Who we are
Our website address is: https://www.apcsc.com
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
A. Introduction
The privacy of our website visitors is very important to us, and we are committed to safeguarding it. This policy explains what we will do with your personal information.
Consenting to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy when you first visit our website permits us to use cookies every time you visit our website.
B. Credit
This document was created using a template from SEQ Legal and modified by Website Planet
C. Collecting personal information
The following types of personal information may be collected, stored, and used:
- information about your computer including your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, and operating system;
- information about your visits to and use of this website including the referral source, length of visit, page views, and website navigation paths;
- information, such as your email address, that you enter when you register with our website;
- information that you enter when you create a profile on our website—for example, your name, profile pictures, gender, birthday, relationship status, interests and hobbies, educational details, and employment details;
- information, such as your name and email address, that you enter in order to set up subscriptions to our emails and/or newsletters;
- information that you enter while using the services on our website;
- information that is generated while using our website, including when, how often, and under what circumstances you use it;
- information relating to anything you purchase, services you use, or transactions you make through our website, which includes your name, address, telephone number, email address, and credit card details;
- information that you post to our website with the intention of publishing it on the internet, which includes your username, profile pictures, and the content of your posts;
- information contained in any communications that you send to us by email or through our website, including its communication content and metadata;
- any other personal information that you send to us.
- Before you disclose to us the personal information of another person, you must obtain that person’s consent to both the disclosure and the processing of that personal information in accordance with this policy
D. Using your personal information
Personal information submitted to us through our website will be used for the purposes specified in this policy or on the relevant pages of the website. We may use your personal information for the following:
- administering our website and business;
- personalizing our website for you;
- enabling your use of the services available on our website;
- sending you goods purchased through our website;
- supplying services purchased through our website;
- sending statements, invoices, and payment reminders to you, and collecting payments from you;
- sending you non-marketing commercial communications;
- sending you email notifications that you have specifically requested;
- sending you our email newsletter, if you have requested it (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require the newsletter);
- sending you marketing communications relating to our business or the businesses of carefully-selected third parties which we think may be of interest to you, by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications);
- providing third parties with statistical information about our users (but those third parties will not be able to identify any individual user from that information);
- dealing with inquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to our website;
- keeping our website secure and prevent fraud;
- verifying compliance with the terms and conditions governing the use of our website (including monitoring private messages sent through our website private messaging service); and
- other uses.
- If you submit personal information for publication on our website, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the license you grant to us.
Your privacy settings can be used to limit the publication of your information on our website and can be adjusted using privacy controls on the website.
We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for their or any other third party’s direct marketing.
E. Disclosing personal information
We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers, or subcontractors as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries) as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this policy.
We may disclose your personal information:
- to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
- in connection with any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings;
- in order to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk);
- to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset that we are (or are contemplating) selling; and
- to any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that personal information where, in our reasonable opinion, such court or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that personal information.
- Except as provided in this policy, we will not provide your personal information to third parties.
F. International data transfers
Information that we collect may be stored, processed in, and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this policy.
Information that we collect may be transferred to the following countries which do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in force in the European Economic Area: the United States of America, Russia, Japan, China, and India.
Personal information that you publish on our website or submit for publication on our website may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use or misuse of such information by others.
You expressly agree to the transfers of personal information described in this Section F.
G. Retaining personal information
This Section G sets out our data retention policies and procedure, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations regarding the retention and deletion of personal information.
Personal information that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
Without prejudice to article G-2, we will usually delete personal data falling within the categories set out below at the date/time set out below:
personal data type will be deleted in 14 days.
Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section G, we will retain documents (including electronic documents) containing personal data:
to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
if we believe that the documents may be relevant to any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings; and
in order to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk).
H. Security of your personal information
We will take reasonable technical and organizational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse, or alteration of your personal information.
We will store all the personal information you provide on our secure (password- and firewall-protected) servers.
All electronic financial transactions entered into through our website will be protected by encryption technology.
You acknowledge that the transmission of information over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.
You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing our website confidential; we will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to our website).
I. Amendments
We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you understand any changes to this policy. We may notify you of changes to this policy by email or through the private messaging system on our website.
J. Your rights
You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you; provision of such information will be subject to the following:
- the payment of a fee US$50; and
- the supply of appropriate evidence of your identity for this purpose, we will usually accept a photocopy of your passport certified by a notary plus an original copy of a utility bill showing your current address).
- We may withhold personal information that you request to the extent permitted by law.
You may instruct us at any time not to process your personal information for marketing purposes.
In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt out of the use of your personal information for marketing purposes.
K. Third party websites
Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.
L. Updating information
Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.
M. Cookies
Our website uses cookies. A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies. We use both session and persistent cookies on our website.
