Foreword from the CEO
I find myself again reflecting on a difficult year for the UK. The economy has genuinely begun to show some green shoots, but we have yet to achieve the levels of growth we need to build the vibrant and dynamic society we aspire to be. Customers and organisations alike have been feeling under pressure, and the outlook remains uncertain. We are still experiencing considerable geopolitical uncertainty with the war in Ukraine continuing into a third year and there is little sign of progress on a workable solution to the Gaza crisis. A new US president has done nothing to ease the sense of global instability, with tariffs, trade tensions and bond markets experiencing a white-knuckle rollercoaster ride.
Given this context, planning and setting policy for future growth has become more challenging. But as I have said before, there is no point in us simply admiring the problem. We need to understand the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. There are opportunities for us to really drive the future growth we need; with over 80% of our GDP service based and the fact that we are the second largest exporter of services in the world, together we can build the Service Nation – and with it, a better world for us all.
The initial hype around AI has started to calm down as we understand the need to fuse technology with human intervention rather than an either/or situation. We are seeing greater innovation from organisations that are adept at balancing commercial imperatives with the evolving wants and needs of their customers. Cybersecurity poses a significant risk to us all, and our research on Risk and Reputation has shown the value of organisations building a bank of goodwill to insulate against the impact of catastrophic events.
Despite historically low levels of customer satisfaction, we have seen a noticeable shift in the way service is perceived over the past year. Increasingly, brands are making service central to their proposition to customers – and those that deliver on this promise will win big. Those that fail to walk the talk, will be found out and will pay the consequences.
The frame of reference has shifted, with those in the media, across Westminster, and in the Boardroom up and down the country developing a more sophisticated understanding of the strategic importance of customer service, its correlation with business performance, and the critical part it plays in driving growth.
Some regulators too, are finding better ways to drive genuine cultural change – for example by focusing on outcomes through the FCA’s Consumer Duty initiatives. Others have incorporated our UK Customer Satisfaction Index into their frameworks to provide an independent, externally benchmarkable and consistent measure of service perceptions. More needs to be done, and we will continue to work hard to improve service provision for all customers across every sector.
All of this has made the four pillars that underpin our Service Nation drive even more relevant.
Service is a business asset. Through our research, we’ve proved the link between customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and business performance. We are championing the profession, from the boardroom to the frontline, through our qualifications and varied training and development platforms, with more to come in 2025.
Customer service can help build a fairer society. Regulators engage with us to drive standards industry-wide. We campaign to protect all customer-facing workers and engage with Westminster through initiatives such as our All-Party Parliamentary Group on Customer Service.
We are driving sustainable growth, helping our members innovate, benchmark and become more effective and profitable.
As a member, you will benefit from a suite of services aligned with all of the above. Join us and be part of our growing movement for positive change.
The role of The Institute is to be a force for good, to remain steadfastly independent, and to act as your critical friend as we embark with you on your service journey - a huge thank you for the faith you put in us and the support you provide. I look forward to working with you as we build the Service Nation together.
The Institute of Customer Service was formed in 1996 and incorporated as a company limited by guarantee in February 1997. The Institute is a not-for-profit professional body for customer service.
Our vision is to see a world where customer experience makes a positive and sustained impact on individuals, organisations, society, and the economic wellbeing of the UK.
Our mission is for The Institute of Customer Service to deliver tangible benefits to individuals, organisations and stakeholders. We are the leading independent expert, setting and upholding the standards to enable our customers to improve their business performance through service, so that the UK is seen as the place to experience great service and a valued expert on the global stage.
The Institute is also recognised as an expert in all aspects of customer service, and this is demonstrated through the provision of tangible benefits of membership including:
knowledge, delivered through insight, research, advice and networking
collateral to demonstrate that customer service is a harder-edge business driver
training and assessments
case studies
bespoke research
organisational and individual professional development
benchmarking and insight
customer service skills development
qualifications and accreditation
standard setting
public policy development
Notable Achievements
Executive Summary
Financially, revenue was broadly flat at £5.3m (compared to £5.4m for the previous year), but our expenditure increased, resulting in a loss of £532k after interest and taxation (compared to a surplus of £175k in the year prior).
