Charter Mark is a standard of customer service and a quality-improvement tool to help organisations deliver services to users. It is unique among quality schemes because it concentrates on results - the service the customer actually receives.

We have designed this self-assessment toolkit to help you improve your customer service and to help you decide when to apply for Charter Mark. We have divided it into two parts so it will be useful for absolute beginners as well as for those of you who are more familiar with Charter Mark.

Getting the best out of the toolkit

Persuade others

If other people in your organisation need to know about the benefits of Charter Mark, look at 'Charter Mark - The Essence'. Answer the questions and get your print-out. Show the results to other people to persuade them that your organisation will benefit from having the Charter Mark.

Work as a team

Why not work as a team? You can work more effectively as a group. Individuals can take responsibility for particular criteria and gather the evidence. People can then get together to review their findings and start a full assessment.

Benchmark

If your organisation carries out similar functions on a number of sites, each site can carry out a self-assessment and compare results (benchmarking). You can then share good practice. You can also compare your performance with other organisations which use the toolkit.

Use it as a quality improvement and a management tool

You can look at any of the criteria at any time. Carry out an assessment, identify any areas which need development and produce an action plan. As you carry out any tasks, you can reassess yourself and compare results over time.

Before you start you will need to visit the Help page. You will find useful information on saving feedback and navigation.

The first part, Charter Mark - The Essence, is an ideal introduction if you are new to the scheme. Even if you are familiar with Charter Mark, you may still want to look at the checklist before carrying out a full self-assessment.

The second part of the toolkit looks at the six criteria against which you are assessed for Charter Mark. These are as follows:

When you are ready, look at the different criteria, read the advice offered and follow the instructions given. You can then assess your organisation against the Charter Mark standard.

When using the toolkit, you should remember that any reports are based on your own evaluation of your organisation. They will give you an idea of when you are ready to apply for Charter Mark but cannot predict the outcome of any application.

Give us feedback 

Once you have finished your self-assessment please let us know how useful you found it by sending us an email at chartermark@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk . This will enable us to continuously improve the support we offer to you.