19 Sep 2008
Welcome Address by Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, Co-Chairman CCI at the Launch of the Customer-Centric Initiative for Healthcare on Friday 19 September 2008, 9.00am at Health Promotion Board Auditorium Level 7
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good Morning
Background on CCI
1. Welcome to the launch of the Customer-Centric Initiative for the Healthcare. The Customer-Centric Initiative or CCI is a national tripartite effort to encourage companies to commit to service excellence and take the lead in raising service standards. This initiative is driven by a multi-agency CCI Working Committee involving SPRING, NTUC, WDA, STB and SNEF.
2. Using a sector-based approach, the CCI focuses on services sectors that have substantial customer interactions with service staff, and contribute significantly to the economy. The CCI Working Committee works with the industry associations and companies in the sector to develop assistance programmes that meet their specific needs and help bring about service transformation. .
3. The CCI for the retail sector was launched in August 2005. Together with the Singapore Retailers Association (SRA), twenty major retailers including Metro, Tangs, Wing Tai and Courts pledged to make service excellence a priority and transform service in the sector. Two years later, in June 2007, the CCI for F&B was launched with the participation of 40 F&B operators and the support of the Restaurant Association of Singapore (RAS). Through the funding assistance from SPRING and WDA, these CCI participating retailers, F&B operators and industry associations have initiated many service improvement projects. The projects ranged from enhancing service leadership, setting service standards, improving product knowledge and service skills of employees and conducting service audits.
Impact of CCI for Retail and F&B
4. Through their CCI projects, the participating retailers and F&B operators have reaped positive results. Mystery audits conducted a year after the launch of the CCI for retail saw that the twenty retailers achieved better results on their service level, with improvement, on average, of about 8% over the previous year. In addition, they also achieved better sales performance which exceeded their non-CCI counterparts by 65%.
5. Besides attaining better service quality and sales, the CCI also helped the retail and F&B companies to achieve better service leadership among management, better employee proficiency and satisfaction as well as better customer satisfaction.
6. To-date, there are more than 100 retailers and F&B companies and 14 shopping malls on board the CCI These represent 24% of total retail establishments and 29% of total F&B establishments. In terms of number of workers, these represent 45 % of total retail workers and 41% of total F&B workers.
Achievements of Two CCI Companies
7. CCI companies take turns to showcase their service transformation to their industry counterparts at the CCI Learning Journeys for the purpose of mutual learning and sharing. Let me elaborate on 2 recent learning journeys.
8. The Fish and Co chain of restaurants joined the CCI last year. With the help of the CCI assistance, Fish and Co conducted a mystery audit to compare their service level against the industry standard. The results showed that their service delivery was better than the industry standard. But were they were satisfied? No! Knowing that their competitors were closing in on them and eager to overtake them at the earliest opportunity, they stepped up their service efforts. Today, they are still ahead than their competition. In fact, they scored even better results in the second audit than the first audit.
9. My second illustration is Triumph. When Triumph joined the CCI, they were already ahead of their competitors having cornered the majority share of the market. However, like Fish & Co, they were not complacent. They wanted to be better! They used the CCI assistance to create a totally new market – by getting men to buy their products! This new market segment has led to better sales performance for their company and better bonuses for their staff.
10. These two illustrations clearly show that even if an organisation is already providing good service, one cannot be complacent and relax. We must continue to run and run faster than the competition.
Embrace Be Better Mindset
11. We are heartened by the progress made in the retail and F&B sectors, and are now introducing CCI in the Healthcare sector. Over the last few months, we have engaged the Ministry of Health and key healthcare organizations on this initiative, and today, we are glad to have these healthcare players here with us to launch the CCI for Healthcare.
12. At the launch of the CCI for Retail in 2005, we made the call for everyone to commit themselves to be better --- better employers, better workers and better customers. Most of us here today were not present then, so let me touch on this again, as the commitment is as important in the healthcare sector as it is in the other CCI sectors.
13. Firstly, employers must pledge to be better employers because a high standard of service delivery starts at the top with CEOs who believe in differentiating their organisations through service that is exceptionally good. Service leadership is critical and the CEOs must clearly articulate service quality as a key priority throughout the organisation.
14. Secondly, employees must pledge to be better staff who go the extra mile to serve customers be they patients or their family members. You must also know your work well, and be prepared to make the extra effort to delight customers.
15. Let me share with you an anecdote about three bricklayers. When the first bricklayer is asked what he is doing, he says: "laying bricks". When asked the same question, the second bricklayer responds: "building a wall". The third bricklayer says: "I love this work, I am building a church!" This bricklayer is passionate about his job of building a church and puts in his best effort. He is zealous about giving his best service to his customers. And, this is the type of CCI role model employee that one would want to be. An individual who serves with passion
16. Thirdly, the launch of CCI for Healthcare today is a timely reminder for ourselves to commit to be better customers of the sector. Polite patients or their family members will draw out the best in the service provided by staff in the sector.
17. As in the words of our PM at the National Day rally last month, "we have made some progress in making Singapore a more gracious society. But we can do even better!" So let us all do our part in embracing the Be Better mindset to transform Singapore's service standards and make it a better place for all of us.
18. Thank you!