Most of the additional expenditure is related to investment in additional personnel to enhance our delivery capability and member satisfaction.
We ended the year with 334 members with a total of 1,183 membership years.
Our Service with Respect campaign entered a new phase, with a new bill being proposed that will protect some customer-facing workers
Our Academy achieved record annual revenues of £535k
Our CEO has featured on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Wake Up to Money each quarter, providing a perspective on the business stories of the week and The Institute featured prominently in long-form pieces in The FT and The Telegraph
Our member-exclusive in-person launch of the January 2025 UK Customer Satisfaction Index featured Sainsbury’s CEO, Simon Roberts, and first direct CEO, Chris Pitt. Attendee feedback was phenomenal, with an overall rating of 9.67 (out of 10), a panel rating of 9.92, and likelihood to attend again was 9.58.
We developed our product portfolio, enhanced supporting collateral and relaunched the Trust Index, development of ROI Toolkit and reviewed our Business Benchmarking product. Improvements were made across the Academy, making the offer clearer and more consistent
We refreshed our brand to introduce a more modern, vibrant look and feel which better reflects the work we do and the impact we have with members
We published three pieces of Breakthrough Research: Leading the Service Nation? Enabling business performance through customer service; A Cultural Shift: How to Regulate to Improve Customer Service; and Customer Service: Risk and Reputation
This year’s conference was a huge success (scoring 9.3 likelihood to recommend to friends or colleagues)
We made considerable progress on developing our ‘Service University’ concept
We build close relationships with Parliamentarians, public officials and regulators to influence policy
Improvements to our systems and processes drove greater efficiencies and effectiveness across the business
Financial Overview
We ended the year with a deficit of £532k, which was largely driven by the strategic decision we made at the beginning of the year to invest in bolstering the team, ensuring we were ahead in terms of resource requirements. This has been our biggest source of expenditure compared to the previous year’s Revenue was broadly in line with last year, and all other expenditure remains contained. Our cash position remains strong with reserves of over £6 million.
Our year-end finances reflect the challenging start to the year 2024/5 and reflect the many uncertainties that several of our members are experiencing.
Member Engagement
Throughout the year, we made and embedded several changes across the Client Experience team. These changes have resulted in significant improvements in member engagement that will provide the foundation for The Institute’s growth from 2025/26 and beyond.
We have seen a 6-point improvement in our member satisfaction score in the year. A 60% increase in response rate to our member survey and an uptick in satisfaction back to 2020 levels provides an improved platform on which to build into the new business plan period.
We also made significant strides in enhancing our system capabilities, particularly around the development and implementation of our CRM. We revamped our training and Academy services to remain true to our purpose and relevant to the membership.
The Institute’s position, authority, high-level relationships and positioning has continued to grow. Revenue achieved through the annual conference, products and services and the Academy are all at the highest levels ever.
Our reputation for excellent original research and thought leadership has continued to grow and we have supported members in addressing critical strategic topics impacting their organisations’ ability to deliver for customers.
The UKCSI is seen across business, Westminster and the media as the barometer of customer service in the UK, cementing our position as independent experts amongst key stakeholders.
Member engagement with our events programme continues to grow. This reflects a strong appetite for accessible, flexible formats and reinforces the value of digital and in-person engagement opportunities.
Our CEO spoke at 45 external speaking engagements and 10 member events, up significantly from 39 in 2023 and nearly doubling since 2022. This is in addition to CEO breakfasts, industry roundtables and VP meetings.
Our weekly CEO statements have established a loyal following via email, social and our website.
We continued to publish Customer Focus magazine three times a year and have enhanced the seniority and variety of interviewees featured. As part of our commitment to providing valuable insights and thought leadership, we have decided to make Customer Focus Magazine free for everyone in a digital format. This has had a significant impact on overall reach and readership, with our first digital open issue receiving over 5x as many views.
Our issues this year featured a range of experienced professionals such as Tom Athron (CEO, Fortnum & Mason), Prof. Martin Rees (Royal Astronomer) and Bruce Carnegie-Brown (Chairman, Lloyd’s of London) and covered key themes such as leadership to sustainable growth, artificial intelligence, automation and ethics and trust, risk & reputation.
