakeholder engagement had to be a “huge plank” of its development going forward. The goal, he explained, was not only to have clear directives of what they desired as an institution, but to develop those directives in a way that it could be measured on a continuous basis.

Cumberbatch added that to achieve such, CXC worked closely with the National Initiative for Service Excellence (NISE) to develop the Charter, develop the standards and train the staff. He told those gathered, including several local secondary school students and teachers, that they are confident that the standards they have identified are not only attainable by CXC, but are what the customers desire from the regional entity.

“However, we expect our customers to continually engage with us, to constantly let us know where we let them down, or what they expect from us and to send those in by mail, send those in by Facebook comments, however they can.

“We are here to serve, we belong to the people of the region; we expect you to tell us when we are doing well, we also expect you to tell us when we are not doing well so that we can try wherever to outshine, to go beyond what the customers expect of us, and to be this regional institution that all of us are proud of,” he stated.

Adding to his comments, Deputy Chair of CXC, Dr. Marcia Potter told the gathering that the Charter which sets out how CXC is to work with its customers in terms of such things as response times and overall standards, is not static, but is a living document. As such, she made it clear that while the Charter has been launched, the work has only just begun as CXC, intends through that document, to see improvements in the way in which it operates.

“Over the last few years they have been doing a lot to ensure that they do what is expected, that they offer across the region excellent syllabuses [and] excellent examinations… This is just one further step to maintain the excellence they have been offering across the region. Customer satisfaction is extremely important, and it’s only when we get customer satisfaction that we will have customer loyalty,” she said.

The deputy chair added, “Therefore we must do all that we can to ensure that if a customer calls in with a query or complaint and we say we will give you a response in two days, then we must ensure that that response is given in two days.”

She made the point while noting that not only is the Customer Service Charter intended to make life easier for customers, but to make CXC more transparent and accountable to its stakeholders. (JRT)