Earlier yesterday, CSISG released their second quarterly report for 2016, and there were some interesting findings from the report. For the uninitiated, CSISG, which stands for Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore, is an initiative by the joint partnership of the Institute of Service Excellence at SMU (ISES) and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), to measure customer satisfaction across the various sectors of service in Singapore. Since 2008, they have given us insights about how we, the consumers, perceive the standards of services offered in Singapore. This can come anywhere from retail, transportation, logistics, and education which are presented in quarterly and annual reports of customer satisfaction that are published. For the first time ever, the quarterly report from the CSISG now consists of an all new sector, Transport Booking Apps. The rise of ride-hailing apps is a fact that statutory boards can no longer ignore, and with its inclusion, comes in line with the government’s decision to regulate the ride-hailing industry. So who came in first place in the all new category? Well it is none other than the world’s number one ride-hailing app Uber. While it is true that they are number one, it is important to note that the scores were very very tight, with no significant margins to declare a runaway winner. Trailing closely behind Uber in terms of customer satisfaction is none other than Grab, which just added new funding into their books. With the new resource injection, and now the region’s number two tech company behind gaming master Garena, Grab is expected to take the fight to Uber to even up the scores even more. ComfortDelgro isn’t some slouch either. This year alone, the company has been announcing milestones after milestones that were reached because of their app. Even with the emergence of Uber and Grab, there are still Singaporeans whom are still sticking to the tried and tested. According to the report, “security of personal details” (as expected) is the number one reason for consumers using a particular app, with “ease of use” following after, for in-app information and user experience. Going further down the list, we see other factors such as availability of rides, driver’s road knowledge, ease of payments, and comfort and safety. Seems like matters of payment did not rank as high as I would have thought, as they were mostly found near the middle of the charts, and some even near the bottom. The Transport Booking App is merely but a new category for this quarterly report. Let’s take a look at how the more traditional sectors have been doing to please consumers. So we’ve talked about the apps, but what about the traditional taxis industry? To our disbelief, Premier, instead of ComfortDelGro, ranks number one in customer satisfaction. Singapore’s largest taxi operator, ComfortDelGro is all the way down at the fourth position. Travelers on the other hand, are most satisfied with Singapore Airlines too, and under the budget airlines category, we see JetStar Asia at first. Under logistics, it is still dominated by the big boys as expected, with no sight of smaller companies like Ninja Van. With the inclusion of Transport Booking App into these reports, it definitely signals a change of consumer behaviour with regards to traditional service sectors. It won’t be long until we see Apps from other services taking the stage soon, like shopping and logistics. Featured Image Credit: Uber
Uber is Singapore's most popular transport booking app, scoring a 69.7 satisfaction rating, according to the quarterly Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore. Grab came second, with a rating of 69.0, followed by ComfortDelgro Taxi App at 68.0 and others at 67.2. Measures assessed included security of personal details, ride safety, and payment process.