Exceptional Customer Service

Check out the following ways that we strive to achieve this, including:

• communicating in plain English, without jargon
• responding to calls and emails quickly.

Communication

To communicate effectively, we’ll:

• be easy to contact during our office opening hours
• offer a webchat service from both the website and Portal
• provide information in plain English – we use everyday language and avoid bureaucratic language, jargon and acronyms
• provide our publications and assessment materials in the Welsh or Irish language, or in an alternative format, where appropriate and on request.

Efficiency

To help you to progress your learners from registration to certification as easily as possible, we’ll:

• confirm approval for any additional qualifications or awards you want to deliver within 1 working day of receiving your completed application form
• allocate an External Quality Assurer within 7 working days of learner registration
• provide on-demand online assessment for suitable qualifications
• send you Functional Skill assessment results within 6 working days
• send you multiple choice external assessment results within 10 working days
• award Direct Claim Status (DCS) for certificates if you meet our published quality criteria (please note if you have DCS and switch to NCFE, we’ll generally aim to honour your DCS like-for-like and will confirm our decision at approval stage)
• we will process your certification claim within 24 hours.

Support and information

To help you to deliver NCFE qualifications and awards effectively, we’ll:

• allocate your centre a dedicated Business Development Manager and Business Development Officer who can talk to you about your centre’s curriculum needs
• publish our fees in a clear format with no hidden charges
• send you our monthly e-newsletter and regular email news updates
• provide an informative and accessible website
• provide a range of training and networking events for staff from your centre throughout the year
• allocate an External Quality Assurer when you register learners for each qualification or award you offer, who’ll visit at least once a year to provide support and sample learners’ portfolios.

Helping us to help you

We rely on your feedback to let us know whether we’re providing the right kind of products and service. We carry out a number of surveys and focus groups throughout the year, but you don’t have to wait until then to tell us what you think. If you want to give us your thoughts you can email [email protected] or just pick up the phone and tell us! Call 0191 239 8000.

Got something to say?

Your feedback’s really important to us. If you want to give us your thoughts about how we could improve our products or service, email us at [email protected] or just call us on 0191 239 8000.

Service Level Agreements

We want to offer you the best service possible, so we work to tight deadlines to ensure you’re not left hanging around:

Transfers

If you’ve registered learners on the wrong qualification, don’t panic! Our Customer Support Advisors will be able to sort it out for you. All you need to do is email us at [email protected] with the details and they’ll do the rest. It’s as simple as that! There is usually an administrative charge to reflect the time it takes us to make the transfer and re-issue your paperwork.

Fast track entries

Have you ever found yourself in the situation where a tutor calls you to say they have a learner who wants to sit an assessment within a week?

“Oh, no! NCFE need 10 working days’ notice. What can I do?” 

Don’t worry! We can help. For a fee, per learner, we’ll fast-track your entry and distribute the assessment papers to you in time. For details, please speak to a Customer Support Advisor and they’ll arrange it.

Check out the support NCFE can offer to you and your centre when you decide to deliver our qualifications.