Ensuring our products and services are fit for purpose
We improved the visibility, accessibility, and alignment of our products and services. The first major change was the relaunch of our membership and value proposition, which brought greater clarity and focus to how The Institute’s offer is presented.
This refresh resulted in improved slide decks, brochures, new web content, an article in the Customer Focus Magazine, a live webinar, and integrated social sharing assets, strengthening our online presence. We also enhanced our data and insight capabilities by introducing monthly membership engagement tracking and year-on-year product performance.
To strengthen internal capability, we delivered dedicated training sessions and launched a suite of sales enablement tools. A new Customer Experience Manager has been recruited, and the Professional Qualifications process was streamlined.
Our latest membership survey indicated that 76% of members with high product usage gave a 9 or 10 for likelihood to remain, reinforcing the link between product use and retention. Our Trust Index surveys showed signs of momentum, indicating potential for growth in the year ahead.
Profile, Influence and Impact
In 2024/25, we solidified our position as the go-to commentators on the service economy. We regularly secured strong coverage in national and international news outlets (BBC, The Financial Times, The Economist, The Telegraph, The Observer, Bloomberg, and many others). We developed a programme of regular op-eds, contributor pieces, and broadcast appearances.
A standout media highlight was a multi-page spread in the Financial Times Weekend magazine discussing the decline in customer satisfaction in the UK, featuring Jo Causon as the main contributor and heavily referencing the UKCSI throughout. The article created engaging conversation and was one of the most commented on pieces ever for the Financial Times magazine.
On the regular contribution side, our CEO, Jo, was invited quarterly onto BBC Radio 5’s Wake up to Money to discuss the latest trends and insights, drawing the link between service and the UK economy.
Media highlights this year included:
BBC Radio 5’s Wake Up to Money (four separate appearances over the last year)
BBC Breakfast
Financial Times Weekend Magazine: How did Customer Service Get So Bad?
The Telegraph: Sorry Gen Z, but this is why you need to pick up the phone
Bloomberg
Financial Times opinion: If staff don’t want to work anymore, leaders should step up
Forbes
LBC: Don’t lose sight of the customer this election: put customer service at the heart of UK’s economic growth agenda
Politics.co.uk opinion piece
Management Today op-ed
UKCSI: This is Money, The Independent, The Evening Standard, Utility Week, Retail Week
In 2024/25, we continued to centre media engagement and thought leadership around our target audience of business leaders and economic experts to create higher-value opportunities with key media. We also increased our focus on key message delivery to ensure we were not only communicating with the right audience but were creating strong positioning around our campaigns.
While maintaining this business and economic focus, we grew our coverage from 913 pieces in 23-24 to 1,363 in 2024-25. We featured regularly in key media targets, including the Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, and BBC’s Wake up to Money. Our leading print source for 2024 was the Financial Times, followed by The Telegraph.
Jo Causon penned frequent op-eds and letters published in business and political media (Financial Times, Politics.co.uk, LBC, Management Today) on topics including AI and automation, customer service in the boardroom, professionalisation of customer service, and service as a driver for economic growth.
Additionally, we grew our footprint with top trade publications across different sectors. Highlights included securing a regular column in Utility Week, Jo featuring on a retail crime webinar with The Grocer, and a feature interview with Retail Week on AI/Chatbots. We also achieved regular coverage with Travel Weekly, Retail Times, Insurance Post, Auto Trader and TechDigest.
In terms of online and broadcast coverage, we featured over 640 times in online publications – with major features corresponding with increased traffic to the website. We also featured more than 600 times on radio and TV, including appearances on various BBC channels, LBC, and Sky News.
One of the broadcast highlights of the year was Jo Causon appearing on BBC Breakfast for a long-form, case study-driven segment on Service with Respect. Jo joined the presenters in-studio and discussed the three key asks of The Institute on Government, business, and consumers for Service with Respect, and the need for urgent societal change to tackle this issue.
Members communicating their key milestones and achievements with The Institute were massively up YoY, with an average of 5-6 per month compared with 1-2 in the previous year. This resulted in regular trade and regional coverage and social media engagement for The Institute.
