Customer service student numbers swell as benefit to organisations is revealed<\b>

More than half a million students are now registered for customer services qualifications in the UK.

The figure comes amid research showing that companies with a reputation for service excellence have an almost 25 per cent higher net profit margin than rivals who do not have the same standing with clients

The study from the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), a professional body for customer services, also found that companies with committed frontline staff can achieve around 70 per cent more profit per employee.

However, roughly a quarter of UK customers remain unsatisfied, according to the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, a national ICS developed measure of customer satisfaction.

This is leading in part to the growth of new training courses within further and higher education with record numbers of registrations for modern apprenticeships in customer service processed in August 2009.

And there are now more students registering for the Customer Service National Occupational Standards (NOS) than for any other qualification, with over 600,000 candidates since it was introduced 10 years ago doing National Vocational Qualifications, Train to Gain and apprenticeships.

Source: By Martin Kornacki (14-10-2009) Training Journal.