[11 August 2011]
CSISG Q2 findings show strong customer satisfaction in the Transportation sector
Bus commuters say they are getting more value-for-money, while satisfaction with commercial schools see a significant rise
Singapore, 11 Aug 2011 (Thursday) – The Institute of Service Excellence at the Singapore Management University (ISES) (???????) announces the second quarter release of the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) 2011 for three sectors: Private Education, Public Education and Transportation and Logistics. The Private Education sector scored 74.5 points (on a 0 to 100 scale), significantly higher than the Public Education sector, which scored 70.3 points. The Education sector had been on a downward slide previously and stood at 65.5 a year ago. After two consecutive years with no changes in its CSISG score, satisfaction with the Transportation & Logistics sector increased significantly this year by 1.3 points to reach 70.0 points.
Within the Transportation and Logistics sector, many sub-sectors are seeing statistically significant increases in customer satisfaction. These sub-sectors include Airlines, Budget Airlines, Changi Airport, Mass Rapid Transit Systems, Public Buses, Taxi Services, and Water Transportation. The Budget Airlines sub-sector showed the most notable increase in satisfaction score, with the largest year-on-year increase of 6.2 points to score 65.7 points. Carriers captured in the Budget Airlines sub-sector include AirAsia, Cebu Pacific Air, Firefly, Jetstar Asia Airways, Lion Air, and Tiger Airways. The Public Buses sub-sector showed the second largest year-on-year increase in the CSISG score, rising by 5.3 points. SBS Transit Buses experienced a larger jump in CSISG score from 58.9 points in 2010 to 66.3 points. In general, the increase in satisfaction with the Public Buses sub-sector comes mostly from locals' increased satisfaction with public buses. Changi Airport, which topped the sector at 78.6 points, also demonstrated a large increase of 4.9 points from 2010. For Changi Airport as a whole, satisfaction of locals, tourists, and transit passengers with the airport, have improved.
To better distinguish educational institutions, the former Education sector has been split this year into two separate sectors: Public Education sector and Private Education sector. The Public Education sector consists of the three publicly-funded autonomous universities National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, and Singapore Management University as well as the five polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE). The Private Education sector now consists of Commercial Schools, which include private institutions such as UniSIM, Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), MDIS, PSB Academy, Kaplan and others.
Commercial Schools, which make up the Private Education sector, saw a significant increase of 9.5 points, sharply reversing the previous downward trend since 2009. Within the Public Education sector, Polytechnics and ITE increased significantly from 2010, with ITE demonstrating a marked improvement of 11.0 points from last year. Institutions which demonstrated a significant improvement in CSISG score include Singapore Management University, Singapore Polytechnic, and Republic Polytechnic.
CSISG 2011 Q2 finding: Bus commuters say they get more value-for-money
Year-on-year analyses of CSISG data reveal that local residents taking public buses feel that they are receiving more ‘bang for the buck'. Distance-based fares, which do not impose boarding charges each time commuters make a transfer, started in 3 July 2010. Some time after the initial teething problems, the increase in local residents' perception of value-for-money with public buses seems to suggest that commuters have adjusted positively to this change. In recent months, more bus trips have also been added in an attempt to improve service levels. The combination of both distance-based charging as well as the addition of more bus trips could have contributed to the increase in locals' perceived value and subsequently, increased customer satisfaction.
For both Public Buses and the Mass Rapid Transit System, CSISG data shows that safety and security attributes positively affect the satisfaction of commuters . Given this finding, it is encouraging that passengers gave relatively high ratings for their satisfaction with this attribute. For Public Buses in particular, satisfaction with the frequency of bus arrivals was also found to have a strong positive impact on commuter satisfaction, but was rated below that of safety and security. An analysis of bus commuters based on frequency of usage – regular, moderately regular and irregular, showed up varying expectations. Compared with irregular bus commuters, regular bus commuters gave lower ratings for their satisfaction with the frequency and punctuality of bus arrivals.
CSISG 2011 Q2 finding: Satisfaction with Commercial Schools up
After the introduction of the Enhanced Registration Framework (ERF) in December 2009 under the Private Education Act, private education institutions are now required to adhere to standards as set out by the ERF or cease operations. As a result, most students surveyed in the Commercial Schools sub-sector this year come from schools that meet ERF standards. By having the assurance of a minimum standard, students from registered schools are likely to be more satisfied. Therefore, the higher satisfaction of students from commercial school students could be driven by the assurance that comes with the regulation of the Commercial Schools sub-sector .
CSISG 2011 Q2 finding: Polytechnic and ITE students want to be treated as mature individuals
One of the factors that appear to contribute positively to student satisfaction in tertiary institutions is the extent to which students feel that they are treated as mature individuals. Amongst students' surveyed in the Polytechnics and ITE, there is a strong positive correlation between how well students felt they were treated as mature individuals and their level of satisfaction with the institution. For Polytechnics in particular, students gave significantly lower ratings on this attribute compared to other related attributes such as quality of the instructors or care and support given by their instructors. For Polytechnics and ITE, this finding shows that an inexpensive solution to enhance students' satisfaction with their overall educational experience, among other things, is to treat students as mature individuals.
For the Polytechnics sub-sector, other factors found to positively impact student satisfaction include knowing what is expected of them as students, and the reliability of the computer network on campus. The findings here could be factors of consideration for Polytechnics when managing student satisfaction.
Assistant Professor of Marketing (Practice) Marcus Lee (???), Academic Director (????), ISES said, “How we arrived at this point today, with the measurable increase in commuter satisfaction for the public transport operators, is a good example of the benefits of having vocal end users, coupled with a commitment from the governing bodies to ensure that the transport operators, who have been given de facto monopoly rights, keep striving to improve in the eyes of Singapore commuters.”
Ms Caroline Lim (???), Director (??), ISES said, “Customer satisfaction is not customer service. Instead it is a measure of how well a company is managing the delivery of its offerings to the customer. In our latest CSISG results, customer satisfaction of almost all subsectors from Transportation and Education sectors has stepped up. We wish to congratulate industry players in both sectors for such a strong performance. Besides performance benchmarking, the insights that we have gathered from this latest set of results will be useful for industry players to further sustain and enhance customer satisfaction.”
CSISG is a benchmark for Singapore's key economic sectors to track their 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 Annex A for a background on the CSISG and the 2011 Q2 Study, and Annex B for the detailed scores.
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