Speaking engagements
Jo Causon’s external speaking engagements are a key part of our cross-sector thought leadership strategy, and one that has gone from strength to strength over the past few years. CEO speaking engagements have nearly doubled since 2022, with 45 speaking events in 2024 – including top tier industry events like Utility Week, Connected Britain, FUTR Europe, eCommerce Expo, and Credit Week.
As well as proactively putting Jo forward for top-tier speaking events, due to this increase in exposure we are now getting a large increase in organic, higher tier requests for our CEO to speak.
Forward-thinking thought leadership – our owned channel content
Over the past couple of years, the media landscape has become more challenging in terms of cut-through, with a shrinking workforce, declining consumer trust, and a shift toward more engaging and less in-depth content (such as clickbait articles and TikTok videos).
While media engagement remains a key tactic for profile and influence, we have also been growing our owned-channel content to ensure we are utilising all avenues available to communicate our key messaging around the four pillars of customer service. This includes the launch of our new podcast, Causonomics.
National Customer Service Week:
National Customer Service Week 2024 was once again very successful last year. Our NCSW 2024 launch email saw a 12.9% open rate, and the event drove significant additional traffic to our website (10,326 NCSW-specific visitors in October 2024 vs 8,337 visitors in 2023, +24% increase).
We had 2,211 downloads for our NCSW digital pack vs 2,041 the previous year (up 8.3%). Similarly, the week was very well received by both members and non-members on social media, resulting in a total of 25k+ impressions, 894 interactions (likes, comments, shares) and 140 clicks.
Social Media
LinkedIn remains our primary channel of focus, and we hit the 29k followers milestone, ending the year +8.2% from 26,814 to 29,023.
With a growing membership base and an expanding role in influencing customer service standards, we are working on aligning our strategy with our broader goals in events, public affairs, and communications.
Website
Our website has undergone significant enhancements focused on improving user experience (UX). Key updates include:
Optimised navigation: simplified menus and streamlined user journeys to make resources, events, and membership information more accessible. This also includes an improved search functionality across the website.
Responsive design upgrades: ensured compatibility across all devices, enhancing mobile usability
Content alignment: updated language and visuals to reflect our new brand identity
New membership & product landing pages offering a more in-depth overview of our P&S portfolio and membership benefits to support member engagement and lead generation efforts.
From a traffic and SEO perspective, overall website traffic was up +9.4% We are continuing to make structural website improvements and improve search optimisation.
Research and Insight
Our research and insight programme are focused on three key areas:
UKCSI:
The UKCSI demonstrates the quality, breadth and relevance of our research. In July 2024 and January 2025, we published the UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), featuring the latest benchmarking, trends and insights into customer satisfaction in the UK and evidence of the links between customer satisfaction and business performance. The UKCSI also includes practical recommendations to improve customer satisfaction and business performance.
In the July 2024 UKCSI, we examined how customer attitudes and buying behaviour are influenced by perceptions about an organisation’s business practices, impact on society, reputation and whether an organisation demonstrates understanding and care for a customer’s personal circumstances. The January 2025 UKCSI report highlighted the relationship between customer satisfaction and business performance and the influence of emotional connection, customer ethos and ethics on high levels of customer satisfaction. We also reviewed how customers feel about the use of technology in a service context and whether it has improved.
As well as demonstrating The Institute’s authority and credibility, the UKCSI is a key enabler of member engagement. The January 2025 UKCSI was launched at a member event hosted by Sainsbury’s, featuring a panel session with Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsbury’s and Chris Pitt, CEO of first direct: the event generated excellent feedback. In addition, we held an open webinar (open to members and non-members). Each UKCSI launch was supported by a member webinar and an “open” webinar available to both member and non-member organisations.
We generated sales from UKCSI reports and data, mainly from non-member organisations. In addition, we have provided extra data analysis to over 35 member organisations that are featured in the UKCSI, to help them use the UKCSI to improve their insight and customer experience.
Breakthrough research:
During 2024–25, we released three key pieces of breakthrough research that have supported our engagement and influence with members, regulators and policymakers.
In May 2024, we launched Leading the Service Nation? Enabling business performance through customer service. The key purpose of the research is to help leaders better understand where they need to focus to drive service and business performance and to inform the way organisations identify, recruit and develop leaders. The research highlights eight critical leadership capabilities that will be especially important for the service leaders of the future, with recommendations about how to develop them.
