Chartered Institute
of Linguists

Customer commitment

CIOL customer commitment is a statement on what we promise our members. It includes information on our responsibilities as an organisation, our customer service standards, and what we expect of you. It also explains what you can do should we not meet the standards you expect from us as your professional institute. 

Feedback and complaints

We're happy to answer any questions you might have and to listen to your comments. Your feedback is important and it will help us to improve the quality of CIOL services. Please send your comments to us using the form on the right.

Should you wish to raise a complaint the procedure can be found here.

Our responsibilities

We promise to:

  • Treat you equally whatever your age, gender, ethnicity, religion or disability – read our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy
  • Provide you with a prompt, knowledgeable and friendly service
  • Give you accurate and up to date information and advice
  • Train our staff effectively so that they can offer you the best possible service
  • Monitor and work to improve the quality of our service
  • Keep you informed of updates to the membership services and benefits we provide

Your responsibilities

We ask that you help us by:

  • providing us with complete and accurate information and keeping us informed of any changes to your contact details, for example, a change of email address
  • quoting your CIOL membership number when you contact us
  • not opting out of service emails – email is a crucial way for us to maintain contact with you and to notify you promptly of all membership related issues

Our service standards

We aim to:

  • Promptly acknowledge all emails and correspondence received (this may be an automated email response to confirm receipt)
  • Endeavour to reply to emails and letters within five working days
  • Assess swiftly membership and Chartered Linguist applications, renewals, upgrades and re-admittances. Given the complexity of each individual case, we are unable to specify a timeframe but can give our assurance that all cases will be dealt with as quickly as possible