Client & Facility Relationship Management

1. What a facility is told before it starts

Before entering the accreditation process, a facility receives the full Standard, the Essentials/Full Standard distinction, the realistic timeline, and what it is agreeing to: provide genuine access to documentation and staff for the full verification, and use any accreditation it is awarded accurately — the mark only for the scope and period actually earned, never beyond it (see TOUR-POL-07). No facility pays or commits to anything before this information is given.

2. Free, generic guidance — never bespoke consultancy

The Standard, the Essentials/Full Standard self-assessment, and the published guidance on this site are free to every facility, always, and designed to help a facility prepare on its own. This is generic help, available equally to everyone — never bespoke, paid advice to one facility preparing for its own assessment. No one who has advised a specific facility on how to pass then serves as that facility’s Surveyor, Coordinator, or Monitor, or takes part in its accreditation decision — the same separation set out in TOUR-POL-06 for ASF’s ISO 9001 Ready product line.

3. Assigning a Surveyor, Coordinator, or Monitor

Whoever is assigned to a facility is matched to its type and the modules it needs assessed, and screened against the facility for any declared conflict before the assignment is confirmed. The facility is told who has been assigned, in advance, and may raise a conflict concern of its own under TOUR-POL-01 before the visit goes ahead.

4. The full verification visit

What the Monitor will need to see is communicated with enough lead time to prepare. The visit itself is scheduled transparently and agreed with the facility in advance, not sprung on it. At the end of the visit, before leaving, the Monitor gives the facility a verbal debrief of what went well and what needs attention — so nothing in the eventual written decision comes as a surprise.

5. Checking the record before it’s final

The facility reviews the Monitor’s verification record for plain factual accuracy — correct names, dates, which rooms were seen — before the accreditation decision is finalised. This is a factual check, not a route to dispute a finding; a finding itself is challenged through TOUR-POL-05.