In October 2024, we launched A Cultural Shift: How to Regulate to Improve Customer Service. At a time when organisations in regulated sectors and regulators are under growing scrutiny, the research assesses what regulators should do to stimulate higher standards of customer service in the sectors they regulate. The research assesses how the customer perspective can be appropriately represented in decision-making, skills and capabilities required by regulators, and consumer attitudes about the effectiveness of regulation in the UK. The research was based on evidence from consumers and managers who work in regulated sectors, and interviews with senior executives from organisations in regulated sectors, and in regulators.
In March this year, we published Customer Service: Risk and Reputation. This research examines the key factors influencing perceptions about an organisation’s reputation and the impact of failures in customer service on long-term reputation and customer engagement. We consider whether customer service is seen as a reputational risk in the boardroom and how organisations assess, manage and measure reputational risk. The report concludes with recommendations for creating a culture for effective management of customer service, risk and reputation.
In December 2024, we published Customer Service Trends and Predictions 2025, highlighting issues and trends that will be significant for the customer experience environment in 2024 and how organisations should respond. Customer Service Trends and Predictions 2025 has been downloaded by 101 members and viewed by approximately 642 individuals who are non-members or from non-member organisations.
Bespoke benchmarking and insight consultancy:
As well as publishing the UKCSI and breakthrough research, we conduct bespoke benchmarking and insight consultancy projects for member organisations.
We have generated bespoke benchmarking projects and insight consultancy projects for several of our members
Our bespoke benchmarking and Insight Consultancy has delivered 23 projects for 10 member organisations during 2024/25.
Public Policy:
This past year has seen a challenging political landscape, and July 2024 saw a snap General Election and a subsequent change in Government; this was a challenge The Institute responded quickly to, continuing to build relationships and influence agendas with strong political engagement campaigns.
Ahead of the General Election being announced, The Institute launched its ‘Service Manifesto’, which outlined our four key asks of the current and future UK government. Once the new Government was instated, we used the manifesto to foster connections with new and returning MPs, to ensure the service agenda was considered as parliamentary strategies were shaped.
As a part of our manifesto campaigning, we held a Parliamentary Reception in October 2024, to discuss how a better customer experience actively contributes to sustainable growth and how businesses and Westminster can work together to drive the service agenda. The event was attended by 50+ business leaders and Parliamentarians, with speeches delivered by Baroness Stowell, Olivia Blake MP, and Justin Madders MP, Minister for Employment Rights, Competition and Markets.
A key political campaign for us this year was again Service with Respect – our campaign to shine a light on unacceptable abuse of customer-facing workers. We have been successful in raising awareness of this issue with both businesses and government, and in 2024, we hit 300 supporters, reflecting a growing community dedicated to tackling this issue.
However, there is still a strong need for continued campaigning. In mid-2024, our regular tracker survey research was conducted, showing that the issue of customer hostility abuse was still prevalent across all customer-facing sectors – alongside low levels of reporting, and high numbers considering leaving their jobs as a result.
We issued this research, including a briefing to government, and called on abuse of public-facing workers to be made a standalone offence across all sectors. A part of this push was the above-mentioned appearance of Jo on BBC Breakfast, among other national pieces, including BBC Radio 5 Live.
In February 2025, the Crime and Policing Bill was announced, which included a standalone offence for assault of a retail worker. Again, we worked with parliamentary champions to push for an amendment to the Bill to cover all public-facing workers, not just those in retail, and submitted a strong and detailed evidence-based written submission to back up our call.
We will continue to campaign for this extremely important cause in 2025, as the Bill moves through the Houses of Parliament and Lords.
Outside of Westminster, and as part of our Service with Respect campaign, we have continued liaising with Police Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in key regions. Through our relationship with the Kent PCC, we now sit on the Kent Retail Crime Board. Additionally, we held several community events, one in Kent and one in Northwest, bringing members and local stakeholders together to discuss how we can tackle the problem of customer abuse directly in local communities.
