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The Integrated Call Centre (ICC) 1823 Citizen's Easy Link enquiry service under the Efficiency Unit has become the first Hong Kong Government department or organisation to be awarded the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 10002 certification through the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency.
Announcing the news today (June 16), an Efficiency Unit spokesman said since its setting up in July, 2001, the ICC's 1823 Citizen's Easy Link had been striving to provide Hong Kong citizens with a quality enquiries and complaints service.
Noting that effective complaint handling was vital not only to individual departments but also to the whole Hong Kong Government, the spokesman said providing citizens with a quality service in complaints handling was indispensable for building an accountable and responsible government.
"Apart from making continuous improvements in its operating model, Efficiency Unit management has sought to align the ICC's operational practices with international benchmarks to provide high quality service to Hong Kong citizens.
"The successful certification is a genuine recognition of the efforts made by the Government in providing an effective complaints handling service for its citizens," the spokesman said.
He explained that 1823 had clear and measurable performance standards in order to be accountable for its performance not only to the public but also to its 18 government department clients with a round-the-clock service. These standards include:
- Less than 10% of calls abandoned;
- More than 90% of enquiries resolved at first time of call;
- More than 80% of calls answered within 12 seconds; and
- Tracking case progress and reminding departments to take action.
In 2006, 1823 Citizen's Easy Link handled close to 2.7 million calls of which 2.35 million were enquiries and almost 216,000 were complaints. The rest were miscellaneous call types.
A certification for the complaints handling of an organisation, ISO 10002 sets out a comprehensive framework for the whole complaints handling process, including the setting of performance pledges, planning, design, operation and improvement.
It also provides guiding principles for the complaints handling mechanism, including its transparency, accessibility, responsiveness, objectivity, confidentiality, customer-focused approach, accountability and continual improvement.
The ICC's application for ISO certification began in mid-2006 and was initiated so that it might objectively assess the standard of its complaints handling mechanism.
Ends/Saturday, June 16, 2007
Issued at HKT 13:01
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