But I had never seen a country measuring the overall satisfaction of its citizens (and tourists) with the whole set of services that exist within the country. I came across the report about the 2011 Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore CSISG study, organized by the Singapore Management University SMU. The result is based on 40,000 questionnaires including 7,000 tourists.
The survey measures customer expectations, perceived quality and perceived value for businesses and services in 9 core economies for Singapore: finance and insurance, info-communications, transportation and logistics, retail, food and beverages, healthcare, public education, private education and tourism. Questions are asked about the private companies in the different sectors, but also about public services: universities, national mail or public transportation like bus or subway systems.
The overal "national" score for 2011 was 69.1. The color codes in the chart indicate the companies or aggregate categories with a statistically significant improvement (green) or deterioration (red) in satisfaction compared to 2010.
The initiative was started in 2007 so after 5 years it is possible to see trends.
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| see the full report at www.smu.edu.sg/centres/ises/downloads/csisg2011_resultsoverview.pdf |
It is impossible to compare these results for Singapore with any other country because no other country bothers to take the time and effort to establish this kind of data and maintain it over a period of time. As Lord Kelvin said "To measure is to know." But it is for sure easier to opinionate or come up with flashy headlines than to develope clear measurements about citizen or customer satisfaction. An example of why Singapore is way ahead in Asean as far as general development is concerned.
Satisfaction survey is related to business and private company.
ReplyDeleteCan it be apply to public service?
For example if you make a survey in school about what student think of interest to have Philosophy course in scientific section, you could be sure to have a bad result. Nevertheless this subject has an interest to open mind and give perspective to judgment, which will be important for future company managers.
Interested question: are we arrived at that level of capitalism development that we can compare a citizen to a customer?
Lionel, thank you for the comment. Why shouldn't we measure citizen satisfaction in the same way a company measures customer satisfaction ? In most countries in the world, the biggest expenditure individuals and families face is ... taxes ! So I think it is very normal, if not rudimentary, for the service providers (government agencies) to measure the satisfaction of their customers (citizens or in other words, tax payers). The fact that customers/citizens have no choice (except to stop paying taxes !) should not lead to a mindset where nobody cares about how the services are perceived. Maybe in your example (education) the customers are the tax-paying parents and not (yet) the students.
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