New standard ISO 18295-1, Customer contact centers – Part 1: Requirements for customer contact centers, specifies best practice for contact centers to ensure a high level of service across areas including communication with customers, complaints handling, and employee engagement.

Complementary standard, ISO 18295-2, Customer contact centers – Part 2: Requirements for clients using the services of customer contact centers, aims to help organizations who use a customer contact center ensure their customers’ expectations are met through effective engagement. ISO 18295-2 provides guidance on the types of information the organization needs to provide to achieve high levels of customer engagement.

ISO 18295-1 and ISO 18295-2 were developed by project committee ISO/PC 273, Customer contact centers.

ISO/PC 273 Chair Zainuddin Hussein said the committee considered and addressed many customer concerns when developing the standards, such as waiting times, means of contacting the company, and customer experience expectations.

“The committee established that there are already some regulations and national standards present in some countries,” Hussein said. “Our research showed that where they were implemented, customer satisfaction improved.

“The new standards bring together international best practice that can improve the service offering and customer experience even more, while also providing a framework on which future national standards can be based.”