We refer to last Sunday's report, 'Foreign service staff as good as locals: Poll', and earlier reports on the English proficiency of foreign front-line service staff in Singapore.

We would like to take this opportunity to share some relevant findings from the Customer Satisfaction Index for Singapore.

This is a national-level study on customer satisfaction in Singapore. The fieldwork for the study was conducted between May1 and July23 last year, and the results were released in April this year.

The study found that 99.16 per cent of 12,388 respondents who were asked about their experiences with front-line service staff indicated that language was not a barrier during interactions with service staff.

This means that only a small 0.84per cent of the respondents had to use a language different from what they had expected to use when talking to the service staff.

For example, if English was the language that most respondents had expected to use, a majority of them had no problems using English when communicating with service staff.

The more important issue, however, is whether there is effective communication between customers and service staff. The study found that only 90 per cent of respondents felt that they understood what the service staff were telling them, or that their needs and requests were properly understood and communicated across to the service staff.

The conclusion is that language proficiency (be it English or some other language) is a secondary issue which could easily be resolved with the right level of training. The key concern lies in the ability to understand customers and their needs.

The findings present opportunities for companies to invest more time and resources to prepare their service staff (both locals and foreigners) adequately before assigning them to customers.

Service staff should also be trained to be sensitive to the different needs of tourists and local customers, so that they can better anticipate their requirements.

It comes as no surprise that the poll by The Sunday Times revealed that foreign service staff make up for the lack of English ability with their positive service attitude. Language proficiency helps, but it is more valuable for service providers to appreciate what customers want, and deliver the brand promise.

Caroline Lim (Ms)
Director
Institute of Service Excellence
Singapore Management University

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 29 June 2008.