Inverness College UHI recognised for customer service excellence

Inverness College UHI has been officially recognised for its ongoing work to improve the experience of its students and the wider community by having its award for Customer Service Excellence renewed.

Accredited by the UK Government, renewal of the Customer Service Excellence standard acknowledges the college’s commitment to engage with its customers and improve its services, particularly its proactive approach to enhance student support services for all students, but particularly for those who face the greatest challenges.

Renewal of the award also highlights the college’s new approach to course committee meetings, which has seen the level of student and stakeholder engagement increase, the way the college analyses and responds to student feedback, and the use of datasets to understand specific student needs and tailor support.

The Customer Service Excellence assessor visited Inverness College UHI in February and found the number of areas of best practice, considered sector leading, had doubled since last year’s review.

Inverness College UHI is already recognised by Investors in People as a Gold standard employer, while last year it was awarded the Carers Trust Going Higher Award for support given to student carers and Healthy University status.

And, just last month, Inverness College UHI was endorsed by Education Scotland as one of the top performing colleges in Scotland, rating it ‘excellent’ and ‘very good.’ Student success rates on full-time further education programmes are also amongst the best in the country, performing well above the sector average.

Professor Chris O’Neil, principal and chief executive of Inverness College UHI, said: “Renewal of this award highlights our tireless work to improve the experience of all our customers, whether that be students enrolled on courses, visitors accessing our facilities or schools or employers we engage with. Staff really do go the extra mile and we work exceptionally hard to develop new ways of working and review what works and what doesn’t to maintain, improve and excel on the standard of experience our students and the wider public have come to expect.”

The Customer Service Excellence Award is reviewed annually.