Category Archives: Company News

Home Improvement Consumer Protection Scheme (HICS) has been awarded ISO 9001, validating their investment in both their team and customer care processes. ISO 9001 is the internationally recognised standard for Quality Management, focussing on a key set of Quality Principles, including leadership, engagement, continual improvement and evidence-based decision making.

Faisal Hussain, HICS Chief Executive, comments on the achievement,

“To be awarded ISO 9001 – with no non-conformities, I’d like to add – gives members and homeowners confidence that, when they contact HICS for any reason, they can be sure that they will receive the best level of service. Having ISO 9001 confirms that the foundations we have put in place in recent years have given us a solid basis for growth.

“As an organisation, our ethos is to protect consumers and raise standards within the home improvement industry, with support for both members and consumers being at our heart. Quality is a word we use a lot internally, whether it’s the quality of the team, our processes, our communication, or our service. It’s the starting point for all we do, and we are continuously looking for ways to improve on it.

“To this end, we have recently further strengthened our leadership team and have recruited a new Head of Quality and a new Head of Operations.

“Our Head of Quality will be looking at the members’ side of the business, and how we can improve the experience for them. This includes spending more time on-site at our members’ premises to ensure standards and compliance, but also to offer advice. Our Head of Operations will concentrate on our internal processes and ways in which we can be more efficient and offer an even better service by ensuring we hit key milestones, like phone calls answered within 30 seconds and emails replied to within 48 hours.

“Growing the team and investing at senior level builds on the strong foundations that were already in place, with future growth and improvement being a constant theme. We never allow ourselves to get complacent, or to think the job is done. All processes, policies and procedures are continuously reviewed and tested. For example, we are currently reviewing our equality policy because we must also ensure we provide a fair working environment for our people. They are the foundation for the quality we strive for every day.”

HICS are pleased to announce their Primary Authority relationship with West Yorkshire Trading Standards.

The Primary Authority relationship between HICS and West Yorkshire Trading Standards means that HICS members will be able to benefit from legally backed advice from West Yorkshire Trading Standards.

The legally backed advice will be available across many areas such as compliance, model contracts and documentation. West Yorkshire Trading Standards will also support HICS members on delivering excellent service to consumers. The assured advice offered by West Yorkshire Trading Standards must be respected by other regulators.

Faisal Hussain, Chief Executive of HICS, comments:

“We’re thrilled to welcome our Primary Authority relationship with West Yorkshire Trading Standards to HICS. We hope that our Primary Authority partnership will provide another layer of added value to our members. We have a great network of contacts for our members and we’re so pleased to provide yet another one through our Primary Authority relationship.”

Michelle Bucknell, Business Development Lead Officer at West Yorkshire Trading Standards, comments:

“We are delighted to enter into a Primary Authority partnership with HICS so that we can work together to ensure its members achieve the highest levels of compliance and their customers can be satisfied in the knowledge that they are contracting with a business that wants to comply.”

HICS members interested in accessing legally backed advice should raise their interest to HICS by emailing info@hicsscheme.org.uk or calling HICS on 0333 323 2655.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Consumer protection organisations HICS, DGCOS, and HIES, are holding a member exclusive seminar on product compliance with the Office for Product Safety Standards and West Yorkshire Trading Standards.

The seminar will focus on product safety with a strong emphasis on importing. It will cover:

• Who is an importer?
• What must importers do to comply?
• Who can help importers?
• Who are the bodies involved?
• Product safety basics
• Primary Authority

Importers have a lot more liabilities ensuring that a product is safe and that it complies with applicable laws and standards. From next year importers in England, Wales and Scotland will need to place the UK conformity assessment logo (UKCA) onto goods placed onto the market.

Adrian Simpson, Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at DGCOS, HICS, and HIES, comments:

“From next year installers obligations will be changed. Many installers may become ‘importers’ which means they will need to be aware of the law regarding importation and product safety. We want our members to be prepared for the changes so are pleased to provide this exclusive training session with the experts.”

