Dubai Customs claims International Standard for Service Excellence
First customs administration in the world to be awarded TISSE
The British Standards Institution (BSI), the UK's first national standards body, awarded Dubai Customs The International Standard for Service Excellence (TISSE), after completing the audit carried out for its processes, policies, services, employees and operational performance.
Mr. Theuns Kotze, Regional Director, MEA, British Standards Institution, presented the certification to His Excellency Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs, at a reception held for this occasion, in presence of BSI delegates and DC’s executive directors and centres managers. H.E. Ahmed Mahboob thanked BSI for awarding Dubai Customs with the TISSE, being the first customs administration in the world to claim this prestigious certification Commenting on this achievement, H.E. Ahmed Mahboob Musabih said: “This distinguished world-class accreditation is a solid proof that we are on the right track towards delivering services that go beyond the conventional customer satisfaction into creating public happiness, as envisaged by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
“In Dubai Customs, we impart the spirit of innovation and creativity in all our business operations to come up with innovative Customs processes and superior facilitations, as we pursue H.H. Sheikh Mohammed’s vision for Dubai to become the most innovative and smartest city in the world and to meet the goals of Dubai Plan 2021 of establishing a knowledge economy.”
Musabih pointed out that Dubai Customs wasn’t awarded this international recognition for nothing. It came as a result of diligence and hard work that significantly advanced the quality of Customs services and procedures, making them more user-friendly, more streamlined, and more reliable and timely. Dubai Customs managed to achieve great savings in the cost and time of its 180,000 clients, being served through 22 sea, land and air customs centres across Dubai, further placing the emirate as a favourite destination for many traders and investors around the globe.
“It is also a top priority for us at Dubai Customs to deliver a healthy working environment for our 2,850 employees, who are our true assets, to make good use of their corporate loyalty and sense of creativity and innovation so that they can improve their productivity and enhance Dubai Customs’ overall performance,” Musabih further remarked.
Mr. Theuns Kotze congratulated Dubai Customs on receiving TISSE. “The International Standard for Service Excellence is the first global standard for customer service in the world. The Standard is a generic standard that assists organizations to manage and continuously improve service quality. Dubai Customs showed immense dedication in making excellence a habit which has been clearly emphasized in the high rating in their assessment audit,” he said.
“Dubai Customs has set the benchmark for customs organizations globally as it is the first and only customs organization who has received this certification. This milestone is a testament of Dubai Customs’ commitment to providing excellent services,” he added.
Ahmed Abdul Salam Kazim, Strategy and Corporate Excellence Director at Dubai Customs, expressed his profound pride in the fact that Dubai Customs is the first customs administration in the world to be awarded this certification. “Such service excellence accreditation which was granted to nine of DC’s customs centres alongside the head office is part of our efforts aiming to be fully geared up for Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart Government Awards. And so as to accomplish our aspiration to be number one in all areas, we had formed a team of 13 individuals from different departments and customs centers who underwent internal auditor training required by TISSE. They, in turn, executed the internal audit in departments and customs centers - without using any external consultancy - and helped in closing all the gaps prior to the external audit,” Kazim noted.
He added, “We had taken lots of improvement initiatives mainly in matters of customer satisfaction, employee engagement and social responsibility, which proved to be very effective for our working environment and for the quality of our service delivery. Many policies were reviewed and updated, which clearly reflects the high level attained by DC’s business processes and regulations, in line with the UAE’s drives to incorporate innovation in all public and private sectors’ strategies and future plans. Innovation is the only way for us to maintain Dubai Customs’ leading status locally, regionally and also globally.”
Kazim further pointed out that these efforts were met with good results in the evaluation process. Meanwhile, the remainder of DC’s customs centres will be completely audited by end of 2015.
At the end of the ceremony, Mr. Theuns Kotze, the BSI’s MEA Regional Director handed over the certificates to each of the 9 customs center managers. Then H.E. Ahmed Mahboob Musabih honored 15 staff members of the TISSE implementation process team at DC in recognition of their dedication towards raising up organizational processes and policies to be consistent with the requirements of the international standard for service excellence.
