Methodology

The rankings of Singapore's Best Customer Service 2022/23 were identified from the results of an independent and anonymous online survey with a sample of more than 4,700 customers in Singapore who have either made purchases, used services, or gathered information about products or services in the past three years. Customers evaluated several brands: In total, more than 44,000 evaluations were collected. The survey was conducted on retailers and service providers from 93 categories, providing results for customer experiences in traditional retail, online and service segments. For each category, the most relevant brands were included in the scope of the survey according to their reputation, presence and availability in Singapore as well as turnover or market share.

Global data firm Statista, the world’s leading data and business intelligence portal, pre-researched an initial list of more than 1,600 brands. This was then extended after collating respondents' inputs in the survey.

In the bricks-and-mortar business categories, only retailers and service providers with at least two shops or one significant shop have been included. In the online categories, only retailers and service providers present mainly online and offering their services in Singapore have been included in the list. For retailers and service providers with online presence and store networks, the core business was taken into account.

Statista conducted the survey anonymously through online access panels. Online access panels are provided by professional survey companies and often used in consumer research to reach specific target groups. Registered participants are invited to take part in surveys for which they qualify according to their sociodemographic data. For this study, participants with diverse sociodemographic backgrounds, such as gender and age, were invited.

In addition to the online access panels, customers in Singapore were also invited via The Straits Times' website to participate during the field phase (early March to mid-April 2022), and almost 1,000 have completed the online survey.

The final assessment and rankings were based on a respondent’s likelihood of recommendation (50% of the final score), implying the willingness of the customer to recommend a company, and five evaluation criteria (another 50% of the final score):

1. Quality of Communication

Measures whether the contact (via e-mail, telephone or face to face) was friendly and polite.

2. Professional Competence

Measures the quality of information received and whether questions were answered correctly and in sufficient detail.

3. Range of Services

Measures the variety of solutions available to fulfill one's personal expectations.

4. Customer Focus

Measures whether the customer feels acknowledged and important.

5. Accessibility

Measures the availability of customer service in a shop or via a helpline.

The responses were graded on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 means "very poor" and 10 means "excellent" evaluation of the brand. Scores can theoretically reach a maximum of 10 and a minimum of 0. The scores of the 279 awarded companies are above average.

The top three brands receiving the highest scores in each category were awarded Singapore's Best Customer Service 2022/23. The survey was conducted using online access panels, providing a representative sample of more than 4,700 Singaporean customers. Each of them gave an evaluation of several brands. Different ranks for companies with the same score are based on differences in decimal places.