Michael Kearney, Head of Business Engagement at the Office for Product Safety and Standards, comments:

“The Office for Product Safety and Standards is developing a trusted product safety system that delivers protection for consumers, fairness for business and a competitive marketplace defined by outcomes of safety and public confidence. To achieve this, it is important that we raise awareness and provide support across the supply chain and particularly in new, innovative and growing market sectors.”

The seminar is free and will be held remotely on Tuesday 9^th March, 10am – 11am.

HICS members who are interested should email communications@hicsscheme.org.uk to register their interest.

Consumer protection scheme, HICS, welcomes new Chief Executive, Faisal Hussain. Faisal will be working with the HICS team to ensure consumers continue to be protected and to support HICS members in delivering excellent customer service and winning more business.

Faisal brings in-depth knowledge and experience in home improvement as well as having many years’ experience in marketing, project management, and research and development. Faisal is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a member of various industry working groups. 

Faisal Hussain, HICS Chief Executive, comments:

“Thank you to everyone for a warm welcome and it’s great to be part of an organisation whose philosophy is about raising standards. 

We have a fantastic team who are committed to providing an excellent service to both consumers and members. I am looking forward to driving our ethos of consumer protection and supporting members in these uncertain times.”

HICS is a leading consumer protection organisation that covers the installation of a wide range of home improvement products. The consumer protection organisation has a trusted network of UK-based home improvement installers. When a homeowner uses one of these members, the homeowner will receive thorough consumer protection upon registration of their installation.

The protection that homeowners will receive is completely free to the consumer and they will get access to Alternative Dispute Resolution, access to a consumer advice line, access to an Independent Ombudsman, Deposit & Stage Payment Protection Insurance, and an Insurance Backed Guarantee (upon completion of the contract).

HICS is endorsed by architect and TV presenter, George Clarke, who works with HICS to ensure that consumers are respected, protected, and educated on their home improvement journey.

HICS, the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Scheme has seen a huge increase in home improvement installations, up by over 3000% in July as compared to the end of April.

HICS is a leading consumer protection organisation that gives consumers confidence when choosing accredited installers for their home improvement project. The 3000% increase represents over £3m worth of home improvements protected by the scheme.

Ciarán Harkin, Managing Director of QASSS, who manages the scheme commented:

“These are really positive signs for companies in the sector as lockdown has eased across the UK. Reputable HICS members demonstrate high standards of COVID-19 safety measures, which helps instil confidence in consumers to allow safe tradespeople in their homes to carry out glazing installations and other home improvements.”

The increase witnessed by HICS is also supported by other research in the home improvement sector, including recent research from Insight DIY which showed 55%% of Brits prioritising plans to update their home as the Covid-19 restrictions continue to be eased.

If you’re planning for a new home improvement project, make sure you instruct skilled tradesmen. Ensure they are a member of a consumer protection scheme demonstrating adherence to quality standards and service. Unfortunately, rogue companies are still operating, and scams have been on the increase recently in light of the Government’s Green Homes Grants scheme.

HICS offers real consumer protection, unmatched in the industry, and all of our members have been thoroughly vetted to guarantee exceptional service. Using a HICS member means you receive full protection, including free deposit and stage payment protection, free insurance backed guarantees, free mediation services and free access to an Ombudsman, in the unlikely event we are unable to help resolve a dispute.

Photo by Rene Asmussen from Pexels

We are sending special thoughts to all our installers and consumers out there that may be experiencing a negative impact due to the coronavirus. This is a difficult time and we’re here to support you where we can.

We are currently operating remotely as normal so that we can all stay safe AND it will be business as usual to continue to support you and your customers.

General Operations

All our people are working remotely from home, including remote access for all emails and website contact emails.

Telephone Lines

Our telephone lines have been diverted so that all calls and enquires whether for our service delivery team, customer service or our ADR and complaints team, can be covered by our people remotely.

