The service industry plays a vital role in a country’s economy. Thus, the promotion of productivity in the service sector is crucial to sustain growth. As part of its strategic direction of strengthening the service sector in member countries, the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) conducted a training-of-trainers course on Customer Satisfaction (CS) Index Development for the Service Sector in Seoul, 12–16 November 2018.

The APO has been conducting courses on service-sector innovation and customer relationship management as well as ICT and knowledge management applications in the service sector through e-learning courses and face-to-face projects. There has been increasing demand from participants and national productivity organizations for methods to measure CS levels specifically in the service industry. Developing a measurement system is critical to understand current levels of CS in the service industry and how they may change in the future, resulting in increased long-term competitiveness and improved productivity of service-sector enterprises.

Organized in association with the Korea Productivity Center (KPC), the five-day course was attended by 16 participants from 14 APO member countries. It provided a platform for sharing the status of CS systems and best practices in member countries and enabled participants to learn more about national CS measurement and indexes to assess overall performance in the service sector.

Three APO-assigned resource persons conducted the training: Research & Consulting Head Yongchang Chen, Institute of Service Excellence, Singapore Management University; Department of Management Sciences, College of Business, Associate Professor Dr. Geoffrey K.F. Tso, City University of Hong Kong; and Dr. In Ki Baek, CS Planning Center, KPC.

Photo: KPC