- The names of the cookies that we use on our website, and the purposes for which they are used, are set out below:
- we use Google Analytics and Adwords on our website to recognize a computer when a user visits the website / track users as they navigate the website / enable the use of a shopping cart on the website / improve the website’s usability / analyze the use of the website / administer the website / prevent fraud and improve the security of the website / personalize the website for each user / target advertisements which may be of particular interest to specific users / describe purpose(s);
Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies—for example:
- in Internet Explorer (version 10) you can block cookies using the cookie handling override settings available by clicking “Tools,” “Internet Options,” “Privacy,” and then “Advanced”;
- in Firefox (version 24) you can block all cookies by clicking “Tools,” “Options,” “Privacy,” selecting “Use custom settings for history” from the drop-down menu, and un-ticking “Accept cookies from sites”; and
- in Chrome (version 29), you can block all cookies by accessing the “Customize and control” menu, and clicking “Settings,” “Show advanced settings,” and “Content settings,” and then selecting “Block sites from setting any data” under the “Cookies” heading.
Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.
You can delete cookies already stored on your computer—for example:
- in Internet Explorer (version 10), you must manually delete cookie files (you can find instructions for doing so at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278835 );
- in Firefox (version 24), you can delete cookies by clicking “Tools,” “Options,” and “Privacy”, then selecting “Use custom settings for history”, clicking “Show Cookies,” and then clicking “Remove All Cookies”; and
- in Chrome (version 29), you can delete all cookies by accessing the “Customize and control” menu, and clicking “Settings,” “Show advanced settings,” and “Clear browsing data,” and then selecting “Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data” before clicking “Clear browsing data.”
Deleting cookies will have a negative impact on the usability of many websites.
Although many challenges that service-driven companies face seem to insiders very industry-specific, the basic issues are generic. Companies can and should learn from one another.
As we are mobilizing both public and private sectors, we are also inviting advisors of different sectors to provide input and guidance. Up-to-date, we are very honored to have:
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) – 2017
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Financial Secretary’s Office – 1998
Services contribute over 84% of Hong Kong’s economy. As we move higher up the value-added chain, we need to find new ways to create value in order to sustain our economic growth. So the quality of our services is becoming increasingly important. Service quality, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder-and that means the customer. Discerning customers today look for personable front-line staff, speedy delivery, serious after-sales service, sensitive responses to customer comments, and above all, better value for money. By providing quality service that meets-or better still, exceeds-customer expectations, we will be able to forge ahead despite the mounting competition. Given the importance to the economy of a commitment to quality, the Government is doing all it can to nurture and promote a service culture. I note with great pleasure that our efforts are receiving an encouraging response from the community and that a number of reputable Hong Kong enterprises are pooling their resources to improve service standards. The formation of the Hong Kong Customer Service Consortium once again exemplifies the kind of public-private partnership that makes Hong Kong tick. I salute the efforts by all the program founding members and wish the Consortium every success in its future endeavors.
Financial Secretary
Government of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region
Trade and Industry Bureau – 1998
Hong Kong Trade Development Council – 1998
Hong Kong’s services sector is among the most developed in Asia. The performance of Hong Kong service industries is remarkable and the quality of services provided has been recognized as one of the highest in the world. Hong Kong is also the ninth-largest exporters of services in the world. The rapid evolution of Hong Kong from a manufacturing to a services economy makes it increasingly important for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council to develop its resources both in Hong Kong and across its branch offices network worldwide to promote the territory’s services strengths. Since our economic future is inextricably linked to the development of the services sector, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council is fully committed to supporting the industry’s efforts to upgrade the standards of service. The establishment of the Hong Kong Customer Service Consortium marks a significant step towards this end. I have no doubt that the Consortium will continue its endeavors in this regard in the years ahead. I wish the Consortium and its program founding members every success in the future.