We continued to engage with regulators to ensure service is high on their agenda and that customer satisfaction in regulated industries is measured in an accurate, consistent, independent, and cost-effective manner. Through our strong relationships with regulators, we held regular CEO roundtables in the financial, water, and energy sectors, bringing business leaders and regulators together to discuss how we can benchmark and improve customer outcomes.
We regularly contributed to written consultations and calls for evidence where our expertise was relevant, both for regulated sectors and for public sector departments – including the HM Treasury’s spending review for 2025.
Our All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Customer Service, for which we are the secretariat, was automatically disbanded once the General Election was called. Through continuous networking, influencing, and outreach, we reinstated it under the new Government, with the Inaugural General Meeting held in December 2024. Connor Rand MP is now Chair.
The first APPG roundtable was held in February 2025, where we convened trade bodies and trade unions across key sectors – including TSSA, Accord, UK Finance, and UK Hospitality – to discuss the protection of customer-facing workers from abuse, and the widening out of current proposed protections for retail workers.
The new APPG will continue to meet quarterly in 2025, on subjects like regulation and the regulators, risk and reputation in service, and AI/automation.
The Academy
This year marked one of the best on record for the Academy, both in terms of commercial performance and member engagement.
We engaged with well over a thousand individuals across our membership. This includes ServiceFocus training; professional qualifications; our open workshops; and our management qualifications. Popular open workshop sessions included Introduction to Vulnerable Customers, Root Cause Analysis, and Complaints Handling.
A key change this year was the retirement of the ServiceFocus sub-brand and the introduction of a more pedagogically aligned framework under the new ‘Certificate Courses’ concept. Course names were revised to better reflect their content, and for the first time, these programmes were launched as open courses, allowing multiple members to enrol, rather than being limited to single-organisation delivery.
We also invested in platform and recognition enhancements. The introduction of LinkedIn certificate-sharing on our VLE enabled learners to celebrate and promote their achievements more visibly, while 25 new Academy landing pages made it easier for members to explore and access training, with a stronger focus on return on investment, member impact stories, and clearer, better-positioned content. These improvements helped increase reach and awareness of the Academy’s offerings.
Internally, we continued to build capability across the CED team through regular training. We also advanced our case study strategy (simplifying these into ‘impact stories’ and acquiring 32 of these for use in our comms), embedded Professional Qualifications through a simplified 10-step guide and centralised all support.
We significantly improved our brochures across all workshops and Certificate Courses, enhancing how we communicate value, outcomes, and key takeaways. This upgrade has made it easier for members to understand and compare offerings, ultimately supporting better decision-making and driving increased engagement with our learning portfolio.
Looking ahead, next year looks highly promising, with strong foundations already in place to drive continued growth. Our messaging is clearer and more consistent, and delivery has improved across the board. We’re expanding our trainer base to increase delivery capacity, and a full schedule of marketing initiatives is underway to maintain engagement.
People Development
Employee Engagement
We have a highly engaged workforce with employee engagement scores any organisation would be very proud of. Our latest independent survey was carried out in December 2024. The response rate was excellent at 89%. Overall, the survey indicates that most people are very satisfied with most aspects of their employment.
Performance Management
We have continued to embed our competency framework, which emphasises behaviours aligned with our values, while also helping people set meaningful, results-driven objectives to ensure personal development is supported. This year, we have taken a more deliberate approach to the development of our people and introduced more internal training opportunities to build capabilities.
Coaching has become a key focus, with more structured opportunities for employees at all levels to receive tailored support as well as access to our professional qualifications.
Resourcing and Structure
This year, we have made significant decisions in our headcount to align our structure with both member and market needs. To ensure our new colleagues can contribute to our purpose effectively and quickly, we have updated our recruitment processes and redesigned our onboarding programme, to offer the best possible welcome and support upon joining.
The search for a new permanent Commercial Director was successful. We reduced the Head of CRM position to a single role, enhancing collaboration between the DR and TAN teams to support a more consistent approach to member experience across the organisation.
To further support our new business efforts, we have created the role of Head of Business Development, which will come with increased targets for growth. The Academy has performed exceptionally well, and we are placing greater focus on it, including exploring additional revenue opportunities through partnerships.
