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[Photo: CEO Chew Choon Seng]
By NISHA RAMCHANDANI
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) will not compromise on staff training as it seeks to control costs, CEO Chew Choon Seng said yesterday.
Speaking at the announcement of the latest Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) at Singapore Management University (SMU), Mr Chew said retaining the support of loyal and high-value customers is crucial during the downturn.
'Even when business is slow there are demands to be met and customers to be served,' he said, adding that the slowdown in business has freed up resources, making it easier to assign staff for training and retraining.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event, Minister of State for Trade & Industry Lee Yi Shyan said Singapore needs more successes like SIA.
'A high level of service, a consistent level of service doesn't happen by chance,' he said. Local companies need to deliver high-quality products and services.
The service sector accounts for 68 per cent of Singapore's economy.
The CSISG 2008 survey found that Singapore scored 67.8 out of 100 for customer satisfaction across various economic sectors - a drop from 68.7 in the 2007 study.
CSISG was developed by the Institute of Service Excellence at SMU.
In the latest survey, tourists reported a higher level of satisfaction (72.9) than Singaporeans (66.9).
Except for the US and Sweden, the overall downward trend was evident in other countries that adopt similar measures of customer satisfaction, such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Denmark.
The CSISG 2008 survey recommendation is that businesses take a holistic, organisation-wide approach to raise customer satisfaction levels and sustain profits during the current difficult time.
For the survey, 31,700 people - including about 4,000 tourists - were polled here between Nov 2, 2008 and Jan 31, 2009.
From July this year, CSISG scores will be released quarterly by sectors, with the overall CSISG national score announced annually each January.
This article was first published in The Business Times .
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