Declaration of Standards for Certified Organizations

The Customers’ Friend Declaration is a formal component of the certification program developed by ICERTIAS. It defines a set of customer-facing principles that certified organizations are expected to acknowledge and reflect in their day-to-day operations.

By signing the Declaration, companies confirm their alignment with the program’s verified evaluation criteria, including expectations related to service consistency, communication clarity, and responsible use of certification assets.

The Declaration serves as a reference point for maintaining the recognized standard and helps ensure that certified companies represent the certification accurately and transparently in all relevant customer interactions.

Key Principles of the Customers’ Friend Declaration

1. Customer experience focus
   The company will strive to keep customer experience priorities visible in everyday decisions, with emphasis on consistent service delivery.

2. Clear, accessible communication
   The company will aim to provide customer information in plain language, in formats that support accessibility and reduce misunderstanding across audiences.
3. Timely, respectful responsiveness
   The company will strive to respond to customer questions and requests within reasonable timeframes, using respectful, supportive communication.
4. Transparent complaint handling
   The company will aim to maintain a clear complaint-handling process, including understandable steps, escalation paths, and status updates when possible.
5. Plain Language Terms and Conditions
   The company will aim to present key terms, pricing, and customer obligations in plain language, with prominent placement before purchase or signup.
6. Accessible Customer Support Across Channels
   The company will aim to make customer support accessible and consistently available across its channels for all customers.
7. Privacy-aware customer interactions
   The company will strive to handle customer data responsibly in service interactions, limiting use to what is necessary for support and clear customer communication.
8. Resolution Transparency and Follow Through
   The company will aim to provide clear resolution steps and realistic timelines, and to communicate progress updates when issues require additional handling time.
9. Correct use of the certification
   The company will strive to use the Customers’ Friend logo and wording only as permitted by the official usage guidelines and within the verified scope of recognition.
10. Continuous, measurable service improvement
    The company will aim to improve customer-facing service practices through measurable indicators and documented changes, focusing on practical outcomes.
11. Cooperation with program review
    The company will strive to cooperate with periodic checks of certification-related communications and customer experience indicators, to support accurate representation of status.