About ICS

Institute of Customer Service (ICS) is the independent professional body for customer service.

Our mission is to lead customer service performance and professionalism and we aim to be the authoritative voice of customer service - the touchstone for those whose focus is on the delivery of world-class experiences.

Our members are both organisations – from across the private, public and third sectors – and individuals. We help our members learn from each other and offer wide-ranging support so they can continue to improve their customer service.

In particular, we:

• influence employers and policy makers
• develop and spread authoritative knowledge and good practice in customer service. For examples of this, look at the activities available to our member organisations in their area, our research and our conference programme
• define national, professional and occupational customer service standards and how people can attain them. Look at our work on National Occupational Standards, ICS Professional Awards and NVQ/SVQs in Customer Service
• give people professional recognition through individual membership. There’s now a growing number of people working in customer service who have achieved a national standard
• help customer service professionals develop and stay motivated through our Continuous Professional Development programme. Look at the various categories of  individual membership and the benefits that go with them
• recognise, reward and celebrate the attainment of customer service excellence by organisations and individuals. Look at National Customer Service Week and the annual National Customer Service Awards
• arrange networking events.

 Read the ICS brochure

Download the ICS brochure (pdf)

Note that slight changes have been made to the benefits of different levels of organisational membership since the brochure was prepared. Up-to-date information is in the organisational membership section of the website.

View the ICS video (running time five minutes)

View our video - ICS what our members say (running time 2 minutes)

To get a better idea of who we are and what we do, have a look round our website. You can then join a growing community of organisations and people committed to improving customer service.