Deliver customer service in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way
Overview
This standard is part of the customer service competence area related to Customer Service Delivery. It covers delivering customer service in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way. It includes customer service behaviours and processes that have most impact on the customer experience during Customer Service Delivery. Remember that customers include everyone to whom you provide products and services. They may be external to your organisation or they may be internal customers.
Environmental awareness and positive action on sustainability form an important part of the culture and strategy in your organisation. Your organisation has devised policies to ensure that they gain the approval of customers by promoting a sustainable approach to their services or products to enhance the organisation's reputation. You deliver customer service following guidelines and procedures to display your personal and organisational commitment to the environment, sustainability and environmental standards. Customer service may impact on environmental performance by demanding additional resources. Environmental policies may impact on customer service by placing restrictions on how it can be delivered. You review the link between customer service and environmental issues to identify and make changes. You encourage environmental and sustainability awareness with colleagues, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders to remind them of their responsibilities.
The standard is for customer service professionals who deliver customer service in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- encourage customers to contribute to your organisation's environmental policies
- inform customers about your organisation's environmental and sustainability policies
- promote environmentally friendly and sustainable approaches when dealing with customers and service partners
- keep customers and service partners informed about your organisation's environmental and sustainability policies
- identify opportunities for energy and carbon emission savings during customer service delivery
- identify opportunities for waste management improvements during customer service delivery
- inform colleagues with authority about the potential improvements you have identified
- identify how your organisation's policies on customer service link with environmental policies
- analyse links between your organisation's environmental policies and customer service delivery systems and processes
- review your organisation's customer service systems to identify opportunities for environmental improvements
- identify service partnerships that affect your organisation's environmental profile and how they can improve it
- develop an action plan to promote environmental actions and improvements in customer service delivery
- encourage colleagues to promote environmentally friendly services and products
- identify ways to minimise resource use in customer service delivery
- implement environmental improvements with customers and service colleagues
- communicate environmental improvements to customers
- encourage service partners and customers to participate in improvements
- develop colleague awareness of environmental matters and how they can contribute
- develop community stakeholders' awareness of your organisation's environmental approaches
- follow the legal, organisational, codes of practice and policies relevant to your role and the activities being carried out
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
- the principles of environmental practices and on-going sustainability that are relevant to customer service operations
- your organisation's policies that link environmental issues with customer service
- how to encourage customers to contribute to environmental policies
- the principles of energy saving and reducing carbon emissions
- the principles of waste management that are relevant to your organisation
- the environmental issues and risks represented by your organisation's services or products
- your organisation's procedures for energy, carbon emission and waste management
- how to keep customers informed about your organisation's environmental policies and procedures
- how to work with service partners to promote environmental and sustainable benefits
- the methods that your organisation uses to encourage colleagues to share ideas for environmental improvements
- the importance of having appropriate authority for implementing changes in customer service procedures
- the relationship between environmental actions and costs for your organisation
- how your organisation's environmental policies link with customer service delivery
- the techniques for reviewing environmental aspects of customer service systems
- the different actions that can be taken to improve environmental aspects of customer service delivery
- the methods available to minimise resource use in customer service delivery
- the techniques for communicating and developing awareness of environmental matters among community stakeholders
- the methods that can be used to encourage customers to act in a more environmentally friendly way
- the legal, organisational, codes of practice and policies relevant to your role and the activities being carried out