We have merged the Product and Research teams to form a new directorate dedicated to Member Propositions. Additionally, the IT and Business Operations directorate has expanded to support all operational roles within membership, and now includes Standards & Quality, and Customer Experience.
We have seen a significant rise in direct applications for vacancies, through referrals, LinkedIn and our website. This is a strong reflection of the Institute’s growing reputation and demonstrates our efforts to build a positive and attractive employer brand.
Benefits and Reward
We approached our annual pay review in 2024 with a clear focus on balancing financial pressures for individuals, rewarding high performance and encouraging retention.
This year, we changed our Health Care Cash Plan benefit to a new provider, which offers greater value to our employees.
Employment Changes
We have closely been monitoring developments related to the Government’s Make Work Pay plan and the Employment Rights Bill, and keeping members of the SLT updated on the proposals and consultations. We will stay ahead of these changes and proactively update and adapt our policies and practices to ensure compliance.
Cost Management
This year, we have taken a more cautious and strategic approach to managing our hiring costs. We have been carefully assessing our people structure to ensure that investment is focused on areas with the greatest potential for return.
Standards and Quality
Following an internal review this year, Standards and Quality now forms part of the IT, Business Improvement and Standards directorate, with the Head of Standards & Quality reporting directly to the CIO.
Throughout the year, we continued to uphold our standards and quality assurance, with exception requests effectively managed and adherence to our established frameworks remaining strong. Timeframes have been kept consistently, with surveys administered promptly and member expectations met.
Our position as the authority in customer experience remains firmly established, driven by the depth of insight we deliver through benchmarking, the robustness and credibility of our accreditations, and the consistently high standard of our qualifications.
Highlights of delivery are:
Following last year’s internal review, where we modified the ServiceMark re-accreditation process to incorporate a “temperature check” one year following the initial survey, this process is now firmly embedded.
We have now integrated into our CRM, our TrainingMark accreditation, enabling detailed analytics and forecasting for our pipeline. Work is in place to have annual Trainer and Assessor Quality Assurance also fully integrated by the end of Quarter 1 next FY
We redesigned our ServiceMark assessment report to include an Executive Summary and ensure it aligns more closely with our other communications, enhancing both professionalism and clarity.
A thorough review of our in-house trainers was conducted, and an annual quality assurance process implemented to ensure standards continue to be met.
IT Systems and Business Improvement:
2024/25 has been a transformative period for the Institute to make significant strides in enhancing our system capabilities, particularly around the development and implementation of our CRM.
Our core objectives for the year focused on enhancing our CRM platform to drive effectiveness, better automation and streamlining of processes.
Additionally, we fully integrated our survey platforms into our CRM to manage our ServiceMark accreditation. We have taken steps to reduce data handling, improving efficiency across platforms like the website, Hubspot, VLE, and Salesforce. Finally, we aimed to simplify the individual membership journey, enhance self-service Academy products, and found greater efficiencies through automation and self-service.
There is still work to be done, but we have moved a long way forward to a much more efficient Institute and joined-up flow of data through the business.
Business Continuity Planning:
We have Disaster Recovery Plans in place, with a focus on developing strategies to ensure seamless operations under various scenarios. We have significantly enhanced our backup capacity and reduced our dependency on our legacy fixed hardware server solution. Additionally, we have reinforced our resiliency by installing a backup network solution at our office to mitigate the impact of any potential network outages.
Governance
The Institute received a ‘clean audit’ of 2023/24 and 2024/25 year-end accounts.
We also re-appointed Gilberts as The Institute’s external auditors, following ratification at the AGM in July 2024.
The governance of The Institute is achieved through its Board and committee structures, operational management activities, and implementation of its policies. The Board is responsible for setting the overall CSR policy and goals for The Institute and senior management are responsible for their operational implementation.
Corporate Social Responsibility
The Institute recognises its business operations have an impact on the communities and environment in which it operates. As per our CSR policy, we review our charity partner every two years and vote on who to support. As part of that process, we selected Mind as our new partner and ran an auction of promises to raise money as part of our support.
The Institute is committed to operating its business in a manner that is both sensitive and responsible with proper regard to its legal obligations and according to relevant directives, regulations, and codes of practice.
