ACCAN Customer Service Project (25 August 2009)

5.1. Implementation options

Will a single service charter be developed for the communications industry in Australia or will there be a template service charter for companies to adopt? Alternatively, organisations could be free to develop their own service charters in the hope that competition will result in improvements.

The following tables summarises some of the key advantages and disadvantages of each option:

Implementation Option	Advantages	Disadvantages
Voluntary 1 One charter per organisation, free to select content	Attractive to industry Allows organisations to differentiate themselves from competitors Allows innovation	Same as current arrangement, with very low take-up Inconsistent content No pressure to go further than legal requirements Of little interest to consumers
Voluntary 2 One charter per organisation, must follow template	Provides consistency and certainty for consumers Template may include key consumer protections Industry will appreciate guidance / certainty provided by template	Stifles innovation May lead to ‘lowest common denominator’ Requires restrictions on non-standard charters
Voluntary 3 One charter covers entire sector, signed by organisations	Provides consistency and certainty for consumers	Difficult to see how this is different from a code Industry resistance to another layer of regulation, especially if there are overlaps / duplication
Mandatory 1 One charter per organisation, free to select content	Attractive to industry Allows organisations to differentiate themselves from competitors Allows innovation	Inconsistent content No pressure to go further than legal requirements
Mandatory 2 One charter per organisation, must follow template	Provides consistency and certainty for consumers Template may include key consumer protections Industry will appreciate guidance / certainty provide by template	No innovation May lead to ‘lowest common denominator’ Requires prohibition of non-standard charters, monitoring, enforcement etc.
Mandatory 3 One charter covers entire sector, all organisations deemed to subscribe	Provides consistency and certainty for consumers	Difficult to see how this is different from a law Industry resistance to another layer of regulation, especially if there are overlaps / duplication

Any efforts to ‘strengthen’ customer service charters tend to result in them looking like codes of conduct. Indeed, it is difficult to distinguish between mandatory service charters and codes of conduct. This confusion / overlap between service charters and codes of conduct is a common theme in the discussion of service charters. The overlap is so significant that stakeholders often interchange the terms – see for example the Institute of Customer Service: Establishing a customer charter/ code of conduct.[23]

[23] Institute of Customer Service, Establishing a customer charter/ code of conduct, Colchester, 1 January 2004,
<http://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com/KnowledgeDetails.aspx?KnowledgeBankID=60>.





	home about us services projects research contact
	» home » research » assets » accan customer service charters 2009