The Land Transport sector which is made up of taxi services, transport booking apps, public buses and the MRT, scored 67.8 points, an increase of 0.99-point over the same period last year. Our of the four sub-sectors, only Taxi Services and Public Buses registered a year-on-year increase in customer satisfaction levels.
Despite the rise in customer satisfaction score for Taxi Services, ratings for "comfort of the ride" saw a year-on-year decline. Furthermore, locals and PRs polled rated private-hire cars, such as Uber and Grab, more highly on comfort compared to taxis.
“With increased competition among taxis and private-hire cars, understanding what matters to commuters is key to helping operators focus their efforts on the areas that will make a difference to how satisfied they make their customers,” said Ms Neeta Lachmandas, Executive Director of ISE.
MRT commuters were less satisfied year-on-year, with the sub-sector scoring 64.8 points, a decline from 65.4 points from the year before. This may have been due to the train faults and delays that arose following the train network’s new signalling system tests that were scheduled from 29 May this year. The decline in satisfaction was observed in the fieldwork data collected after the start of the signalling tests.
For public buses, the CSISG found improvements in travel time and availability of information. Drilling down to identify key attributes which had an impact on satisfaction ratings, customers surveyed found an improvement in travel time to reach their destination and availability of bus route information.
Meanwhile, the Air Transport sector - which includes Changi Airport, Full Service Airlines and Budget Airlines - scored 74.4 points, a decrease of 1.10 points from the year before.
Full Service Airlines maintained its customer satisfaction levels, with a statistically insignificant increase of 0.66 points year-on-year. However, there was a marked improvement in the Budget Airlines sub-sector’s CSISG performance. Driving this improvement was local passenger’s satisfaction ratings.
Across Full Service Airlines and Budget Airlines, ‘Comfort of the journey’ emerged as the top attribute that drove perceptions of quality among local respondents. With tourists, customer service based attributes relating to ground staff and cabin crew were the key differentiators of quality.
The latest results are based on a total of 6,750 face-to-face surveys of 4,300 locals and 2,450 tourist respondents conducted between April 2017 and July 2017.
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
As part of the Industry Forum, the Institute of Service Excellence also invited Professor Gregor Halff, Deputy Dean, Lee Kong Chian School of Business at SMU to share his views on effectively managing crisis communications. You can view his presentation here.
POST-TRADITIONAL CRISES IN TODAY’S WORLD
The recent Ryanair crisis is an example of how the mismanagement of communications to stakeholders can badly affect an organisation’s reputation. Ryanair shares fell 3 percent following its announcement of plans to cancel between 40 and 50 flights a day until the end of October 2017 due to a backlog of pilot’s unused leave. However, passengers were not made aware of the impact of the cancelleations until three days later. Unfortunately, the cancellations had already undermined Ryanair’s prized reputation for reliability.
This is an example of a post-traditional crisis where stakeholders have decided that an organisation is in a crisis because it is underperforming, according to a standard they have set. This can be very costly, as seen by the Ryanair episode.
Post-traditional crises are widespread in today’s world with the proliferation of smartphones, which Professor Halff refers to as ‘weapons of mass destruction’.
“Anybody can comment pictorially about what they consider a crisis, and by doing so, define it as a crisis.
“Organisations need a new way of responding to this because organisations, thanks to weapons of mass destruction. They need to accept there will always be more communication going on about you, then with you.”
Organisations need to start thinking about crisis management from an outside-in perspective and how their stakeholders think. If a customer thinks a crisis has happened, it should not matter whether an organisation defines it as a crisis.
Organisations can prepare for post-traditional crises by looking at two dimensions – a stakholder’s influence and the predictability of their behaviour. Organisations can define a crisis and choose to manage, monitor, forge an alliance or address it as an opportunity or threat.
THE CAPPUCCINO MODEL: DEFINING THE CRISIS
Professor Halff drew an analogy between a cappuccino and structuring a crisis. Just as the coffee drink has three layers of espresso, milk and milk foam, a crisis is made up of corporate values, corporate behavior and corporate communication.
By likening a crisis to a cappuccino, organisations can structure conversations with their internal and external stakeholders better. Mistakes are often made in crisis communications when organisations only focus on what to say (the foam) instead of looking at the values and behavior of the organisation as well, said Professor Halff.
Using the example of Ikea in China, it has become a common practice for customers to take a nap in beds, on couches and lounges at Ikea. Although state news media reported the company was planning to crack down on “impolite behavior” by waking nappers, the Swedish retailer instead has permitted Chinese customers to doze off, rather than alienate shoppers accustomed to sleeping in public.
“Post-traditional crises happen when you don’t communicate or behave consistently, or portraying two different values,” explained Professor Halff. In the case of Ikea, the retailer ensured their corporate behaviour and communication was aligned with the corporate value of accessibility.
LISTENING AND RESPONDING TO CUSTOMERS
“Once you can identify your crisis-type, then you can be more attuned to what your response should be,” said Professor Halff.
According to Professor Halff, there are five basic response types: 1. Rejecting the crisis, 2.
Showing the organisation as a victim, 3. Justifying the action and building support, 4. Undoing damage and avoiding a repeat incident, 5. Correct the fundamentals.
A typical response that Professor Halff suggests is for organisations to always start with the bad news, before explaining the lack of knowledge and how to address this. Provide a clear justification as to why the crisis is due to a flawed action and demonstrate that affirmation has been given, or conduct an investigation by external parties. Once the crisis is resolved, acknowledge the incident and reaffirm the organisation’s main values.
Successful orgnisations use a variation of this type of response.
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