Non-Urgent Business

To ensure we continue to deliver our services to installers and customers, non-urgent business will continue to be reviewed, including the suspension of group meetings, business travel and attendance of exhibitions and events.

Inspections and Remedial Works

We have spoken with our inspection providers about their contingency plans and how their inspection and remedial services may be affected. All our suppliers have their own processes in place should the worst happen. All are currently operating as normal until advised otherwise. Should the situation worsen, our suppliers will be providing guidelines and information on their contingency plans which we will then share more widely.

Consumers

Consumers that use our installer network can rest assured our contingency plans mean that it will be business as usual. Our team can fully work remotely from home, meaning that they will have access to all emails and can take all phone calls as usual to deal with any complaints, disputes and/or support as usual.

For now, please keep safe and stay up to date with the advice from the NHS https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

QA Scheme Support Services (QASSS) took home two awards at the UK Complaint Handling Awards 2020, including a silver award for Best Complaint Handling and a bronze award for Best Complaint Handling Team of the Year – Initiative.

QASSS operates three consumer protection schemes across home improvement, including HIES, HICS, and DGCOS*. The company entered their Resolution Revolution project into the complaint handling awards, a project led by their dispute resolution team the ‘ADR superheroes’. As finalists for the two awards, QASSS presented their initiatives to an expert panel of independent judges followed by the awards ceremony in London.

The QASSS Resolution Revolution project saw QASSS reach an average dispute resolution time of just 2 days whilst still delivering high satisfaction rates to their customers. All the while the industry average sits at 80 days (CTSI Report, 2018).

Ciarán Harkin, Managing Director of QASSS, commented, “It’s great to be recognised by these prestigious awards in both categories. Our dispute resolution team work extremely hard to resolve customer complaints quickly and fairly. We have had some record-breaking statistics recently, reaching an average resolution time of just 2 days, which is amazing. We’re looking forward to implementing further initiatives as we continually look at ways of improving our services.”

*DGCOS is the Double Glazing & Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme, HIES is the Home Insulation and Energy Systems Scheme and HICS is the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Scheme.

Photo from left to right: Adrian Simpson (QASSS) and Ciarán Harkin (QASSS).

We’re excited to announce that QASSS (QA Scheme Support Services) that operate DGCOS, HIES and HICS has been announced as 2020 winners of the ‘Contact Centre Special Moment’ award at The Top Companies for Customer Service Awards. This is a fantastic result highlighting our industry-leading complaint handling and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services.

Our ‘Resolution Revolution’ entry outlined a key project undertaken in 2019 by our ADR team to reduce our average dispute resolution time. We felt that an industry average of over 2.5 months was far too long to resolve a dispute (CTSI reported average resolution time is 80 days⁽¹⁾). We knew that we could drastically improve both member and consumer experiences by making the journey for consumer complaints hassle-free and super quick.

We set a target to achieve an average of 5 days to resolve disputes before December 2019. Our ‘Resolution Revolution’ project was really successful, reducing our average dispute resolution time to 4.2 days in May and reducing further down to 3.59 days last summer.

What does this mean for members and installers?
Where there has been a dispute between a member and a consumer, they can both expect their complaint to be dealt with 40x quicker than the UK average of 80 days (CTSI Report, 2018). This represents the focus of the ‘resolution revolution’ project which was to radically speed up the dispute process.

Ciarán Harkin, Managing Director at QASSS, commented, “I am over the moon to win this award from the Top 50 Companies for Customer Service. I’m also pleased with the fact consumers and members across our home improvement, renewables and glazing schemes can benefit from super quick dispute resolution times. Well done to Charlotte Pilkington (Dispute Resolution Manager) and her team. They have all worked so incredibly hard.”

We’d also like to say well done to other winners on the night including ITV, Compare the Market, Hitachi and the World Wildlife Fund.

(1) CTSI report, 2018