Lincolnshire Housing Partnership (LHP) has become the first organisation to achieve the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) Version 2 accreditation, setting the benchmark for the revised national standard for customer service.
Originally developed by the Cabinet Office, the CSE framework is a nationally recognised quality standard that assesses organisations over five key areas to help improve how they deliver services to their customers.
CSE Version 2 reflects the changing expectations of customers and communities, with an increased focus on customer insight, inclusion, technology and innovation, community engagement, service improvement and measurable outcomes.
LHP has held CSE accreditation for the last six years. Following an independent assessment by Assessment Services, LHP has achieved the new standard in recognition of its commitment to delivering customer-focused services, driving continuous improvement and placing customer insight at the heart of decision-making.
As the first organisation to be assessed against the new standard, LHP has demonstrated how these principles can be successfully embedded within both strategic planning and day-to-day service delivery.
Serving more than 20,000 people across Northern and Eastern Lincolnshire, LHP provides a wide range of housing and support services designed to help customers and communities thrive.
The assessment highlighted a strong commitment to understanding customer needs, using feedback to shape services and ensuring that customer outcomes remain central to organisational decision-making.
John O’Hanrahan, Corporate Head of Customers at LHP, said:
“Over the past year, our focus has been on giving our customers a wider range of ways to contact us and making sure we’re constantly using customer voices to influence our decision making.
“Changing how we do things means we need to make sure we uphold our standards and deliver excellent service every time – and this is where Customer Service Excellence Version 2 comes in. It’s helped us to make sure our actions are tied to outcomes, and our decisions driven by influence and feedback.
“I’m incredibly proud to see LHP as the first organisation to achieve Customer Service Excellence Version 2. It is an amazing achievement, and a testament to the hard work delivered day in, day out, by colleagues, customers and partners of LHP. We look forward to continuing our journey with Customer Service Excellence as we strive to always deliver excellent customer service to our customers.”
Richard Adkins, Systems and Finance Director and CSE Assessor at Assessment Services, said:
“We are delighted to recognise Lincolnshire Housing Partnership as the first organisation to achieve Customer Service Excellence Version 2. The assessment identified strong evidence of customer-focused service delivery, innovation, community engagement and continuous improvement.
“LHP has set an excellent benchmark for future organisations seeking to achieve the revised standard and demonstrates how customer insight and organisational learning can be translated into positive outcomes for customers and communities.”