The Security Industry Authority (SIA) has reported that it continues to exceed licensing and customer service targets.
The SIA’s Customer Service Commitment sets out service levels that applicants can expect from the SIA, such as timescales for licence processing and responding to enquiries.
Since the Commitment was put in place in July 2010, the contact centre has taken more than 228,200 calls, 99 per cent of which were answered within 30 seconds. Within the same period the SIA replied to more than 55,800 pieces of correspondence with 99pc of enquiries responded to within three days. Written complaints were also dealt with quickly and on average the SIA replied to 99pc within 12 working days.
The online application system e-Fill was also introduced last year to make it easier and quicker for applicants to complete their application form. It has built in verification to reduce the likelihood of the form being completed incorrectly and returned to the applicant.
Licence applications continue to be dealt with efficiently, the regulator reports, and are still well exceeding the SIA’s target of processing 80pc within 30 working days of receiving the correctly completed application. In the eleven months between April 2010 and March 2011, 93pc of licences were issued within 30 days and of these more than 70pc were issued within 15 working days.
Christy Hopkins, Assistant Director of Customer Service and Quality Improvement, said: “Excellent service is at the heart of our commitment to customers. Our commitment clearly states the level of service that people can expect from us and gives assurances that we will listen and respond to their concerns.
“When we launched e-Fill in the summer, the system was designed to make it easier for applicants to complete their application form. It had a built in verification tool to reduce the likelihood of the form being completed incorrectly and returned to the applicant. We are pleased to see this working for our customers and we are returning fewer forms to customers who use e-Fill than those who apply using the paper form. This means we can get on with processing their application more quickly. We have also listened to our customers and made some changes to e-Fill to improve the look and feel of the system.
“We have provided new applicants, those renewing their licences and company sponsors with the tools to help them manage licence applications more easily. e-Fill is just the start of online services that we want to be able to offer our customers in the future. We set ourselves high targets and while I am pleased that we are meeting them, we will also continue to review and improve our service.”
