Singapore's customer satisfaction levels hit record high in 2014: study

SINGAPORE'S 2014 customer satisfaction levels hit a new high on the back of strong ratings from the finance and insurance sector, said the Institute of Service Excellence at the Singapore Management University (ISES).

On Thursday, it released the 2014 full-year results for the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG), which saw the national satisfaction index rise for the fourth consecutive year in 2014 to 71.1 points, a 0.6 per cent increase from 2013.

The improvement was contributed largely by the two measured sectors in the fourth quarter of 2014 - finance and insurance and healthcare - which registered marked year-on-year improvements.

The finance and insurance sector rose 4.7 per cent to 72.4 points in Q4.

Within this sector, the life insurance sub-sector led with the largest year-on-year improvement, rising 11.4 per cent to 73.6 points.

The healthcare sector climbed 1.6 per cent to 71 points year-on-year in Q4.

The polyclinics sub-sector and specialised healthcare sub-sector improved significantly, scoring 68.9 points (up 4.6 per cent) and 72.2 points (up 2.8 per cent), respectively.

ISES said the two sectors helped nudge the national CSISG into positive territory in year-on-year change even though five out of nine measured sectors registered significantly lower year-on-year scores.

The five industry sectors that recorded substantial year-on-year declines are: food & beverage, private education, retail, tourism, and transport & logistics. Another two, the info-communications and public education sectors, registered similar performances compared with the previous year.

ISES director Caroline Lim said: "The continued improvement is a positive indicator for Singapore's service competitiveness on a world stage. Similar studies of customer satisfaction in other countries show that we are not far behind economies with traditionally strong service cultures, such as the United States and South Korea. We can ride on this momentum and push for a breakthrough across our service sectors to give us the competitive edge."

On a national level, tourist satisfaction fell in all four quarters of 2014.

"In each sub-sector where tourist responses were captured in the CSISG study, tourist ratings were a contributor, if not the primary driver, of poorer CSISG performance. 2014 marked the lowest tourist score at the national level since 2009," said ISES.