Supporting Communities Awarded Customer Service Excellence Quality Mark

Colm McDaid, Chief Executive, pictured with John Mulholland, CfA assessor.

“We are delighted to announce that we have successfully achieved the Customer Service Excellence accreditation as verified by the Centre for Assessment (CfA),” said Conor Flanagan, Head of Community Development and project lead for the charity’s accreditation process. 

“We do not intend to rest on our laurels”, he went on to say, “We will continue to put our customer focus front and centre and all our staff will continue to provide the highest level of customer service that we can as we strive to keep the community at the heart of everything that we do.”  

Customer Service Excellence (CSE) is a national quality mark that seeks to reward organisations with a truly customer-focused commitment to all they do while providing a positive steer for customer-centred change. Certification takes place through a rigorous assessment process to establish whether an organisation meets the requirements of CSE. 

Colm McDaid, Chief Executive at Supporting Communities, said, “We felt the CSE would be the most appropriate quality framework to capture our work because our customers are always our top priority. We set out to achieve this recognition in late 2020 and, following a comprehensive review of our work and a site visit this spring, the CfA has now awarded us this recognition.”  

Supporting Communities met each standard required by the CSE with flying colours. In his report, the CfA’s assessor John Mulholland wrote:  

“Supporting Communities is an extremely apt name for this excellent organisation. Much like the CEO and his senior team, all of whom have been promoted from within, Supporting Communities is rather low-key and understated. Partners and customers acknowledge the extent to which Supporting Communities’ punches above its weight’ not just in terms of the services provided and the quality delivered, but also the extent to which it demonstrates agility responding positively to change.   

Staff are extremely customer focussed, engaged by the work they do, and are motivated by the way they are led and managed, and supported. Customers are fulsome in their praise of the CEO and his staff. Consultation, collaboration, and cooperation are key tenets of Supporting Communities’ continued success. Competent staff and effective communications (both internal and external) help foster growth and continuous improvement in Supporting Communities.   

The many achievements of Supporting Communities are well captured and visually well-presented in an engaging and creatively produced Annual Report. The warmth, professionalism, and commitment of the organisation and its staff shone through during the site visit and has yielded sustainability and a brighter future to many groups and individuals across Northern Ireland.”