We are committed to supporting the Government’s vision for Corporate Social Responsibility, specifically:
Promoting business activity that brings simultaneous economic, social, and environmental benefits
Encouraging innovative approaches and continuing development and application of best practices
Ensuring the best minimum levels of performance in areas such as health and safety, the environment, and equal opportunities
Creating a framework that facilitates business practices that balance financial success with achievement of social and sustainability goals
Taking an active part in supporting the local community and social causes
GDPR Compliance
We continue to work to ensure our compliance with the EU GDPR. The Institute ensures personal data is handled and dealt with properly, however it is collected, recorded, and used.
Our data protection policy sets out how we seek to protect personal data and ensure that staff understand the rules governing their use of personal data to which they have access in the course of their work. We have been working to improve our systems, processes, and contracts to help achieve this. We have also worked with members and suppliers to maintain compliance across our supply chain.
Our privacy policy covers how organisations’ and individuals’ data are secured, covering both their right to data being kept private and their right to privacy from tele and online marketing, unless they have opted-in to receive it. It also helps ensure The Institute complies with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and that applies in conjunction with data protection legislation, such as GDPR.
Embarking on our new three-year strategy, our key strategic priorities in 2025/26 are:
1. Membership growth: deliver on the numbers and improve retention: Drive deeper membership engagement and uptake of products and services to demonstrate the tangible impact of membership and clearly articulated ROI. Ensure our value propositions remain fit for purpose and develop new services to meet the changing needs of our members. Deliver internationally for Group members.
2. Embed ServiceMark: as the national organisational standard and demonstrate its impact in terms of improved customer satisfaction. The deployment of SM is scalable and cost effective for larger organisations.
3. We continue to build profile and influence: We drive the case for the four pillars of the service nation with high profile coverage through all forms of media and channels.
4. We are the go-to place for Customer service training and Professional development – The Academy grows and achieves appropriate performance and traction.
5. We achieve policy change and input into the Government agenda: The Institute is recognised as the go to place for regulators and Government.
6. We continue to develop our research, knowledge and insight capability: to demonstrate our credibility, influence, reach and competitive advantage through our breakthrough research the UKCIS, bespoke and insight consultancy work.
7. We extend our standards and quality capability. We are strong on quality assurance, high standards and modern methods of delivery, activity will focus on setting and embedding standards that drive cultural change and organisational improvement.
8. We have the right Infrastructure, skills and capability: invest further in our people and systems development to ensure we are agile and easy to do business with.
The directors present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.
The directors who held office during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were as follows:
In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing that Gilberts Chartered Accountants be reappointed as auditor of the company will be put at a General Meeting.
Company law requires the directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the directors have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards and applicable law). Under company law the directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied with the fact that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company and of the surplus or deficit of the company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the directors are required to:
select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the company will continue in business.
The directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies entitled to the small companies exemption.
We have audited the financial statements of Institute Of Customer Service (the 'company') for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the statement of income and retained earnings, the balance sheet and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Basis for opinion
Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:
the information given in the directors' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
the directors' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The company is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is Ground Floor, 4 Gainsford Street, London, SE1 2NE.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the company.
Turnover is the total amount receivable by the company for services provided, excluding value added tax and trade discounts.
Subscriptions of members are credited to the income and expenditure account over the period of the membership, after deducting 20% for selling costs. Subscriptions are not refundable.
The company is a mutual service organisation and all activities of the company are exempt from corporation tax except for interest received, income on investments and chargeable gains.
The average monthly number of persons (including directors) employed by the company during the year was:
Details of the company's subsidiaries at 31 March 2025 are as follows:
The current lease for the Institute offices includes a requirement to restore the property to its original condition. A provision is made each year to cover the estimated cost of the dilapidations being £5,000 per year over the 10 year rental agreement.
The total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases are as follows:
The company is limited by guarantee and does not have share capital.
The liability of members is limited. Every member of the Institute undertakes to contribute such amounts as may be required (not exceeding £1) to the Institute's assets if it should be wound up while they are a member, or within one year after they cease to be a member, for payment of the Institute's debt and liabilities contracted before they cease to be member, and of the costs, charges and expenses of winding up, and for the adjustment of the rights of the contributories themselves.