Improved Customer-Perceived Service Quality This Year Through Harmonization of In-Person and Non-Face-to-Face Services

KSA Announces Second Half Results of the 2021 KS-SQI (Korea Service Quality Index) Survey

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] This year, efforts by companies to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and deliver sincere services to customers in various ways have manifested as a harmony of face-to-face and non-face-to-face services, resulting in a higher level of customer-perceived service quality compared to previous years.

On the 3rd, the Korea Standards Association announced the results of the 'KS-SQI (Korea Service Quality Index)' survey, which comprehensively represents the quality level of Korea's service industry and the degree of improvement by company. The survey on service quality levels was conducted with approximately 69,280 people who experienced services from 262 companies across 54 industries including transportation, education, and platform services. The average score across all industries was 76.6 points (out of 100, based on the second half of the year), an increase of 0.9 points compared to the previous year.

Last year's pandemic, which swept the globe, led to reduced consumption and stagnation in the service industry, causing the previously steady rise in KS-SQI to slow down. However, this year, indices rose in all industries except for hotels and facility management sectors.

In particular, this year, the newly revised KS-SQI 3.0 model was applied, surveying eight dimensions: accuracy, professionalism, sincerity, kindness, proactiveness, ease of use, appearance, and social value. The most notable change was the introduction of the social value dimension. This reflects the recent emphasis on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) being closely linked to service quality.

The social value dimension scored an average of 74.0 points this year, lower compared to other dimensions, suggesting that efforts to enhance corporate social value will be relatively emphasized in the future. The dimensions of accuracy, professionalism, and kindness, which reflect characteristics of the previous KS-SQI 2.0 model, showed significant increases compared to the previous year. The Korea Standards Association explained that this is the result of industry workers’ efforts to flexibly respond to environmental changes to meet customer expectations despite the pandemic.

The top companies in this survey included Everland (22 consecutive years), LG Art Center (15 consecutive years), Starbucks (11 consecutive years), Paris Baguette (11 consecutive years), Lotte Rental (10 consecutive years), and Lotte Cinema (10 consecutive years), all recognized for service excellence by customers for over 10 years. Daegu Metropolitan Transit Corporation (9 consecutive years) and Lotte Hotel (9 consecutive years) were also continuously selected as top companies in their respective sectors.

A representative from the Korea Standards Association stated, "Looking at this year’s top companies, most focused on providing a stable combination of face-to-face and non-face-to-face services based on last year’s experience," adding, "As we approach the transition to the With-Corona era, our companies must once again prepare for the changing service environment."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.