SINGAPORE - The quality of service provided by mobile telcos has fallen by 3.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with last year, according to a regular study by the Singapore Management University that tracks customer satisfaction.
Mr Chen Yongchang, head of research and consulting at the Institute of Service Excellence, said the fall in ratings could be due to service issues, such as having problems reaching the call centre. He added that the new entrants tend to offer services that target issues existing telcos face and offer more attractive packages such as unlimited data and higher rebates.
The survey, which studied 1,900 subscribers of various info-communications services between February and April, also found a marked decrease in the number of telco services broadband customers held, from an average of 2.4 in 2019 to 1.6 this year. SMU also said on Thursday that another survey it conducted through online survey panels involving 2,579 customers of department stores, e-commerce, fashion apparel and supermarkets, found that customers who had researched a product online before buying it at a brick and mortar store provided a loyalty score that was 13.4 per cent higher for the store. For department stores, customers spent an average of $148 more after researching the products online before buying them at physical stores.