CUSTOMER satisfaction levels fell for the first time in four years last year after hitting its highest in 2014.

Results released by the Institute of Service Excellence (ISES) at the Singapore Management University yesterday saw the overall score dip from 71.1 out of 100 in 2014 to 70.2 last year.

This was due in part to a poorer performance by the finance and insurance as well as healthcare sectors.

ISES executive director Neeta Lachmandas said the finance and insurance sector carries more weight in the index, due to its higher contribution to Singapore’s gross domestic product, and its performance contributed substantially to the national score.

While the study did not capture complaint types, a common observation from companies in the sector was lower customer satisfaction with touchpoints such as bank branches, personal bankers and financial advisers.

The life insurance sub-sector saw the biggest fall with a decline of 4.1 per cent, followed by health and medical insurance, which dropped 3 per cent. The banks sub-sector dropped 1.6 per cent, and the motor and other personal insurance sub-sector fell 1.4 per cent.

Maybank, which leapt from seventh place to first for bank customer satisfaction, attributed its improvement to reducing waiting times, among other initiatives.

The decline in the healthcare sector’s score came primarily from decreased satisfaction with general practitioners and the “other healthcare” sub-sector, which comprises specialist providers, dental and traditional Chinese medicine clinics.

The private education sector fell 2.5 per cent, while the info-communications, retail and tourism sectors did not register substantial changes, ISES added.

The food and beverage and public education sectors, however, registered gains of 2 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.

The air transport, land transport and logistics sectors, previously lumped into a single category, were introduced last year and do not have a benchmark comparison.

The 2015 study polled 42,501 locals and departing tourists and covered 2,330 companies in the 11 measured industry sectors.

Professor Jochen Wirtz of the National University of Singapore Business School said: “Customers are getting very impatient .

“Especially for banking and insurance, more is done now online and on apps. When you call your bank, there’s usually a problem so a lot rests on how good they are at dealing with service issues.”

tiffanyt@sph.com.sg

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A PROVISION store owner printed his own barcode stickers, then went to supermarkets and fixed them on various items to obtain them at lower prices, a court heard yesterday.

Zhang Bobo, a 27-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced to six months’ jail after admitting to four charges of cheating Giant supermarket of $2,354.

Another seven similar charges and two attempted cheating charges were considered in sentencing.

The total amount he cheated between September and November last year was $4,282.

He has since made full restitution.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani said that Zhang had some financial problems in August last year.

After observing self-checkout counters at various supermarkets, he hatched a plan to make money by re-selling baby milk powder that he bought there on the cheap.

He printed barcode stickers using his store’s label printer for a price lower than it was meant to be, then stuck them on the products he wanted before scanning them at the self-checkout counter.

He would scan them as Marigold evaporated milk at $1.25 each.

In the four proceeded charges, he cheated the Giant store at Tampines of a total of $2,354 last November.

He would sell the milk powder tins online to make up for the losses he had suffered in running his provision shop business.

He was caught at Cold Storage supermarket at Eastwood Road on Nov 5 last year when he tried to pay $6 for three tins of milk powder worth $493.

DPP Sanjiv said this was a brazen offence, given the fact that he went on to commit the offence even after being caught.

“A strong signal needs to be sent by way of general deterrence to members of the public that this (self-checkout) system is there for their convenience, and not for their abuse,” he said.

Zhang’s lawyer Michael Han said his client was very remorseful for what he had done.

He added that the shop Zhang was running was financed by his father who was pressuring him to return a debt.

District Judge Low Wee Ping, who allowed Zhang to defer sentence until April 27, noted that the offences were committed with sophistication.

Zhang, who is trying to sell his business, could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined on each charge.

elena@sph.com.sg

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THE new Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) campus will occupy about 10 per cent of Coney Island’s land area and the number of students who will go through OBS will triple to 45,000 every year by 2020.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu announced this yesterday afternoon during a visit to the OBS campus on Pulau Ubin.

The area occupied by OBS @ Coney is equivalent to 12ha, or about 14½ football pitches. It will be situated on the south-eastern end of Coney Island, close to the bridge that connects the island to Pasir Ris.

The rest of the island will remain open to the public.

“Every youth will have an opportunity to go through an OBS camp at least once in their schooling years,” said Ms Fu, adding that the campus will be nature friendly and co-exist with other visitors of Coney Island.

She said all OBS participants should develop “a keen sense of how the environment supports us, and what we can do to keep it lush and thriving”.

“We are looking around the world now for ideas for the most advanced facilities and programmes that will challenge participants either individually or as part of a team.”

Pointing to the possibility of recent terrorist attacks in Jakarta and Brussels happening in Singapore, Ms Fu stressed the need to build up youth to work as a team, with ruggedness in their minds and bodies.

She said: “Our future remains uncertain. We live in a more diverse society. We face the threats of terrorism. What happens in Brussels or Jakarta recently could well happen here.

“When the going gets tough, we will be resilient and hardy enough to overcome it together, to bounce back.”

Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced in his Budget speech last week that OBS @ Coney will be built at a cost of $250 million. This includes infrastructure costs of $130 million, “first mover” costs of $45 million for the installation of basic utilities, and $75 million for increased manpower, programming and equipment.

The current Pulau Ubin campus is about 9ha. The Government spent $250,000 on the conversion of a holiday camp into the first OBS in 1967. In 1995, a second campsite was added at a cost of $25 million.

Currently, about 14,000 students go through OBS every year. When the Coney Island expansion is completed in 2020, this number is expected to triple to 45,000.

OBS @ Coney aims to be “rustic and blend in as much as possible with the surroundings”, Mr Heng said in his Budget speech. Its connectivity to the mainland will allow OBS to conduct more programmes and expeditions around Singapore, using the country’s green and blue spaces.

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