A care home in Edinburgh has been recognised for its high level of customer service after being awarded a prestigious government backed award.
Bield’s Stockbridge care home was just one of the services which achieved a Customer Service Excellence award – an externally assessed award given to services which can prove they are operating at the national standard for customer service.
One of Scotland’s leading providers of housing, care and community services for older people encouraged Stockbridge to apply for the award, as part of its commitment to constant improvement and service excellence.
Over a seven month period the care home provided evidence to support its application for the award, as well as holding an open day which involved an external inspector speaking to the families of residents at the service.
The award falls in time for this year’s National Older People’s Day which is an annual date designed to raise awareness to issues affecting older people as well as recognising their contribution to society.
Kim Drysdale, Manager at Bield’s Stockbridge care home said: “We were delighted to have been chosen as one of Bield’s first services to apply for the Customer Service Excellence Award.
“For us the experience was something that was definitely worthwhile and we feel is just the start in our journey for constant improvement in terms of customer service.
“We were made to look at things like our complaints process and for us this process was definitely one of the areas in which we felt that we could keep looking to improve on.
“Now that our staff have seen the type of positive results which can come out of an exercise like this they are extremely motivated in thinking of new and different ways to keep improving our already great service.
“This has really helped us reaffirm what we are about as a service and has made us look closely at what we can be improving.”
The Customer Services Excellence award was created in 1991, a year after the government developed the Citizens Charter. Its external accreditation system was developed by the Cabinet Office which highlights and recognises excellence in customer service.
Brian Logan, Chief Executive of Bield said: “We are delighted that we chose Stockbridge as one of the first services to apply for a customer services excellence award.
“After some careful thought and consideration we decided that this award would be one in which we would eventually all of our services to apply as we believe they are all doing some great things which should be recognised.
“However this award is about much more than this and is a platform for improvement which we have found to be a real motivator for staff in to seeing what else they can be doing to make the quality of care we provide can be even better.
“There has been excellent feedback across the organisation about the awards and we are already developing proposals to enable all Bield’s care services to apply for the award.”
This coverage was secured with the Edinburgh Evening News as part of a sustained PR campaign carried out by Holyrood PR on behalf of Bield
