Welcome back to the A2LA Customer Care Department profile series, helping you get to know the clever and talented people who are hard at work making A2LA’s newest department the best it can be. Join us as we get to know the subject of this week’s profile: Frank Matthews.

The A2LA Customer Care Department has been hard at work over the last two weeks responding to customer inquiries, growing their knowledge of accreditation concepts, and collaborating with other departments to deliver the best customer experience in the industry. This week, as part of the department launch, we are continuing our four-part series individually profiling A2LA’s new customer care representatives. Clinterria Jones kindly shared some information about herself for the blog.

Oneworld Accuracy, a Vancouver-based proficiency testing provider, recently contacted A2LA with a request to expand their scope of accreditation to cover their newly developed COVID-19 proficiency testing program under ISO/IEC 17043. Due to the severity of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, A2LA and Oneworld Accuracy immediately began working together to complete the scope expansion on an accelerated timeline, and the new scope was issued on April 17th. Proficiency testing (commonly called external quality assessment or EQA in the clinical realm) evaluates the analytical performance of participants by comparing it to pre-established clinical criteria via interlaboratory comparison. This process is critical to ensuring accurate laboratory testing methods and reliable test results. Oneworld Accuracy’s COVID-19 program is uniquely positioned to play a key role in the global effort to control the spread of coronavirus.

Earlier this month, A2LA announced the official launch of our Customer Care Department, a full-time team dedicated to supporting A2LA accreditation officers as they serve our valued customers. Over the course of the next several weeks, A2LA will be profiling each of our new customer care representatives to highlight their accomplishments, welcome them to A2LA, and help customers get to know them. This week, Customer Care Representative Conor Morrissey has the spotlight.

A2LA has always been committed to exemplary customer care, providing reliable and attentive support through everything from the most routine to the most exceptional circumstances. Over the course of the last several months, A2LA has been developing and implementing a new four-person Customer Care Department. As we evaluated our organization’s objectives throughout 2019 and codified our new core values, it became clear that adding full-time customer care staff to our team would benefit both our current and future customers.

Two members of the A2LA staff, Kelsey Roberts and Steve Medellin, had the opportunity to attend the grand opening of TÜV Rheinland’s new furniture testing laboratory near Grand Rapids, Michigan on March 5th, 2020. The event included a tour of the facility, demonstrations of TÜV Rheinland’s testing equipment and methods, and presentations by both TÜV Rheinland staff and David Panning of BIFMA.

Although all prescription glasses are medical devices, they’re so ubiquitous that people rarely stop to think about how they’re made and tested. Yet, as with so many of the products that we use every day, accreditation and the global quality infrastructure play a critical role in delivering safe and functional products to consumers.

In June 2019, The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) formally announced the launch of its branded conformance program, BIFMA Compliant.

A2LA is pleased to announce the accreditation of Quality Forensic Toxicology for cannabis testing.

A2LA Today | December 2019 | Number 145