To remain a top destination for its quality of service, mystery shopping exercises and visits are organised around town to determine the best companies. On June 5, Singapore unveiled the 32 winners in service excellence…
SINGAPORE- Organized since 2008, the Singapore Service Star scheme accredits every year excellence in service in the retail, food & beverage and nightspot industries. It recognises businesses that consistently deliver good service, operate with ethical business practices and inspire the industry towards service excellence.
Early June, ceremony event ‘Best of Singapore Service Star’ named 32 establishments. Held at The Gallery at Grand Hyatt Singapore, the event gave recognition to these establishments for being the top 10 per cent in terms of service delivery across the food and beverage, retail and nightspot sectors.
Winners were determined through a series of mystery shopping exercises conducted over the past year. Kuriya Dining emerged the top performer in the F&B category, while Ode to Art and City Space received the highest scores in the retail and nightspot categories respectively.
“We would like to congratulate winners of the third edition of the ‘Best of Singapore Service Star’. By consistently providing quality service, these companies have shown how it makes good business sense to make service an integral part of their strategy. Businesses need to continue to understand their consumers, build service capability and develop relevant, value-added experiences. We hope these establishments will go on to inspire the industry as we journey towards service excellence,” said John Conceicao, Executive Director, Capability & Innovation and Visitor Information & Feedback, Singapore Tourism Board.
The afternoon event also provided an opportunity for top performers Kuriya Dining and Ode to Art to share their success stories with industry partners. Kuriya Dining attributed its win to its established service team that makes a sincere effort to understand their customers. For Ode to Art, the eight-year-old art gallery’s secret to success is its commitment to establishing strong relationships with its customers, artists and collectors. City Space – the nightspot at Swissotel the Stamford – was highly rated by mystery shoppers for its service-oriented approach. A rigorous recruitment process employed by the company ensures that each team member is not only service-oriented, but is also passionate and willing to go the extra mile.
Service standards in general have seen a marked improvement over the last three years. The latest Consumer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) conducted by the Institute of Service Excellence at the Singapore Management University revealed that Singapore achieved a record performance of 69.1 points for 2011. This improvement in service quality can also be seen in the upward trend of the industry average scores for customer satisfaction and mystery shopping, with improvements over the past three years across various sectors.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
