[25 October 2010]
Significant increase in customer satisfaction for Hotels and Attractions sub-sectors
Both Food & Beverage, and Tourism, Hotels & Accommodation Services sectors reversed trend of declining satisfaction scores but more efforts are still required of businesses to meet customer expectations which are fast rising over time.
Singapore, 25 October 2010 (Monday) – The Institute of Service Excellence at the Singapore Management University (ISES) (?????? ?) today releases findings for the third quarter of the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) 2010 (?????????) for two sectors: Food & Beverage (F&B), and Tourism, Hotels & Accommodation Services (THAS).
In the latest results, the Attractions and Hotels sub-sectors made significant leaps in customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction for the Attractions and Hotels sub-sectors increased respectively by 2.4 and 5.2 points to 70.3 and 74.1. The Ritz Carlton scaled by 5.6 points to 83.6, a breakthrough score in the history of CSISG and the first company ever to achieve a score exceeding 80 points. The other hotels – Mandarin Orchard (formerly known as Meritus Mandarin), Shangri-La, Grand Hyatt and Swissotel the Stamford – all received glowing report cards too, finishing well above the sector average. Higher satisfaction in the Attractions sub-sector was led by Underwater World, Sentosa and Other Attractions.
On the whole, the THAS sector finally reversed its consecutive decline in satisfaction score since 2007 with a remarkable upswing of 2.2 points from 67.1 to 69.3. The strong turnaround in the THAS sector is attributed to improved performance in the Attractions and Hotels sub-sectors.
Within the F&B sector, the Restaurants sub-sector experienced a slight improvement of 0.7 points to 66.5, rising above the sector average while the Fast Food Restaurants sub-sector dropped the most by a significant 1.8 points to 62.4. Nevertheless, the overall F&B sector still managed to arrest its downward slide since 2007 with a marginal improvement of 0.1 points from 65.0 to 65.1. This year, CSISG 2010 also included, for the first time, a new Food Courts sub-sector which has achieved a baseline score of 59.2 for future benchmarking.
Said Assistant Professor Marcus Lee (???), Academic Director (????), ISES: “Despite the recent increase in visitor arrivals, the Attractions and Hotels sub-sectors managed well the increase in demand and traffic as evident by the rise in customer satisfaction. However, more efforts are needed in the F&B sector to improve their performance. For a start, businesses may wish to look into their branding and positioning to see if their service delivery is aligned with their brand promise.”
Said Ms Caroline Lim (???), Director (??), ISES: “From our study, we observed that customer expectations are rising over time. Locals and tourists are more well-travelled and exposed to diverse culinary experience and world-class restaurants that have made their presence here. There is a pressing need for F&B businesses to keep pace with evolving needs of customers and their rising expectations.”
CSISG will continue to serve as a consistent benchmark for our key economic sectors to track our performance over time and a barometer on how Singapore fares globally. Companies can tap on CSISG – through corporate subscription and custom research – as a strategic business tool to gain valuable insights about customer satisfaction, benchmark against competitors and make better business decisions.
Please refer to the following Annexes for details:
? Annex A: Background on CSISG
? Annex B: Detailed scores
? Annex C: Executive Summary
About the Institute of Service Excellence at SMU
The Institute of Service Excellence at the Singapore Management University (ISES) is the cornerstone of an initiative to raise Singapore's service standards and promote a culture of service excellence. Working in close collaboration with government agencies and business leaders, ISES champions service excellence through an integrated approach that encompasses benchmarking and analysis, research and thought leadership, and industry engagement. www.smu.edu.sg/centres/ises