Our journey to ICS Service Mark accreditation

ARAG has always differentiated itself from its competitors on quality of service, not just since we launched here in the UK a decade ago, but in Düsseldorf more than 70 years before that. However, there comes a time when all the internal measures and industry awards are not enough and we need to set a more ambitious goal; not just to be the best in our industry, but to be among the best in any industry. That’s why we have just embarked on our path towards Service Mark accreditation with the Institute of Customer Service (ICS).

There are any number of badges and accreditations a company can print on its letterhead or display in reception to suggest service excellence, but for ARAG this is more about the journey than the destination. In fact, we have chosen the ICS because it offers much more than a box-ticking exercise and will really challenge our existing systems and approach.

During this journey we will re-examine our strategic and operational approach to the customer experience. All aspects from measurement, recruitment, learning and development, digital systems and our business processes will come under scrutiny. We will also consider how we can better engage our staff and customers to work more effectively together towards common goal of access to justice.

The work will start in our before-the-event claims department with the aim of achieving Service Mark accreditation by the end of 2019. However, we won’t stop there; the programme will then expand to encompass all our business interactions with all customer types, whether a policyholder, broker, solicitor or anyone else. Our ambition is to have our whole operation Service Mark accredited during 2021.