The inaugural batch of seven professionals from various service-oriented sectors received their Advanced Certificate in Service Excellence and Innovation (ACSEI) from Ms Neeta Lachmandas, Executive Director of the Institute of Service Excellence (ISE) at SMU during the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) full-year and Q4 results announcement on 27 March 2019.

Ms Neeta Lachmandas, Executive Director of ISE, shared at the Industry Forum held in conjunction with the CSISG event, “Our service-oriented industries do not have enough professional development and capability building needed for their staff. ISE recognises this gap and we hope to help our businesses address it with our suite of programmes which have been put together to promote service centricity.”

A number of the ACSEI graduates were present at the Industry Forum to share their key takeaways from the programme.

Ms Jocasta Lim, Associate Director, Front Office, Marina Bay Sands, said, “The programme allowed me to better identify my leadership skills and developmental needs from an out-of-work context. The skills I learnt are applicable at the workplace and I am able to incorporate these learnings to make processes more efficient.”

Caption: Ms Jocasta Lim (top) and Mr Mohd Zaini (bottom) were among the ACSEI graduates who received their certificates from Ms Neeta Lachmandas, Executive Director of ISE.

Mr Mohd Zaini, Front Office Manager, Frasers Hospitality Changi City Pte Ltd, commented, “The journey has enabled me to manage different cultures and demographics better, and ensure that I am able to think further ahead.”

The pursuit of service excellence is a vital overarching foundation of organisations on the path of sustainable growth and transformation. Service as a strategic business anchor has been proven to be highly correlated to financial performance and resilience.

In today’s economic context of disruption, service centricity is of paramount importance with organisations allocating ever more resources in reassessing how they attract and retain customers. As consumers become increasingly sophisticated, the experience of using the product or service is taking centre stage. Unsurprisingly, the Top of the Mind 2018 Global Survey[1] commissioned by KPMG found that almost one in two senior executives stated “understanding customers’ needs” was the top priority in the next two years. Strategies around customer loyalty, deepening relationships, and increasing attention were also ranked top of the list.

ISE offers a comprehensive suite of professional development programmes, working with organisations to develop service centricity and equip service-oriented professionals to be future-ready. Both the Advanced Certificate in Service Excellence and Innovation (ACSEI) and the Advanced Certificate in Service Strategy and Management (ACSSM) were specially designed and curated to build a culture of service excellence through organisational alignment and strategic mastery; the completion of both the Advanced Certificates will lead to the award of the Advanced Diploma in Service Excellence.

The Advanced Diploma in Service Excellence was launched at the beginning of 2019 and the Institute has since seen growing interest in the industry, with several participants working progressively towards attaining the Advanced Diploma.

ISE currently manages a suite of 12 courses that run throughout the year. To find out more about ISE programmes and its schedules, please visit https://ise.smu.edu.sg/professional-programmes