Customers report higher satisfaction with the Security Industry Authority
A recent independent survey has found high levels of customer satisfaction with the Security Industry Authority's licence application service.
The results from the survey are extremely positive, the headline being an increase in satisfaction among customers with the licence application process, with 86% of Individuals and 85% of Employers being satisfied with their experience.
A key driver for satisfaction across both individuals and employers is the SIA making it simple and straightforward to apply for a licence. For individuals, this has overtaken the length of time taken to process the application as their main driver of satisfaction.
Favourability towards the SIA has remained high among individuals (88%), increasing by 2% since the previous year. Particularly striking is the progress made with employers, where favourability towards the SIA is up by 14%.
This is mainly due to the launch of a redesigned Business Support team in July 2021, aimed at building the SIA’s relationship with businesses and driving engagement through business relationship managers and business support officers, who speak to businesses day-to-day.
Iestyn David, the SIA’s Head of Licensing and Service Delivery, said:
This is a really strong set of results, particularly for employers, where we saw a significant increase in satisfaction across multiple areas, driven by our launch of the redesigned Business Support team the previous year.
Our management of customer contact has improved significantly across all areas, and we’ve made huge strides with the quality and speed of response we’re giving our customers, which is helping us improve our first-contact resolution. Overall, this is another excellent set of results that we should all be really proud of.
The survey involved over 800 interviews in the Spring of 2023. This included 600 interviews with individuals who had recently applied for an SIA licence, and 200 interviews with employers who had recently submitted applications on behalf of their employees. A follow-up phase involved in-depth interviews with a representative sample of respondents from both categories.
You can find a summary of the survey findings here.
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Further information
The Security Industry Authority is the regulator of the UK’s private security industry. Our purpose is to protect the public through effective regulation of the private security industry and working with partners to raise standards across the sector. We are responsible for licensing people who do certain jobs in the private security industry and for approving private security companies who wish to be part of the voluntary ‘Approved Contractor Scheme’. We are marking 20 years since we were set up in 2003 and issued the first SIA licences in April 2004.
The SIA is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Home Office. For more information, visit: www.gov.uk/sia.
You can also find us on LinkedIn @Security Industry Authority, Facebook @theSIAUK, YouTube @TheSIAUK and X (formerly known as Twitter) @SIAuk.