Executive Director
Hong Kong Trade Development Council
Hong Kong Tourist Association – 1998
As the body responsible for marketing Hong Kong as a travel destination, the Hong Kong Tourist Association is very much aware of the importance of courtesy and high standards of service in the community. Some 12% of Hong Kong’s workforce work directly or indirectly in the tourism industry and a wide range of Hong Kong’s businesses are on the “front line” as far as visitors to the territory are concerned. For example, our retail, entertainment and hospitality industries are all heavily involved in and, to a certain extent, reliant on tourism. And the increased sophistication of the modern traveler means that he or she expects exceptional standards of service from all elements of his or her chosen destination. In addition, word-of-mouth recommendation is fast becoming one of the most influential elements in choosing a travel destination. This is why it is doubly important that Hong Kong acquit itself exceptionally in this area. Making our visitors feel welcome, being a good host and offering outstanding customer service will bring benefits to all sectors of our community. Financially, tourism is one of the cornerstones of Hong Kong’s economy, being one of the territory’s largest earners of foreign exchange. The industry is also one of Hong Kong’s largest employers, as well as a provider, indirectly, of a wide range of facilities and attractions that are enjoyed by local residents as well as visitors. This vital role means that the health of the tourism industry is important to everyone in Hong Kong. And everyone in Hong Kong has a part to play in ensuring that the industry goes from strength to strength. Increasingly, Hong Kong’s companies are realizing the potential long-term benefits of excellent customer service and working together-in such groups as the Hong Kong Customer Service Consortium (HKCSC) – to further improve standards in this area. The HKTA supports all such initiatives and, through its own programmes, works hard in cooperation with a wide range of other relevant bodies to encourage the entire Hong Kong community to recognize the importance of tourism, and strives to ensure that this awareness has an effect on and becomes a part of everyone’s daily life. I wish the HKCSC the very best of success in their work and look forward to working closely with the Consortium in the near future.
Executive Director
Hong Kong Tourist Association
Consumer Council – 1998
Hong Kong Retail Management Association – 1998
Hong Kong has always been one of the most favorite shopping destinations as well as a frequent destination for business travelers around the world. The supreme range of products and services available here makes Hong Kong a true universal shopping and business centre. The Hong Kong Retail Management Association has always been at the forefront in promoting the importance of quality service within the retail sector. ‘Quality Service’ is no longer a luxury but a necessity that allows businesses a competitive edge to succeed and is a component of our business that clearly awards attention. It is important to extend such awareness and to encourage the continuation of service excellence beyond retail boundaries to all the service industries in Hong Kong. Our Association is delighted that more businesses and individuals are devoting their efforts towards promoting and improving Hong Kong’s service standards and in coming together for a common cause. I congratulate the Hong Kong Customer Service Consortium on their inauguration. Let’s join forces to promote this message of Service Excellence and in achieving the highest service standards for Hong Kong. On behalf of the Hong Kong Retail Management Association, I wish the Consortium every success in the years ahead.
Chairman
Hong Kong Retail Management Association
Customer Service Institute of Australia – 2008
Thank you for the opportunity once again to be an adviser to your very prestigious Customer Relationship Excellence Awards. We have had a tremendous association with the Hong Kong Customer Service Consortium and the Asia Pacific Customer Service Consortium and have seen the quality of awards submissions and organizations recognized improve every year. We value our association with the Hong Kong Customer Service Consortium and the Asia Pacific Customer Service Consortium, as joint foundation members of the International Council of Customer Service Organizations and with the Customer Service Institute of Australia. We congratulate you on your 10th Anniversary and look forward to many more years promoting service excellence around the globe.
Executive Director
Customer Service Institute of Australia
The University of Hong Kong – 2008
Congratulations on the 10th anniversary of HKCSC and APCSC for their dedication in customer service research and practice, CRM benchmarking and promotion of Customer Relationship Excellence and Customer Service Quality Standards in international cities in Asia. Together with founding members from different industries, I have been very pleased to work on the Customer Service Research Consortium Program at Hong Kong University. I am also pleased to note that many of the research topics have created excellent impact to improve customer service quality and management in many organizations and business units. I look forward to more collaboration with APCSC with development programs to enhance the service economy worldwide!
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
The University of Hong Kong
Help Desk Institute Japan – 2008
Congratulations to APCSC on her 10th anniversary. APCSC has gone through a remarkable period of success in promoting service excellence and quality standards in the Asia Pacific. It is my honor to be an adviser and member of the 2007 Customer Relationship Excellence Awards panel of judges. Please also accept my sincere congratulations upon Customer Relationship Excellence Awards Winners. In addition, thank you very much for inviting me to speak and participate in the APCSC CRE & CSQS Summit and the CRE Awards dinner ceremony. These events were very productive in knowledge sharing and wonderful learning opportunities for all international support professionals. HDI-Japan is cooperating with APCSC to enhance the support service industries in Asia Pacific continuously.
CEO of Help Desk Institute Japan
The University of Hong Kong – 2008
“Congratulations on the 10th anniversary of HKCSC and APCSC for their dedication in customer service research and practice, CRM benchmarking and promotion of Customer Relationship Excellence and Customer Service Quality Standards in international cities in Asia. Together with founding members from different industries, I have been very pleased to work on the Customer Service Research Consortium Program at Hong Kong University. I am also pleased to note that many of the research topics have created excellent impact to improve customer service quality and management in many organizations and business units. I look forward to more collaboration with APCSC with development programs to enhance the service economy worldwide!”