By CHERYL LIM

JURONG Point Shopping Centre in Boon Lay opened its doors officially yesterday, after an extension which made it the biggest suburban mall here.

Retailers are looking forward to more shoppers showing up.

When the extension was opened to the public last year, an average of three million visitors visited the mall each month. Before that, the monthly average was 2.2 million.

The mall is now banking on good service to help it ride out the tough times, and is tapping on a $100-million government programme to improve service standards here.

Its $720-million extension was officially opened by NTUC Secretary-General and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Mr Lim Swee Say.

Mr Michael Leong, director of Starmall Property Management which manages the mall, told my paper: "Good service builds customer loyalty and makes all the difference in our competitive retail climate."

With that, Jurong Point has embarked on the Customer-Centric Initiative (CCI) to improve service standards islandwide.

Since January 2007, the mall has trained 191 of its tenants' staff under the Tenants Training programme.

Ms Jill Ng, the mall's senior marketing manager, said: "We paid only 10 per cent of the costs, with the rest paid by the Government."

One beneficiary of CCI is the tenant, Swensen's.

Its area manager, Mr Frankie Looi, said: "CCI boosted the morale of our staff, resulting in them going the extra mile to delight customers."

cheryll@sph.com.sg

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