A hotel doorman greets a guest alighting from a cab at the entrance of a luxury hotel in Singapore
Customer satisfaction in tourism, hotel and accommodation sector improves
By Mustafa Shafawi and Alvina Soh | Posted: 25 October 2010 1249 hrs
SINGAPORE: The tourism, hotels and accommodation services (THAS) sector has reversed a two-year decline in its customer satisfaction scores.
According to the latest Customer Satisfaction Index published by the Institute of Service Excellence, the sector's score rose by more than two points to 69.3
The institute said the turnaround could be attributed to improved performance in the Attractions and Hotels sub-sectors.
The Hotels sub-sector rose five points to 74.1 while the Attractions sub-sector rose more than two points to 70.3.
The satisfaction score for the Ritz Carlton hotel jumped 5.6 points to 83.6, which the institute said was a breakthrough score in the history of index.
It's the first company ever to achieve a score exceeding 80 points.
The other hotels - Mandarin Orchard, Shangri-La, Grand Hyatt and Swissotel the Stamford - all received glowing report cards too, finishing well above the sector average of 74.1.
"There is a strong alignment between their branding and positioning as well as service delivery, so customers know what they would receive from the hotels and they are satisfied as a result," said Caroline Lim, director of Institute of Service Excellence, Singapore Management University.
Higher satisfaction in the Attractions sub-sector was led by Underwater World, Sentosa and other attractions.
Overall, the F&B sector is also seeing a marginal improvement of 0.1 point to 65.1 points, reversing its downward slide since 2007.
Dragging down the F&B sector is the service performance of Fast Food outlets - the score for that sector dipped by almost 2 points to 62.4.
The slide was attributed to inconsistency in service standards.
"We noticed that fast food restaurants are increasingly catering to different segments of customers. So as they cater to different segments - from kids, youths, adults, people who are in their mid-careers, they will have to take special care of the consistency in their service,” said Lim.
Fast food giant McDonalds told MediaCorp they are continuously improving service levels and have put in place various initiatives to drive customer satisfaction.
A spokesperson for McDonalds said: "We take a holistic approach towards customer experience and seek all opportunities to exceed our customers' expectations.
"For instance, we have enhanced the ambience in many of our restaurants, giving them a more contemporary feel, in order to deliver an even more enjoyable dining experience to our customers."
Academic director of the Institute of Service Excellence, Marcus Lee said more effort was needed in the F&B sector to improve its performance.
For a start, he said businesses might wish to look into their branding and positioning to see if their service delivery is aligned with their brand promise.
Experts said there is a pressing need for F&B businesses to keep pace with evolving needs of customers and their rising expectations.
Lim said: "Expectations are rising definitely, because we see a lot more different world-class restaurants in Singapore right now. And expectations are rising also because customers are travelling and we have different culinary experiences.
"So it's important that F&B operators take note of what the customers are expecting and match up to their expectations."
596 companies took part in the study between July and August this year.
Sources: www.channelnewsasia.com
