Singapore, 27 March 2019 (Wednesday) – The Institute of Service Excellence (ISE) at the Singapore Management University (SMU) (卓越服务研究院) today released the 2018 full-year results for the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG), alongside the announcement of results for the Finance & Insurance and Healthcare sectors for the 4^th quarter (Q4) of 2018.

The 2018 national score rose to 73.5 points (on a 0 to 100 scale), the highest on record in the CSISG’s 12-year history. The 2017 score was 72.9 points.

This increase came on the back of marked improvements across several measured industry sectors, namely the Air Transport, Food & Beverage, and Tourism sectors.

The strong performance was also supported by the latest set of results from the Finance & Insurance and Healthcare sectors, both measured in the last quarter of 2018 and with year-on-year upticks to their CSISG scores.

The Finance & Insurance sector scored 73.9 points, a 0.6% increase over the previous year. Accordingly, its five constituent sub-sectors of Banks, Credit Cards, Health & Medical Insurance, Life Insurance, and Motor & Other Personal Insurance, also recorded higher scores.

Researchers also looked more closely at the Banks sub-sector’s customers. As one of the study’s criteria, all of these customers had to have at least a current or savings banking account. Further analysis showed that customers with more than just this banking account —whether it’s a credit card, investment product, or both — had a higher level of satisfaction for their bank, as compared with customers with only a banking account.

“In the past five years, many banks have reimagined the traditional savings or checking accounts, by rewarding their customers with better interest rates and benefits when combined with their other product offerings, such as credit cards and investment products.

“This finding suggests customers are appreciating the value of deeper relationships their banks are building with them,” observed Ms Neeta Lachmandas (妮塔.拉切曼达斯), ISE Executive Director (执行总监).

Within the Insurance sub-sectors, analysis revealed customers’ perceptions of ‘Reliability’ was performing below average. This dimension of ‘Reliability’ was a significant driver of customer satisfaction. In particular, the attribute-question ‘Has products and services available when you want it’ performed poorly relatively to other attributes.

“The relatively modest performance in the Insurance industry for this key driver of customer satisfaction suggest an opportunity for keen managers to leverage and gain competitive advantages.

“In fact, several respondents interviewed provided comments that indicated the issue may lie with the companies’ ability to effectively provide customers with the right service at the right time,” said Mr Chen Yongchang (陈勇畅), ISE Head of Research and Consulting.

The Healthcare sector scored 72.0 points, a slight 0.2% improvement from 2017; its three constituent sub-sectors, namely Polyclinics, Private Hospitals, and Restructured Hospitals also made similar gains.

Delving into the sector’s touchpoints, satisfaction with doctors and nurses saw year-on-year improvements, particularly in the Private and Restructured Hospitals sub-sectors. This was supported by marked improvements to patients’ satisfaction with how these medical staff explained their diagnosis and condition, and how treatments were administered or suggested.

“While there was only a small uptick in overall CSISG performance, several measured attributes in each of the Healthcare sub-sectors saw improvements over the previous year.

“These developments, along with the capacity being progressively added to Singapore’s healthcare landscape, suggest the patient experience should continue to improve over the medium and long term,” remarked Mr Chen. 

The CSISG 2018 Q4 study was conducted between October 2018 and January 2019. A total of 9,583 surveys were completed. Prior to this, the Info-Communications and Retail sectors were measured in Q1. This was followed by the Air Transport and Land Transport sectors in Q2. The Food & Beverage and Tourism sectors were measured in Q3. In total, the CSISG 2018 study yielded 29,632 completed questionnaires from Singapore citizens, permanent residents and departing tourists at Changi Airport. A total of 627 distinct entities were measured and 173 entities received published scores.

Please refer to Annex A for a background on the CSISG and Annex B for the detailed scores. Annex C recaps the performance of each industry from the previous three quarters of 2018.

For media queries, please contact:

Mr Tim Zhuang

Senior Manager, Partnerships and Programme Development

Institute of Service Excellence (ISE) at Singapore Management University

DID: (65) 6808 5258

Mobile: (65) 9748 9389

Email: timzhuang [at] smu.edu.sg ()

Mr Teo Chang Ching

Senior Assistant Director, Corporate Communications

Office of Corporate Communications and Marketing

DID: (65) 6828 0451

Mobile: (65) 9431 8353

Email: ccteo [at] smu.edu.sg ()