Tourist satisfaction dives for Singapore's tourism and F&B sectors

COMPARED to a year ago, customer satisfaction, especially that of tourists, has dropped in Singapore's food & beverage (F&B) and tourism sectors.

The third quarter Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) results show that between 2013 and 2014, customer satisfaction score - out of the maximum 100 points - for the F&B sector fell 6.5 per cent to 65.8 points, while satisfaction score for the tourism sector registered a similar decline, falling 7.3 per cent to 69.1 points.

Jointly developed by the Institute of Service Excellence at the Singapore Management University (ISES) and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), the CSISG 2014 Q3 survey was conducted between June and September this year, and gathered a total of 8,600 unique responses about customer experiences in the F&B and tourism sectors.

According to Caroline Lim, director of ISES, the lower scores could be a case of correction as companies transition to new business models, with consumers taking time to adapt to new norms in how service is delivered and experienced.

A deeper look at the scores also revealed that most of the decline in customer satisfaction can be attributed to lower tourist satisfaction.

On average, there was a marginal dip in local satisfaction for the F&B sector from 67.6 points to 67.2 points, while tourist satisfaction dropped from 81.1 points to 71.1 points.

Similarly, local satisfaction for the tourism sector on average fell from 71.5 points to 67.2 points, but a larger decline was recorded for tourist satisfaction, which slumped from 80.1 points to 72.5 points.